Calaveras Slim
US Veteran
Just wondering..... In the old soda fountains, what was the vanilla syrup used to make vanilla shakes? Can you still buy it? What can we substitute? Lord, I miss my good old fashioned milk shakes
Vanilla syrup
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Alnamvet68
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I worked part time in my uncle's pharmacy/luncheonette in the 50's, and there were several companies that marketed syrups for making sodas. Coca Cola and Pepsi of course marketed their own, as did other big name brands. Moxie and Sun Rise come to mind when it came to vanilla syrup. Bosco made the chocolate syrup, Orange Crush had a syrup, and the plain seltzer was of local manufacture and typically Kosher. It was real simple back in the day when it came to flavor choices, vanilla, chocolate, orange, and ginger ale and/or 7-up, all in syrup form.
carpriver
US Veteran
I wonder if is the same vanilla syrup that is used to flavor those fancy coffee drinks, if so you can get at your super market.
This brand is probably the easiest to find, Since 1925... if not you can order direct,... google Torani..
rburg
Member
Of course I'm confused. Again. Its OK, as we get older confusion reigns. But I think syrup and extract are completely different critters. Syrup is thick and gooey. Extract is thin and full of alcohol. So the syrup probably has a significant sugar content. You get flavor and sweetness out of the same ingredient. Vanilla extract is like strong whiskey, but with vanilla bean flavor. Vanilla is orchid beans, as soaked in alcohol. I've got some around here we were making with grain alcohol. Maybe I should drink it for fun.
Long ago, like the 1970s, I worked at a dairy. Yes, we processed milk and bottled/ put it in cartons. But we also made a full line of ice cream, much of which required vanilla flavoring. Every salesman for miles stopped in and left us a sample. We were always polite (always!), but we never tried any of it. To us, consistency was the goal. No way we'd try someone's flavor and send it out. So all the samples, usually in gallon jugs, went into a small storage room near the office. From time to time we'd clean it out. And that was a problem because the city didn't allow us to flush stuff down the sewer. So the first step was to offer it to anyone who wanted to take it home. Yes, that was me. We had gallons of single fold, two fold, and even 4 fold vanilla. The constant was the alcohol, often over 150 proof. Just the vanilla flavor was stronger/weaker. And yes, 100 proof is the point it will burn. I had it proven to me out in the parking lot. And you could smell up the entire neighborhood while doing it. Made the place smell more like a bakery than a dairy.
Long ago, like the 1970s, I worked at a dairy. Yes, we processed milk and bottled/ put it in cartons. But we also made a full line of ice cream, much of which required vanilla flavoring. Every salesman for miles stopped in and left us a sample. We were always polite (always!), but we never tried any of it. To us, consistency was the goal. No way we'd try someone's flavor and send it out. So all the samples, usually in gallon jugs, went into a small storage room near the office. From time to time we'd clean it out. And that was a problem because the city didn't allow us to flush stuff down the sewer. So the first step was to offer it to anyone who wanted to take it home. Yes, that was me. We had gallons of single fold, two fold, and even 4 fold vanilla. The constant was the alcohol, often over 150 proof. Just the vanilla flavor was stronger/weaker. And yes, 100 proof is the point it will burn. I had it proven to me out in the parking lot. And you could smell up the entire neighborhood while doing it. Made the place smell more like a bakery than a dairy.
