This refreshing mocktail is a kind of Improved Ginger Ale, accented with lemon, raspberry, and Angostura bitters. The name makes me think about the moment in time when the first three Jack’s Manual editions were published (1908, 1910, 1916), the rise of the temperance movement, and teetotalers seeking entertainment at musical and theatrical performances given in auditoriums.

Simply listed as “Milk Shake” in Jack’s Manual, the original version of this drink is just raspberry syrup and milk, shaken with ice. I wanted to make a chocolatey version with more going on, so I made a kind of chocolate-raspberry milk base and added a scoop of chocolate ice cream on top with walnuts, reflecting the rise of the ice cream parlor and its relationship with the temperance movement.

There are a few drinks with the word Elk in the name–Ccoktails, Fizzes, and egg-white Sours. It could be related to the majestic animal, of course, but more likely it’s related to the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, founded soon after the Civil War. This one is a grape juice-based drink with layers of citrus and spice, plus, in our version, true-to-period pineapple syrup.

Acid phosphate was a staple of soda fountains–an acidic solution made with salts of calcium, magnesium, and potassium. Not so easy to come by these days, so I built this recipe with citric acid. Otherwise, it’s pretty close to the recipe in Jack’s Manual, with the additions of vanilla extract and orange oil (it’s shaken with a peel), which bring it even further into Orange Julius territory.

I got this idea in my head watching The Bishop's Wife (1947), the story of an angel played by Cary Grant who's trying to save a self-imporant young bishop from losing sight of what's important. In the movie, there's rag-tag children's choir at the little inner-city parish of St. Timothy's (the bishop's former post); given that sherbet punch is thoroughly postwar, I thought the kids in the choir would appreciate this one, and so might the kids in your world! I also made it balanced to please those adults who aren't partaking.

Ginger was an absolutely essential ingredient in eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century American drinks, a fact borne out by flipping through period household manuals. These contain all manner of gingery “receipts,” from ginger wine to ginger pop, beer, and lemonade; it was also called upon as supporting character in all kinds of recipes. Our spicy ginger syrup provides a perfect base ales, beer, and pops!

Shrubs were a popular method of preserving fruit in New England during the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Though almost all apple cider in those days was fermented, I saw an opportunity here to build a non-alcoholic drink reflecting this month’s historical milieu with sweet, non-alcoholic cider, cranberry shrub, and our ginger-molasses syrup, with lemon juice to bolster the acid and salt and cayenne to liven things up.