Introduction: Brooklyn Egg Cream - Drink

This is the quintessential New York fountain drink. Contrary to its name, it has no eggz and really no cream. An excellent accompaniment to your Instructables Robot Burger - Roboburger.

It is an art to make one and even harder to find the seltzer bottles with the siphon head to recreate that nostalgic soda fountain memory.

Step 1: Raid the Fridge...

For this you need:

  • Seltzer or plain carbonated water. You may be lucky and have one of those bar drink soda chargers which use the CO2 cartridges and pressurize the dispenser. Search for the instructables that show you how to charge your own soda water.
  • milk, try not to use skim or lowfat as it does not give the desired result.
  • chocolate syrup - Made in Brooklyn, New York, Fox's U-Bet brand syrup is the only one you should use ( not an endorsement of any kind but a statement of fact. ) OK, you may get away with lesser brands.
  • a Coca-Cola style fountain drink glass or any tall glass/slim mug and a long spoon to stir the drink.

Step 2: Soda Jerk...

If you carbon date people like *cough*Goodhart*cough* who may have actually sat at a soda fountain counter, the term soda jerk refers to the fountain drink operator who had to jerk the handle to dispense the soda/pop. It's a good thing.

So, pour about a third to a half glass full of milk.

Now shoot a few squirts of syrup into the mix.

Pour the seltzer to fill the rest of the glass. You might want to pour from shoulder height into the glass to simulate the seltzer coming out of the fountain. A nice head of foam should form or as those fancy latte-sipping fools would exclaim "a luxurious crema has promulgated at its apogee."

CAUTION: This is similar to the volcano science fair project. Lava may spill depending on how much liquids are reacted.

Expect something similar to a mentos/diet Coke reaction but not as violent.

Stir quicky so that you have a nice even chocolate drink on the bottom with a nice white foamy head on top but not too much to dissipate all the gas or carbonation in the drink.

Step 3: Yum!

Drink immediately as the foamy head is the most interesting part of the drink. But not too fast or you may need to burp. You should not use a straw to drink this as the "milk moustache" is de rigeur.

You can add the syrup first, then the milk, then the seltzer. You can also add the syrup after you've mixed the milk and seltzer. Experiment. Vary the ratio or amount of ingredients to taste. Vanilla and strawberry flavored syrups are also available but the chocolate flavor egg cream is the classic.

Enjoy! Make more than one!