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Recipe for an old-fashioned egg cream or “fizzy iced chocolate”, the perfect cold beverage on a hot summer day. Made with fruit-sweetened chocolate syrup for a naturally low-carb treat.
So there I was, standing in line at the grocery store.
Ho-hum.
The elderly gentleman in front of me was obviously bored with the long line too. After a few minutes, he turned around and began to eye my shopping cart.
There wasn’t much to see as I don’t buy a whole lot at the grocery store. There was a bag of organic Fuji apples, sparkling water, and several bags of Epsom salts.
Yes, just about one of the most boring shopping carts you’ve ever laid eyes on.
This gentleman fixes his gaze on the sparkling water bottles and starts telling me a story about when he was a child in Queens, New York, and this yummy drink he and his brothers made out of club soda.
Curious, I asked him what kind of a drink he made.
What is Fizzy Iced Chocolate?
With a twinkle in his eye, he told me that they mixed club soda, milk, and chocolate syrup and that it tasted so great on a hot summer day. He went on to describe how quality food was hard to come by, and this drink made the milk stretch a bit further during the Depression.
Even more curious as this beverage did not sound particularly yummy to me, I asked how much club soda and milk were used.
He said the drink was mostly club soda with just a bit of milk and chocolate syrup.
He assured me that my kids would love it and that I should try it.
Later that day, I made some exactly as described and gave some to my boys to try. They loved it and agreed it was very refreshing in the summer heat.
We decided to name it fizzy iced chocolate. In other areas of the country, it is apparently known simply as “egg cream”.
I recommend using homemade fruit-sweetened chocolate syrup for this recipe. If you decide to buy, it is best to choose organic. This avoids the GMO white beet sugar in conventional brands (labeled as “sugar”).
This is a fun choice to make if you are out of homemade kombucha tea or other types of cultured beverages and want something bubbly and flavorful to enjoy.
Traditional Egg Cream Recipe (with nondairy option)
This recipe for an old-fashined egg cream, or fizzy iced chocolate, is the perfect refresher in hot weather.
Ingredients
- 6 ounces (177 ml) sparkling spring water or plain seltzer
- 2 ounces (59 ml) whole milk
- 1 tsp chocolate syrup
Instructions
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Mix all ingredients together in a large glass.
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Stir and serve very cold. Add ice if desired.
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Refrigerate leftovers (if there are any!).
Recipe Notes
Substitute store bought or homemade coconut milk for dairy milk for a nondairy egg cream if desired.
yup as soon as you said seltzer, I knew. It’s a NY teat therefore also know as a New York Egg Cream. I grew up in upstate NY and have started remaking them with the original Fox’s U-Bet Chocolate syrup! It can be purchased on line if you can’t find it locally.
Ooh, this sounds like a treat I can get behind. What about replacing the seltzer with whey for a little more probiotic punch?
@ 6512 and growing:
Ewwwwwww.
Just make it the way Sarah says to make it and enjoy it rather than always trying to “improve” everything. Treat yourself to a sin occasionally!
RECIPE FOR fUZZY iCED cHOCOLATE
If you leave out the milk (for those allergic) it was called a Chocolate Phosphate!
Sometimes when I renovate a home, it isn’t a full on gut renovation and the person or family is still living there (or I haven’t finished when their move in date arrived – stuff happens). It’s a two-way inconvenience on many levels but it has given me a window to see how others live in their own space with their own habits, traditions, rules etc.
One renovation in which people were living there while I worked I will always remember; It was a family of 6 which included grandparents. Grandpa was 94 years old and his lovely young wife was 90. They were quite a capable elderly couple although they did have a healthcare worker come in on occasion to “do things” with them.
Each day around 3 o’clock they would both sit at the island counter in the kitchen and have ice cream. They would hold each other’s hand. They would pass glances and words back and forth at each other like they were two kids in the corner store malt shop on Main Street stealing a few minutes of privacy after school let out. If their short-term memory was failing them I bet my last dollar their recall of those early wonder years are brilliantly triggered by this 3 o’clock ritual. That three o’clock ritual that included ice cream.
