![]() Many customers enjoy the egg creams, soda floats, sundaes, and milkshakes that these soda fountains have to offer. Today, soda fountains are seen as old-fashioned yet charming, but are few and far between. Once the sodas were available in bottles, the brands were already recognizable and in demand. They contributed to the homogenization of drugstores.”Įventually, sodas were bottled and sold everywhere, and people no longer had to go to the drugstore for a soda.Ī bonus for the soda companies: most people were already loyal to the brand from drinking these sodas at the pharmacy. According to the virtual Soderlund Drugstore and Pharmacy Museum, “As wonderful as these soda dispensers were, they hastened the demise of the soda fountain. The pharmacist simply had to hold the glass and turn the handle to dispense a drink.Īlthough this advancement freed up the pharmacist, the pharmacist also lost some uniqueness because the drinks became the same at every drugstore. Soon, companies like Coca Cola and Pepsi began making soda dispensers, which they supplied to the pharmacies free of charge. Instead of having to mix syrup with carbonated water and phosphate, the soda dispenser mixed the syrup and carbonated water, eliminating any additional steps to prepare a fountain drink. Pharmacists no longer had to mix their own concoctions. Soon, soda dispensers came along, replacing syrup dispensers, and changed the market. Syrup companies began to provide the pharmacist with free syrup dispensers in exchange for advertising. The soda jerk would add carbonated water and phosphate to the syrup to make a unique beverage. Preservative-free soda syrup, with flavorings extracted from natural fruits, such as Orange Crush and Cherry Smash, became common in the local drugstores. The soda fountain was seen as a valuable and profitable business. ![]() 1 A potential soda jerk (one who serves and sells from a soda fountain) could purchase a Liquid Carbonic soda fountain, an operations and recipe manual, and enter the soda fountain business. His Liquid Carbonic soda fountains were manufactured and marketed in the early 1900’s. Pharmacist Jacob Baur started the Liquid Carbonic Company in 1888, where he manufactured carbon dioxide in tanks, and then the real soda fountain was born. 1 At the time, ice cream parlors were usually standalone businesses and not part of a soda fountain. Due to prohibition, which began in 1919, bars were closing and people needed a place to socialize. 1Īlmost every drugstore had a soda fountain by the early 1920’s. However, in 1914, the Harrison Narcotics Tax Act became law under President Woodrow Wilson, and it banned the use of cocaine and opiates in OTC products. Selling cocaine-derived drinks was completely legal, as every drug was over the counter. Pharmacies also began to offer milkshakes (the original recipe was carbonated water, sweetened flavored milk, and a raw egg) and ice cream sodas (flavored soda water with a scoop of vanilla ice cream) at their fountains. Many pharmacists (called druggists at the time) even made and marketed their own secret formulas. Patients enjoyed visiting the soda fountain to get some 'pep-at the time, it was widely believed that stimulants were safe and effective. As patients began to suffer rebound headaches, they would return again and again for more drinks to treat their pain. 1 At the time, many fountain drinks were concoctions or extracts of flavored, effervesced drugs.Ĭocaine and caffeine were among such popular drugs found in pharmacy drinks-this combination was used for headache treatment. Even outside of the viral nonalcoholic soda cocktails, soda chains are springing up in the region with gusto, as observed by The New York Times.Īs millennials continue to drink less and less alcohol, and while most of Gen Z still hasn't reached drinking age yet, perhaps soda chains and soda shops are on their way back in a way that exceeds simple nostalgic value. While The New York Times observes a major dip in daily American soda consumption, it may still be high time for the unique soda. The soda fountain may really be on its way back - after all, it has proved to be more than adaptable more than once.The soda fountain was 'born' in the 1850’s, when people would seek fountain drinks from their local drugstore to cure physical ailments. ![]() Drinks like the dirty soda, a startlingly sweet mix of diet coke, half-and-half, and coconut syrup have even recently blown up on the Internet, specifically on TikTok (via The Washington Post). In fact, Michigan Daily, perhaps dubiously, asserts that soda fountains never lost popularity in what is referred to as the Mormon Corridor. In parts of the States that are home to many non-drinkers, soda remains a cornerstone in drinking culture.
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