Making soda from scratch is not as hard as you might think. Creating a flavourful soda syrup using a few simple techniques can open up a whole new world of culinary creativity.
Soda
Coke’s Ingredients
A few years ago I wrote a piece on the Secret of Cola and the ingredients used to make cola flavoured beverages. Obviously, Coca-Cola is the king, but Pepsi isn’t doing too bad. The fact is cola flavoured products are tremendously popular, but very few people actually know what makes that flavour so unique. I’m not going to rehash that […]
Cola: The Secret Formula
This site is named Art of Drink for a reason, and I’m trying to cover all aspects of the liquid world, not just alcohol, even though that is usually my main topic. In this article, I’m going to discuss what is probably the number one mixer in the world, and that’s cola, be it Coca-Cola, Royal Crown, Pepsi or any […]
Angostura Phosphate
If you had a hangover in the early 20th century and you asked a pharmacist or saloon keep for a solution to your problem, this would have been a common drink that would get you functional again.
Ammonia Coke
Adding things to Coca-Cola is a time honoured tradition, one that immediately comes to mind is rum. Another is Aromatic Spirits of Ammonia. Now, this isn’t kitchen cleaner ammonia, which would be a big mistake, this is a pharmaceutical preparation that has been used for over a century, even before Coke was invented. For druggists, this preparation was an over-the-counter […]
Soda’s Influence on Cocktails of the Big Easy
On April 5th, 2010 I will be flying down to New Orleans to present at the Museum of the American Cocktail. The presentation will be on the influence of soda on cocktails, specifically those of New Orleans fame. Many newspaper articles from the 1800s put New Orleans in second place for soda consumption after Atlanta which shouldn’t come as a […]
Egg Creams
The New York egg cream started its life at the soda fountain in the 1870s and contained both egg and cream, which is much different than today.
Italian Soda
Italain Soda is a modern take on the American soda, but with a shrewd attempt to remake it as an Italian invention.
Seltzer Works
Very rarely do I post PR material, but in some cases the information is actually interesting and useful. This one isn’t even about a product, more about a TV show on PBS looking into the world of seltzer and the people / companies that sell it the old fashioned way, in glass syphon bottles. For anyone who liked Fix the […]
They Thirst for Cocaine
The title of this post may sound like something out of a fictional tabloid you get at the grocery store checkout, but it comes from the Los Angeles Times (February 25, 1902 edition). I’ve posted the newspaper article because it is an excellent example of what soda fountains were really like at the turn of the 20th century. Plus it […]
Lactart
Acid Phosphate may have been all the rage during they heyday of the soda fountain but that didn’t mean it was the only alternative beverage acidulent. There were actually a number of competitors, most of them trying to cash in on Acid Phosphates popularity. Some used hydrochloric acid, a not so great drinking option. Another one was called Lactart and […]
Cherry Phosphate
Few drinks were as popular at the soda fountain as the Wild Cherry Phosphate.