Sometimes, when the healthcare worker was not there and no one was minding their business they would sneak out of the house. They lived on riverside drive in Manhattan. They would always be found two blocks over on Broadway in the local ice cream parlor.
I started to think about ice cream’s role in the world that day I first saw them holding hands. I concluded that whenever one is having ice cream, at that moment, all is fine with the world. All is right in the universe. At the particular time that we are eating ice cream nothing is bad, nothing is wrong. If something was bad or wrong you would not, could not, be eating such a joyful thing — you wouldn’t have time for this thing that just had to be created for joyous moments only — you’d have to tend to the bad thing instead. Everyone is smiling when they eat ice cream, and if there isn’t a smile on some faces it’s because eating this delectable delight is serious business and you better back away while they’re eating it.
Fortunately, I have never been dumped to the extent where I flushed my cell phone down the toilet (or ripped the cord out of the wall back in the day) and plopped myself on the couch cradling a 5 gallon bucket of ice cream. But again, in that moment it is ice cream to the rescue! Now here, when being dumped, all is not right with the universe, but the rock we crawl under or the cave we hide in while we nurse our emotional wounds is stocked aplenty with the frozen confection, the gelatinous creamy bon-bon.
It is ice cream that gives us hope that in time all will be right with the world again. It was Ralph Waldo Emerson who once said “An ice cream cone can solve any problem — even if it’s only for a few minutes”.
Oliver L
I love that story. My nanny and granddaddy used to make what they called milk shakes every evening during the summer. It was actually ice cream and their favorite soda. Nanny’s was RC cola and Granddaddy’s was cream soda. They whizz them up in the blender then go set out in the back yard and enjoy them. Your story reminded me of that. Have a wonderful day and thank you for sharing your story. I totally enjoyed reading it.
Thank you vikki – I just hoped it wasn’t too inappropriatly long. It was a true story and I always think of it when I think of icecream. You have a nice day as well. Ollie
@ Vikki: What you described isn’t a milk shake, it’s an ice cream float. Milk shakes are usually just milk, ice cream and some sort of flavoring – rather like a malt only without the malt powder. I never could stand the flavor of malt powder.
Usually, however, a float isn’t made in a blender, it’s just ice cream scooped into a glass and the soda is poured over the top. Still good on a hot summer day, even though people are aghast that I would occasionally take in a coke! Hey, I’m almost 60 years old, I think if I decide a coke is going to kill me one minute faster, I’ll be fine without that minute. People get a little too carried away with *rules and regulations about food* rather than enjoying their foods – especially favorite treats. Life would be pretty dull without them.
I used to work at a restaurant that served these; the owners were from new york. I have been craving fizzy drinks, maybe I will try this!
Carbonated beverages are not good for you, any reason for using seltzer?
@ Chris Habgood: Since when are carbonated beverages not good for you?
Seltzer water is perfectly fine for humans to consume. Sweetened carbonated beverages are a whole ‘nother story, however. Sometimes I get heartburn no matter how carefully I try to eat, and when I do I mix a little baking soda with some tepid, filtered water and drink it. Basically that’s what seltzer is, except that some brands of seltzer have a little salt added – to me, that represents a good thing although the medical establishment tries to scare people away from salt.
Tonic water is a different thing entirely – has a little sugar (not the worst thing in the world) to quell the bitter taste of the quinine, which used to be used for malaria – wonder why it still isn’t being used? A good gin and tonic might be the best cure ever for malaria?!!
I will have to give this a try. I love old recipes.
Sounds yummy to me. If you added a scoop of iced cream it sounds just like the chocolate sodas we used to get when I was a kid at an old fashioned drug store. I’m definitely going to try it 🙂
I first had one of these in the fourth grade and they are pretty good. You can also make them with Almond Milk. I think we had them because they were in the book Harriet The Spy. 🙂