Port Wine Lemonade

Cocktail Boothby's American Bar-Tender by Wm. T. Boothby (1891, p.35)

1. Prepare a plain lemonade.
2. Dash it with port wine and serve.

Ice: Cube ice

This keeps fortified wine visible inside the lemonade branch rather than isolating it entirely in sangarees and punches.

The key identity comes from a small wine addition to an otherwise standard lemonade.

New and Improved Bartenders' Manual by Harry Johnson (1900, p.260) — Harry Johnson 1900

1. Add the sugar and lemon juice to a large bar glass or tumbler.
2. Fill nearly full with fine-shaved ice and then fill the balance with water.
3. Shake up well with a shaker.
4. Ornament with fruit in season, top it off with the port wine so it flows on top of the lemonade, and serve with a straw.

Garnish: Seasonal fruit

Ice: Fine-shaved ice

Nose

Port floats a darker wine aroma over a bright lemonade base, making the nose more layered than the liquid structure might imply.

Palate

This is a visual and flavour hybrid, keeping lemonade refreshment while adding a vinous top note that pushes it toward cup and cobbler territory.

Finish

The finish is cool, citrusy, and dark-fruited at the top edge.

Summary

A layered wine lemonade that shows how visual staging and drink-family crossover often went together.

Johnson's insistence that the port flow on top matters historically because it makes visible how much bar manuals cared about appearance as well as flavour.

The float is the whole point. Without the layered finish, the drink loses its identity.