Exactly as printed, 1905
Champagne Stock Syrup, 7 pints; Wine Coca, 1 pint; Sugar Color, 1 ounce; Tartaric Acid Solution, 1 ounce.
The American Soda Book of Receipts and Suggestions, 1905, 1905. Public domain; transcription unaltered.
☠️ Poison Pantry
1905
Coca Champagne
Seven pints of champagne syrup cut with a full pint of coca wine, over the counter.
So what happens if I make it?
“Wine Coca” in a fountain manual of this period meant a fortified-wine tincture of coca leaf, which carries cocaine into solution. A pint of it goes into every batch.
Nothing about this was furtive. It sat on the menu next to the sundaes, and the book gives the proportions as plainly as it gives them for lemonade.
Notes from the 21st century
- Coca and its alkaloids are controlled now. In the United States and most other countries, possession and sale are regulated. This is not a formula that can be scaled down.
- Leaving the coca out leaves you nothing. What remains is sweetened champagne-flavour syrup. The coca was the product.
- “Champagne” is a flavour here, not wine. Champagne stock syrup was a shop-made compound, typically simple syrup carrying citrus, cognac oil and fruit-ester notes.
Also in this book
- Ammonia Cocktail — Two dashes of aromatic spirits of ammonia, orange syrup, and a spoonful of bicarbonate. A great bracer.
- Boiled Eggs at the Soda Fountain — Western soda fountains boiled eggs to order, between the sundaes.
- Cherry Ferri — “The greatest nerve tonic of the age,” served hot at the fountain with optional whipped cream.
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