Spruce Soda with Molasses
Reader ratingsSimple syrup, a spoonful of molasses and a drop of food-grade spruce essence over ice, topped with soda water: the flavors of old spruce beer with no yeast and no alcohol.
- Recipe makes
- About 500 ml, 2 tall glasses
- Prep
- Total
Chill the soda water beforehand.
Spruce soda over ice in two tumblers, with the dropper bottle of spruce essence and a jug of molasses.
The story behind the recipe
Spruce soda takes the sugar, molasses and spruce essence of the old spruce beer and gets its sparkle from soda water instead of yeast, so it is ready in a few minutes and pours a pale, tea-colored amber over ice. The beer it comes from was fermented and carried a little alcohol; this modern adaptation has none.
Sugar, essence, water
Our starting point is the plainest of the three spruce beers in William Terrington’s Cooling Cups and Dainty Drinks (1869): a pound of sugar and an ounce of essence of spruce to a gallon of water. The water goes on at the boil, the yeast when it is lukewarm, and then “ferment, and bottle like ginger beer.” Take away the yeast and that is a spruce syrup waiting for its bubbles. A spoonful of molasses, the sweetener of the spruce beers Captain Cook and the New York handbill describe, gives it a little of their flavor and a pale amber tint.
The beer itself, molasses and essence worked with yeast for three weeks, is the spruce beer from an 1804 New York handbill. Spruce beer was brewed by Captain Cook’s crew in New Zealand and by Jane Austen’s household in Southampton.
Read more about this recipe
Bought essence only
Use a spruce essence or extract sold as a food flavoring or for brewing, and follow the maker’s dose, since strengths vary a great deal; start with less and add more after tasting. A bottle from the shop is the safe source of spruce flavor here: food agencies in Sweden and Belgium have warned against eating Christmas-tree needles, which are often treated with pesticides. Light molasses is milder than blackstrap, which can taste bitter here.
Spruce Beer.—Sugar, 1lb.; essence of spruce, 1 oz.; boiling water, 1 gallon; add, when lukewarm, a tablespoonful of German yeast; ferment, and bottle like ginger beer.
Recipe makes: About 500 ml, 2 tall glasses
Ingredients
For About 500 ml, 2 tall glasses. Quantities are shown as written.
Quantities as written here, for About 500 ml, 2 tall glasses.
- Simple syrup (equal parts sugar and water)60 ml
- Light molasses2 metric tsp (5 ml per tsp)
- Food-grade spruce essence, the maker’s dose for 500 ml
- Soda water, chilled400 ml
- Ice cubes
Measurement notes
Ingredients as written here
- 60 ml simple syrup (equal parts sugar and water)
- 2 tsp light molasses
- Food-grade spruce essence, the maker’s dose for 500 ml
- 400 ml soda water, chilled
- Ice cubes
Equipment
Small jug
Teaspoon
2 tall glasses
Instructions
Stir the simple syrup and the light molasses together in a small jug until the molasses has dissolved.
Add the food-grade spruce essence, stir, and taste a drop on a spoon. Add a little more essence if you want it stronger.
Fill the glasses with ice cubes and divide the spruce syrup between them.
Top up with the chilled soda water, stir once and serve.
Nutrition
85calories per serving
- Recipe makes
- About 500 ml, 2 tall glasses
- Servings
- 2
Estimated from USDA FoodData Central values for granulated sugar and light molasses; soda water adds none.
Recipe notes
When adjusting quantities
Allow 30 ml of syrup, 1 teaspoon of molasses and 200 ml of soda water for each glass. Spruce essences differ in strength, so follow the maker’s dose.
Notes
Quantities mentioned in these notes don’t change when you adjust the batch.
To make simple syrup, heat equal volumes of sugar and water until the sugar dissolves, then cool. It keeps for two weeks in the fridge.
Go carefully with the essence: it is concentrated, and too much makes the drink harsh. In 1773 George Forster called the spruce beer brewed on Cook’s ship “pleasant, and something bitter.”
Scaling changes the ingredients only; glassware, ice and timings need their own judgment. To adapt this recipe further, try the recipe tool at TuneMyRecipe (opens in a new tab), our sister site.
Sources and attribution
Modern adaptation of the first Spruce Beer in William Terrington, Cooling Cups and Dainty Drinks (London: Routledge, 1869), p. 105
See the original pages (scan at Internet Archive) (opens in a new tab)
Recipe details
- Drink
- Alcohol-free
- Drink family
- Sodas & Soft Drinks
- Region
- British
- Era
- 19th century
- Source decade
- 1860s
- Base
- Herbs & flowers
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Occasion
- Dry January
- Season
- Summer