By the 1970s, the soda fountain had mostly faded from American life, as Food Republic tells it, with fast food, bottled soft drinks and packaged ice cream taking over the business. Five of its drinks appear on both Food Republic’s December 2025 list of 8 classic soda fountain favorites and Tasting Table’s February 2026 list of 9 old-school soda fountain drinks: the egg cream, the lime rickey, the chocolate Coke, the phosphate and the malt.
The Counter Where All Five Were Poured
Wikipedia describes the soda fountain as a small eating place common from the late 19th century to the mid-20th century, often tucked inside a drugstore or candy store. A soda jerk served carbonated drinks, ice cream and sometimes light meals, and the fountain itself dispensed plain carbonated water that syrups were added to by hand.
During Prohibition in the 1920s, Food Republic reports, the counters became gathering places and gave out-of-work bartenders a new job behind the fountain. Frenz Hub has a post titled 8 Little Rituals From the ’80s and ’90s That Disappeared Without Much Notice.
1. The Egg Cream, Made Without Egg or Cream
An egg cream is milk, seltzer and flavored syrup, usually chocolate, and Wikipedia notes that it contains neither eggs nor cream. The drink is tied to Yiddish-speaking Eastern European Jewish immigrants in New York City, and food historian Andrew F. Smith is quoted there describing an 1880s soda specialty with chocolate syrup, cream and raw eggs, followed by a cheaper version made without them.
Food Republic passes along two origin stories. One credits Louis Auster with the drink around 1890 at a candy store on the Lower East Side. The other comes from Daniel Bell, who said his uncle Hymie Bell made it in the 1920s with egg yolks and dropped them when eggs got expensive during the Depression.
Tasting Table adds the Brooklyn routine: stopping for an egg cream after school, sometimes with a corn muffin or a pretzel. Both outlets name Fox’s U-Bet as the classic chocolate syrup.
2. The Lime Rickey, a Bar Drink Turned Soda Counter Favorite
The rickey started as a bar drink. Wikipedia traces it to Shoomaker’s bar in Washington, D.C., in the 1880s, credited to bartender George A. Williamson and tied to a lobbyist named Colonel Joe Rickey, and it says the non-alcoholic version is the lime rickey.
Food Republic describes the soda fountain version as lime juice, seltzer and syrup with a sharper bite than most counter drinks, popular in the 1920s. Regional twists followed: raspberry in New England and cherry in New York, a split Tasting Table echoes with Massachusetts mall memories and cherry versions in the Bronx. Food Republic says the drink faded as home refrigeration and packaged sodas spread, though it has crept back as a mocktail.
3. The Chocolate Coke, Two Ingredients and Whipped Cream
The chocolate Coke is as simple as it sounds: Coca-Cola and chocolate syrup. Food Republic says it was often finished with a swirl of whipped cream and was a favorite for kids and teens after school.
Tasting Table says the drink never had a single inventor. It appears to have come from customers asking soda jerks to mix syrups into cola, with Hershey’s chocolate syrup a common pick and some people adding cherry or even peanuts. Food Republic points out that Coca-Cola itself was first sold at a soda fountain in Atlanta in 1886, with sales of just $50 that first year, before the formula was sold to Asa Candler a year later. craftingyourhome.com has a post titled Families in the 60s & 70s Had 8 Saturday Morning Habits That Today’s Generation Is Missing.
4. The Phosphate, the Sour Snap Behind the Sweet
A phosphate is soda water, syrup and a splash of acid phosphate, which adds a tart edge. Wikipedia dates phosphate drinks to the 1870s and says lemon and orange were the standard flavors, with lemon phosphate becoming a top seller at soda fountains by the 1900s. The same entry notes that phosphoric acid is still used in many bottled soft drinks, Coca-Cola among them.
Tasting Table lists cherry vanilla, lime, chocolate and lemon among the flavors, and says the acid phosphate was developed in the 1860s by Eben Norton Horsford. Food Republic calls cherry phosphate one of the most popular fountain drinks of the 1920s, with chocolate phosphate a close second, and says the acid phosphate helped balance out the sweetness of the syrups. craftingyourhome.com has a post titled 10 Kitchen Appliances That Changed How American Families Cooked.
5. The Malt, Barley Powder in a Tall Glass
The malt differs from a plain milkshake because of malted milk powder. Wikipedia defines malted milk as a powder of malted barley, wheat flour and evaporated whole milk powder, tied to brothers James and William Horlick, who formed their company in 1873 and earned a patent in 1883. Tasting Table says malts relied on that powder rather than the fresh milk and ice cream of a standard shake, and describes the flavor as sweet and nutty.
Food Republic credits Walgreens employee Pop Coulson with popularizing the drink in the 1920s, mixing Horlick’s powder with ice cream and whipped cream. It adds that malts declined in the 1970s alongside fast food, and that malt flavor now turns up mostly in candy such as Whoppers. Frenz Hub has a post titled 15 Foods From the ’60s Most Boomers Loved With a Passion.
Why the Counters Emptied Out
Wikipedia’s soda fountain entry says the decline began in 1950, when Walgreens introduced fully self-service drugstores. Cars and suburbs pulled customers elsewhere, drive-ins and roadside ice cream stands such as Dairy Queen competed for the same crowd, and North American stores switched to vending machines selling canned and bottled soft drinks. Frenz Hub has a post titled 31 Forgotten Household Items from the Past.
A Reality Check on the Comeback
None of the five is fully gone. Tasting Table says egg creams are still served at a few New York diners and that some old-school diners and soda fountains across the country sell phosphates. Wikipedia reports that AriZona debuted a canned egg cream in September 2025 sold in specialty snack stores, and adds that the fresh drink goes flat quickly, one reason it has been hard to bottle.
This article was produced with AI assistance and edited for accuracy against the sources linked above.
Image: doe-oakridge – Public domain/Wikimedia Commons
