I’ve enjoyed LibationLegacy’s piece.
I have, however, to disagree with Fougner’s claim, quoted in the article, that real pomegranate juice was used by “all reputable French producers” in 1936.
Since 1908, under French law, ‘grenadine’ is simple syrup, citric and / or tartaric acid and unspecified ‘vegetal substances’. If you understand a bit of French, click on the link and you’ll see that of all the syrups mentioned, grenadine is the only one where the source of the flavour is not linked to the name of the product (‘gum’ is mentioned for gum syrup, ‘almonds’ for orgeat, ‘coffee’ or coffee syrup, etc).
https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k63407614/f1425.image.r="sirop%20de%20grenadine"?rk=42918;4
There are precious few mentions of real pomegranate being used in grenadine after 1890. Early on, you find advertisements for syrup maker using Spanish pomegranate, for example, then ads for ‘grenadine extract’ start to appear (“add 2,7 litres of the extract to flavour 100 litres or simple syrup” says one). The exact nature of the extract is left to the imagination. Towards the end of the 1880s, you find people complaining that ‘grenadine’ is not the real stuff anymore. By the next decade, grenadine is ‘sirop fantaisie’ (‘fantaisie’ here means ‘artificial’). By 1905, this is enshrined in law – a law, mind you, that deals with ‘frauds’. How ironic.
The Picon Punch, by the way, is essentially a French drink – an apéritif such as Picon + syrup (mostly grenadine, but also lemon) or a liqueur + soda: that’s the archetypal French aperitivo around 1890.
I have no idea what grenadine was used in Californian Picon Punches in 1904, but in France I can guarantee it wasn’t pomegranate ‘grenadine’…
I had the same thought. Ironically, those very manuals are now widely used by people trying to recreate authentic liqueurs, vermouths or bitters. 