When I was growing up in Brooklyn many soda fountain shops made a delicious tasting chocolate soda called egg cream soda. As a child, I didn’t like or eat eggs. When I first heard the name of this fountain drink my nose wrinkled into a smelly twist.

It was my friend, Rivka, who talked about going to the soda fountain shop to get an egg cream soda all the time. I remember how she described the chocolaty taste of it each time she had one but she couldn’t tell me how it was made. Because she had an allowance every week, it was her favorite soda to buy. I told her that the next time I made money from doing errands I was going to get one too.
One night, I laid out all of my coins on my bed and counted out 15 cents. I knew I had enough money to finally get that egg cream soda. When I saw Rivka the following morning, I told her I had enough money to go to the fountain shop to get one that afternoon. We did.

Mr. Stein was the soda shop owner. He had a long scruffy curly beard. He wore a fisherman’s cap on his head, a white shirt with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows and suspenders. He was always at the door. He made sure that kids had money before they walked into his shop. Up until that day, I had only purchased candy sticks or gum. Today was different. I was going to try an egg cream soda.

What is an egg cream soda?

It’s milk, seltzer, and chocolate syrup. It contains no eggs or cream. Much later, some ice cream shops started adding vanilla syrup. The authentic version doesn’t contain vanilla and U-Bet chocolate syrup is what should be used. Egg Cream soda is traditionally associated with Brooklyn.

The egg cream is almost exclusively a soda fountain drink. Although there have been several attempts to bottle it, none have been wholly successful, as its fresh taste and characteristic frothy head requires mixing of the ingredients just before drinking.

Soon after my first tasty egg cream soda, my parents decided to have bottled milk and seltzer delivered to our front door. The milkman placed them in a metal canister at 4:00 a.m. I could hear the bottles rattle as they were placed inside. The milk was very cold on wintery days. Egg creams became a tasty treat for my sisters and me to make after dinner. Eventually, the egg cream soda was replaced by my next favorite childhood drink – the Ice Cream Soda.
2014©written by Isadora

According to wikipedia, the origin of the name “egg cream” is a subject of debate. One theory is that grade “A” milk was used in its creation, leading to the name “a chocolate A cream”, thus sounding like ‘egg’ cream. Stanley Auster, the grandson of the beverage’s alleged inventor, has been quoted as saying that the origins of the name are lost in time. One commonly accepted origin is that “Egg” is a corruption of the German (also found in Yiddish) word echt (“genuine” or “real”) and this was a “good cream”. It may also have been called an “Egg Cream” because in the late 19th century, there were already many chocolate fountain/dessert drinks using actual eggs (e.g. ‘Egg Brin’) and Auster wanted to capitalize on the name.

How to Make an Egg Cream ….

Memoir Madness – Krista challenges us to write about a memory – click Memoir Madness to join in –

Memory… is the diary that we all carry about with us.
–Oscar Wilde

Every Tuesday, Frizz, offers the ‘A to Z’ challenge. He’s walking us step by step through the alphabet. This week is the Letter E – click on Frizz Alphabet Challenge