GINGER ALE. A sweetened, carbonated, non-excisable beverage, the predominating flavour and pleasant warmth of which are derived mainly from the rhizome Zingiber officinale. The aeration of the beverage may be due to fermentation or to artificial saturation with carbon dioxide gas. The Jamaican variety of ginger rhizome yields the finest-flavoured beverages, the flavour and pungency of the rhizome being dependent upon the essential oil and oleo-resin, which are its active principles. Other flavouring materials frequently enter into the composition of ginger ale, for example cloves, cinnamon, lemon essence, malt, etc. ; also, additions are occasionally made of a foam-producing substance and pungent materials, such as capsicum, to increase the sharpness and pungency of the beverage. In 1922 the joint committee of definitions and standards of the United States department of agriculture defined ginger ale as the carbonated beverage prepared from ginger ale flavour, sugar, syrup, harmless organic acid, potable water and caramel colour. Ginger ale flavour, or ginger ale concentrate, was defined as the flavouring product in which ginger is the essential constituent, with or with out the addition of other aromatic and pungent ingredients, citrus oils and fruit juices.
In preparing an artificially carbonated ginger ale, a syrup is first made, this being compounded from water, sugar, ginger ale flavour or extract, citric or tartaric acid, caramel colour and foam essence. Such a syrup is employed in making the carbon ated beverage in the manner which is described under AERATED WATERS.