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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.
Sarah, as a teen I worked in an ice cream store. We made chocolate egg creams as follows: 1 ounce heavy cream, 1 shot of chocolate syrup, stir the two together very briskly, then as you pour in the soda water, continue to stir briskly. YUM! It’s an old NY/Jewish treat.
I live on the left coast, in Berkeley and we have this amazing place called Saul’s http://saulsdeli.com/ They have a pretty awesome chocolate egg cream soda that I get when I am in the area for the weekly Farmer’s market.
Ahhhhh…….Egg Creams! A New York Diner staple! I have so many memories of my early twenties living in NYC, too poor to afford more then diner food. It was during this time that I developed a love for egg creams. It has now been years since I’ve had one, but seeing your post makes me want to make one right now. And I like the use of raw milk in it 🙂
Drinking chocolate egg creams helped me stop my cola addiction. Here’s the recipe I used:
1-2 oz chocolate syrup
1-2 oz cold milk
8-10 oz very cold seltzer water
From – http://foodwishes.blogspot.com/2010/10/chocolate-egg-and-cream-fuggeddaboutit.html
A Boston egg cream!!! I love this too, even though I’m really young. I live in LA and a local deli has served it since before I can remember. I didn’t like it at first, but then I started to crave it on really hot days.
One really important factor here is to be open enough that you CAN strike up conversations with complete strangers…you never know what you might learn!
Hi Sarah
I thought WP foundation suggests not to give kids chocalate. You seemed to have relaxed your stance on chocalate abit. Any thoughts?
We called this drink a Spider however we put a scoop of homemade icecream in the bottom ( maybe chocalate flavour) and fill it up with soda water
It’s called an Egg Cream because the white foam on the top looks like frothy egg whites…
I’ve never had an egg cream either, not something you see a lot of down here in Tx. But I have heard of them, but truth be told it sounds nasty to me. But one of these days I’ll have to give it a try. I’m pretty adventurous where food is concerned, but drinking something new is a whole new ballgame. Don’t ask me why but it is.. Thank you for sharing your story and recipe. I’m one of those people that starts the conversation with the person behind me in line. I get bored very easily and need some one to talk too. I’ll pretty much talk to anyone. You never know when you might bring a little brightness into someone else’s life.
Take care, God bless you with health, love and peace.
@ Vikki: I agree. Visiting while in a waiting line is the best part of going shopping. I don’t get out very often (due to having my business in my home for over 12 hours each day) so when I do I’m a *visit-er* ! I have met oodles of interesting people, and I can always tell when people are grateful for the banter and when they just want you to go away, so I take my cue after the first sentence.
This totally reminded me of cherry chocolate dr. pepper. In my past life, ha ha. Before that, I mixed chocolate with milk and different kinds of cola drinks. The kids and I thought it was weird sounding, but they tasted so good. This post is perfect, as it’s hot today, and while I usually only drink water and coconut water, I felt the need for something more. Perfect time for this, I’m on it. Mine will be raw milk, some chocolate, I may experiement with cocoa, and perrier. Aiden, 3 1/2 will love it I’m sure. Thank you!
No one remembers Tay Zonday singing the cherry chocolate rain commercial? So out of character for him, it came from his original song chocolate rain, but he sings many other songs. Here’s the link for that, erase it if you think it’s a bit too racy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2x2W12A8Qow