Chocolate Egg Cream

Chocolate Egg Cream

Growing up in and around New York I am always bewildered why no one in Connecticut, or in almost any other state, seems to know about the Chocolate Egg Cream.  An unbelievably delicious drink, without all the calories of a milkshake so you would have thought by now it would have made an appearance far and wide but it seems to still be a well-kept secret.

The Egg Cream has neither eggs nor cream.  It is so delicious it is hard to believe it is comprised of just three simple ingredients: chocolate syrup, milk and seltzer.  The components need to be placed in the glass in sequence to produce the proper sudsy beer-like head that gives you the same kind of tickle.

There is a lot of egg cream lore in New York, just about every intersection had a candy store or drugstore with a soda fountain.  Lime Rickeys (sans alcohol), milkshakes and egg creams were the drink orders of the day.  We always debated how it the egg cream got its name - some argued that it was based on a chocolate egg drink made in the late nineteenth century in Manhattan with raw eggs, heavy cream, chocolate syrup and soda water.  It was said that this morphed into a less expensive version for the humble chocolate soda-loving masses but still went by the name egg cream so you could feel as hoity toity as the swanky soda drinkers on the upper east side.  Others said it was a posh Parisian drink Chocolat et Crème and the name was adapted to Chocolate Egg Cream.

Since there were many soda fountains in the Jewish sections of Manhattan, there were those who believed that the taste of combining the chocolate syrup, milk and seltzer made it close to the original drink that used real eggs.  My Jewish friends told me in Yiddish echt meant real and when pronounced sounds like egg.  They thought their less costly drink with merely the syrup milk and seltzer was as good as the expensive version and was an Echt Cream meaning Real Cream.

The rare few who were not chocolate lovers had Vanilla Egg Creams made from vanilla syrup but to them I said, Yuk, why bother.  The Chocolate Goddess says please find below the simple yet precise directions for a proper egg cream.

Happy Egg Cream Making!

And Remember

Always Stay in Touch with Your Inner Goddess!

Ingredients

If possible Fox’s U Bet Chocolate Syrup

Whole Milk

Seltzer

Chocolate Egg Cream Instructions (it is simple but must be said)

It depends on the size of your glass but in a normal 12 ounce glass.  My Mason Jar was 16 ounces so I went with an inch and a quarter.

Layer 1 inch of Chocolate Syrup

Followed by 1 inch of Whole Milk

Pour seltzer to almost the top of the glass and stir until a head forms.

Serve immediately with a straw.