New York Chocolate Egg Cream. This classic New York City drink is made in minutes with only three ingredients: U-bet Chocolate Syrup, ice cold milk and freshly opened ice cold seltzer water. This drink is bubbly and so refreshing; you’ll want to make it again and again.
Is it a milkshake? No. Frozen hot chocolate? No. Ice cream float? No. This, my friends, is a New York Chocolate Egg Cream.
If your extended family didn’t grow up in NYC in 1930s-1960s, you might have no idea what the heck this is.
For other classic New York City recipes, try my New York Crumb Cake, Black and White Cookies and Brooklyn Blackout Cake.
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What is an Egg Cream?!
A Chocolate Egg Cream is a classic soda fountain drink that used to be served in candy stores and is still served at select places today! The name itself is very confusing because contains neither eggs nor cream.
How did it get this odd name?
There are lots of theories out there. According to an article by Rebecca Paul, most confirm the drink originated on the Lower East Side among Eastern European Jewish Immigrants. She goes on to say that one theory is that “egg cream“ is an Americanization of “echt keem” which is Yiddish for, “pure sweetness.”
Another theory states that A-grade milk was used to make the drink and the name went from Chocolate A Cream to Chocolate Egg Cream due to people mishearing “A” as “egg.”
Paul mentions a third possibility where a Yiddish theater pioneer asked a New York soda jerk to make a Parisian drink called “chocolate et creme,” and the name was lost in translation.
She then points out that Food historian, Andrew Smith, mentions that in the 1800s there was a popular drink made with raw eggs, cream, chocolate syrup mixed into soda water and the Egg Cream that we know, (without the eggs and cream), was made in the poorer neighborhoods where eggs and cream were too expensive to be used in a beverage.
But Rebecca Paul states the most popular theory is that a man by the name of Louis Auster who owned a candy shop on the lower east side, created the drink by accident and it became so popular that he sold thousands per day around 1900.
Ingredient Notes
A Chocolate Egg Cream Contains 3 Ingredients:
- Brooklyn Fox’s U-bet Chocolate Syrup (it has to be this syrup)
- Ice cold milk
- Ice cold seltzer water.
My uncle will tell you that any old seltzer water just won’t do and you need the old fashioned seltzer water. He told me a company by the name of Brooklyn Seltzer Boys, is the last remaining seltzer shop in the city. They actually deliver old-fashioned siphon bottles directly to your house. Their website even claims that they use triple filtered NYC tap water.
At any rate... fuggedaboutit, Uncle Jerry, I’m not going to purchase seltzer from this company just for the sake of making this Chocolate Egg Cream...even though that is super cool. He may or may not know more than I since he used to make them for the kitchen and wait staff at the restaurants he worked at in his early years.
How To Make a Chocolate Egg Cream!
Step 1: Freeze the Glass
We want to use a 12oz glass and it’s best if this glass is frozen ahead of time. It helps keep the drink super cold.
Step 2: Add the Syrup
Add about 1 inch of U-bet chocolate syrup to the bottom of the glass.
Step 3: Add Milk
Next, pour a little over ¼ cup of ice cold milk on top of the chocolate syrup. Once you fill the milk over the chocolate syrup, the glass should be just under half full. DO NOT MIX the chocolate syrup and the milk yet! Very important!
Step 4: Get the Seltzer and Spoon Ready
Now, make sure you have a long spoon and your unopened seltzer water close by. You will need to pour the seltzer and immediately stir. The seltzer needs to be fresh because you want it so so bubbly, as though it came from a soda fountain.
Step 5: Pour and Mix Aggressively
Open your seltzer and immediately pour it very aggressively into the glass. You want to have it come crashing down into the glass like the jet of a soda fountain would do. This will help make it bubbly which is soooooo important to a chocolate egg cream.
Fill it till the foam comes just above the top of the glass and some might spill over the top. That’s fine!
Immediately start stirring vigorously with the long spoon. I swirl and also I chop up and down. You want to get that nice white head of foam at the top. I like my foam white...some say it should be brown. If you want it brown, take some liquid from the bottom and pour it on top of the foam. Stick a straw in there and enjoy right away. If you let it sit, that foam head disappears.
There you have it. Hope you guys learned something new today about a drink that’s a favorite in my fam. New York Chocolate Egg Creams are truly refreshing, delicious and definitely worth making at home! Enjoy!
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📖 Recipe
New York Chocolate Egg Cream
Ingredients
- 3 Tablespoons U-bet Chocolate Syrup
- ¼ Cup Ice cold milk
- ¼ Cup Ice cold seltzer water just opened
Instructions
- Take a cold 12oz class out of the freezer. I advise having it in the freezer ahead of time because this drink is best ice cold.
- Add about 1 inch of U-bet chocolate syrup to the bottom of the glass.
- Pour a little over ¼ cup of ice cold milk on top of the chocolate syrup. Once you fill the milk over the chocolate syrup, the glass should be just under half full. DO NOT MIX the chocolate syrup and the milk yet! Very important!
- Next make sure you have a long spoon and your unopened seltzer water close by. You will need to pour the seltzer and immediately stir, so everything must be close. It needs to be unopened seltzer because you want it so so bubbly, as though it came from a soda fountain.
- Open your seltzer and immediately pour it very aggressively into the glass. You want to have it come crashing down into the glass like the jet of a soda fountain would do. This will help make it bubbly which is soooooo important to a chocolate egg cream.
- Fill it till the foam comes just above the top of the glass, some foam might spill over the top. That’s fine!
- Immediately start stirring vigorously with the long spoon. I swirl and also chop up and down. You want to get that nice white head of foam at the top. I like my foam white some say it should be brown. If you want it brown, take some liquid from the bottom and pour it on top of the foam. Stick a straw in there and enjoy right away! If you let it sit that foam head disappears.
Illume Eltanin
I have only one disagreement here:
The head of an egg cream must always be white; if it's brown it is a chocolate soda. Made with only syrup and seltzer is a chocolate phosphate. And just seltzer is a New York Plain.
Lee
I actually agree! Where I am from they only make the head white but I was reading some places do them chocolate.
Steve
I was raised in Brooklyn. I really missed these. Thanks for sharing. Made my night!
Mike G
Does any Metro New Yorkers remember a “ Spice Cake” round with chocolate cake and chocolate on the top?
It had a different taste!
Billy
My roommate and I made this last night! So delicious. Much love from Brooklyn!!
Lee
Thank you!