The Portland daily press., 1900-07-31
HOT WEATHER BEVERAGES.
Increasing Demand for sOda-Water-
How 1t Varies From Year to Year
Attempts to Make 1t Popular Abroad
How to Drink Water.


CFrom the9New York Evening Post.)
physicians agree that pure water in
summer time cannot be taken in too
large quantities, Iand that we would all
be better off if we would drink more, .
remarked an uptown chemist today. "but
it is safe to say that nine out of every
ten want their water doctored for them.
The least you can do for them is to put
ice in it, and If there Us nothing better
around they viii drink ice. water and Inn
agine they are taking their physicians
advice heroically. Now. to take Croton
just as it comes out of the faucet is not
agreeable, for it is too warm this hot
weather to satisfy ones thirst, but if bot
tied up and stood on ice for an hour, it
makes the ideal summer beverage. Then
if you would squeeze into it a few drops
of lemon-juice you would have health
giving drink that would never cause
stomach disorders. Lemon juice, with
out the sugar, is IAN excellent thirst-de
stroyer, and cid topers resort to it after
a debauch to cool THEM mouths when
everything else fails.
''Soda-Water is commonly spoken of as
a typical American drink, and people
think that it is the same thing year after
year. But the fact is, there is as much
change lin preparing new soda-water.
drinks for summer as there is in the
summer styles of dress. A few 81 IS,
new flavoring extracts, and new chemical
extracts that viii attract the popular
taste come in for an amount of study
no a
great run is sure to make large profits
for the inventor and for the sOda-Water
fountain man. Consequently, it pays
to put plenty of time and money into in
venting q new summer beverage.
The queer thing about our national
drink is that we cannot popuIarize it in
other countries, Efforts have been made
to introduce the American soda-Water
in Europe, England and the far East,
but the people do not seem to take to it,
And yet when these foreigners come to
this country they TALL into the habit Of
drinking sOda-water just as surely as our
former sChiness minister fell a deperate
victim to the ice-cream habit, In sum-
mer half Onr patrons IN some districts are
foreigners, and French, Germans and
English take soda-water with as much
pleasure as they do their light wines,
beers and aIes.
Probably more American soda water
VIII be sold in Paris this summer than
ever before, and American dealers viii
make one last effort to pOpularize the
national drink abroad. u 18th plenty OF
American sightseers at the exposition to
set the example in drinking soda water,
1t is just possible that the habit viii be
contracted abroad this summer, SO that
there Will be a permanent demand for
American soda.
In a city like New York, there are
different soda water districts, which
must be clearly understood and divided
ND by the dealers. There is for instance
the shopping district, where the fOun-
talnS are patrODiZed mostly by women
Ice-cream soda water IS called for there
more than anything else, and no mat
ter what drink we put on the market,
nothing can quite take the place of this
In the fair shopper affections. They
stick to 1ce-cream soda year after year
You can vary the favOrings but you can
not dispense with the soda and cream.
Very few phosphatas are sold in these
shopping districts. And yet this ice
cream soda water business does not pay
compared with most other soft drinks,
even when 10 cents is charged, simply
because 1T takes a woman two or three
times as long to drink and eat glass of
1ce-cream soda as 1t does man to drink
phosphate.
"Some of the big department. stores
separate the ice-cream saltwater fOun-
tains from the fountains for ordinary
drinks, and in this way they simplify
matters. In some of these uptown de-
partment stores fully 5000 drinks are sold
IN day. They carry over 100 different
hayOrs besides several other drinks Of a
minor character. The semi intoxicant
drinks are rarely found at soda-water
fountains, and, indeed, they are
not nearly as popular in hot
weather as some people think,
OF course, there is a class OF people who
feel that they must have some such S slim
ulant right along, and they demand 1t in
their summer as well as their winter
drin ks.'