Ode To The Egg Cream

The mythical origins of the egg cream

At some time, at some point, the egg cream was invented — it’s just unclear when and where that was. Some believe that it was invented in the 1880s, when a Yiddish actor asked a Lower East Side restaurant to make him a “chocolate et creme,” a drink similar to something he had tasted on a trip to Paris. Others believe that it was invented in the early 1900s by Louis Auster, a Jewish immigrant who opened a candy shop in Brooklyn. Rumor has it, he’d sell 3,000 egg creams a day. Louis’ recipe was top secret — especially how he made (or where he sourced) his chocolate syrup.  But once Fox’s U-Bet was invented in Brooklyn in 1903, it quickly became the go-to chocolate syrup for egg cream makers.

What is an egg cream?

An egg cream is essentially a chocolate milk soda. It’s a simple combination of whole milk, chocolate syrup, and seltzer. But what really makes an egg cream an egg cream is that signature froth, which comes from vigorously mixing the ingredients with a metal spoon until a head of tight bubbles rise to the surface. When done correctly, the drink has a magical balance of creaminess and bubbliness — a dreamy mouthfeel that doesn’t last long. Egg creams are meant to be drinken quickly; that doesn’t mean you need to chug, but leave one to sit for more than 10 minutes or so, and the chocolate and soda will separate, which is the main reason why egg creams have been impossible to bottle or can.

How to make an egg cream

Although the recipe is fairly simple, several tricks of the trade can make your egg cream taste like it’s straight from the soda fountain. “It starts with ice-cold seltzer,” says Freeman. Brooklyn Farmacy makes their seltzer in-house, but as long as your sparkling water has spent a good amount of time in the refrigerator, you’re golden. High-quality whole milk is essential, and anything thinner like 2% or skim milk won’t whip up properly. Creamy non-dairy milks like oat milk may work, but it’s very possible you’ll hear Louis Auster turning over in his grave if you choose this route.

Fox’s U-Bet chocolate syrup is still the essential brand for egg creams — no other chocolate syrup is able to dissolve into milk as well (looking at you, Hershey’s). —— Amelia Schwartz

Learn how to make Brooklyn Farmacy’s classic egg cream