Violet Fizz Mocktail (1920)
Raspberry syrup, lime and cream shaken together, then topped with sparkling apple juice and soda water. A pale pink fizz with a little froth.
- Original yieldYield
- 1 cocktail1 cocktail
- PrepPrep time
- TotalTotal time
Published Updated
Original recipe: 1 cocktail
The story behind the recipe
The Violet Fizz gets its color from raspberry, not violet flowers. Syrup mixed with cream becomes muted pink, with lime sharpening the mixture and apple juice and soda supplying bubbles. The name is more floral than the actual shopping list.
Cream at the drinks table
Bertha Stockbridge printed this fizz in her 1920 What to Drink. Her book covers non-alcoholic cocktails, punches, milk drinks and frozen sweets, with the shaker and attractive glasses treated as household equipment.
Violet Fizz brings syrup, cream and carbonation into that home setting. It offers a richer texture than Applebloom's two juices, but a lighter, fizzier serve than a milk punch. The article on her temperance drinks follows those choices across the book.
The original formula uses shaved ice, a whole lime, raspberry syrup, sweet cream, sparkling apple juice and an extra spoonful of sugar. The modern drink keeps the combination but changes its measures and mixing order, as the notes explain.
Read more about this recipe
Buy the raspberry syrup, leave the flowers
Raspberry syrup supplies fruit flavor, sweetness and color. A deeply red syrup can turn quite pale once heavy cream enters the mixture, so purple isn't the expected result despite the name.
Choose a syrup made for drinks and one whose flavor you like. With equal measured amounts of syrup and lime in this formula, the product's sweetness has a noticeable effect. The recipe omits the source's additional spoonful of sugar.
The lime gives a sharp citrus contrast to the cream and syrup. Measured juice is more repeatable than assuming every whole lime produces the same volume. There is no flower syrup, berry garnish or lime wheel in the recipe.
Two additions that need their bubbles
Sparkling apple juice contributes some fruit as well as carbonation. Soda lengthens it further. Both enter the glass after the still ingredients have been shaken and strained.
That order keeps the carbonated liquids out of the sealed shaker. It also gives you a cold base ready for the gentle final pours. A little froth is part of the drink's presentation; there is no egg white to produce a tall, firm foam cap.
Use cold bottles and leave them unopened until needed. On a menu with several drinks, this is one whose fizz should be finished when the glass is going to someone, not lined up long before the first choice has been made.
Space above the pink liquid
The serving has no retained ice, so the chilled Collins glass shows a continuous pale column. Leave room for the frothy surface instead of pushing the pour right up to the lip.
A straight paper straw is optional. It makes sense for a tall, lightly creamy fizz without introducing another garnish. The pink liquid can supply all the color the glass needs.
When choosing between Stockbridge's drinks, the cream is the detail to remember. This is fruit and dairy together, with lime and bubbles around them. Offer it that way, and a guest has a much clearer idea of what to expect than the flower-like name supplies.
For another selection from the era, explore five alcohol-free drinks for a 1920s party on our sister site, Forgotten Drink.
Make it your wayOriginal: 1 serving · Makes 1 cocktail
Original recipe: 1 cocktail
Ingredients
For 1 cocktail. Quantities are shown as written.
Source measurement convention: Metric. Explicit unit definitions take precedence; unconfirmed measures must be checked before conversion.
Original quantities for 1 cocktail.
- Fresh lime juice30 ml
- Raspberry syrup30 ml
- Heavy cream30 ml
- Sparkling apple juice30 ml
- Cold soda water (to top)60 ml
Measurement notes
Measurement notes
Original ingredients
- 30 ml fresh lime juice
- 30 ml raspberry syrup
- 30 ml heavy cream
- 30 ml sparkling apple juice
- 60 ml cold soda water (to top)
Equipment
Cocktail shaker
300 ml Highball or Collins glass
Instructions
Combine juice, syrup and cream with ice
Combine the fresh lime juice, raspberry syrup, heavy cream in a shaker with the cracked ice.
Shake to chill
Shake firmly for at least 20 seconds until well chilled.
Strain into a chilled Collins glass
Strain into a tall, chilled Collins glass without ice.
Add sparkling apple juice and soda
Add the sparkling apple juice, then slowly pour in the cold soda water, leaving room for a lightly frothy surface.
Estimated calories 220 kcal
Nutrition portion: whole recipe · Original yield: 1 cocktail
Source & assumptions
Ingredient-based estimate using CoFID 2021, USDA SR Legacy (April 2018), identified manufacturer information. Approximately 220 kcal per nutrition portion. Uses representative raspberry syrup, heavy whipping cream and unsweetened sparkling apple juice. Ingredients, brands and preparation affect values.
Recipe notes
When adjusting quantities
Scale ingredients proportionally.
Original recipe notes
These notes describe the original recipe. Quantities mentioned here do not change when you adjust servings.
Stockbridge, What to Drink: The Blue Book of Beverages (1920), p. 51: original book. The modern formula changes the source proportions, specifies heavy cream and measured lime juice, omits its extra sugar and adds both carbonated liquids after shaking.
Never shake carbonated ingredients in a sealed shaker. Pour sparkling apple juice and soda into the glass, leaving room for the light froth. No egg-white foam or garnish is required.
A straight paper straw is optional.
Read the scaling guide. Times, temperatures and equipment need their own consideration. Open the recipe tool to review and correct individual amounts.
Sources and attribution
Bertha E. L. Stockbridge, What to Drink: The Blue Book of Beverages (New York: D. Appleton & Co., 1920), p. 51
Recipe details
- Recipe tradition
- Vintage
- Cuisine
- Other / International
- Source decade
- 1920s
- Browse category
- Drinks & Cocktails