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What is Chocolate Syrup?
Perhaps your ice cream is a looking a little plain with nothing to top it, or you’d like an egg cream? Either one is glorified by adding chocolate syrup, a mixture of cocoa, sugar, usually high fructose corn syrup, and a variety of other ingredients depending upon the brand. Hershey’s® was one of the first brands to introduce the syrup in the US, starting with a fountain version for adding to egg creams, sodas or milk shakes in 1926, and then producing a canned form for home use two years later. Other companies like Bosco® soon joined in the fray, as chocolate syrup became a popular addition at home and at soda fountains and diners.
There were most likely earlier versions of chocolate syrup, thin glazes of chocolate that might have topped cakes or desserts of various sorts. But companies mass-producing the syrup resulted in huge popularity, and the various brands were used for anything from ice cream toppers to delicious chocolate milk, made simply by mixing chocolate syrup and milk together. Since the syrup was already sweetened, it made making things like hot cocoa or cold chocolate milk much easier. You didn’t have to mess with trying to sweeten cocoa, and thus it cut down on preparation time.
Today’s chocolate syrups come in numerous different types. For instance, you can get ones that instantly form a shell when they come into contact with ice cream to produce a hard chocolate topping. Others are low fat, dietetic, or have additional flavors added. They keep for a good long time in the refrigerator too, unlike the early cans. Thus if you can be sparing with your chocolate syrup, which may be a difficult thing to do, it will usually keep for a few months.
You can’t pretend that chocolate syrup is actually good for you. In fact, as scientists learn more about the negative effects of high fructose corn syrup, it’s quite debatable whether chocolate syrup should be consumed regularly. Still, in competition with other drink mixes like Ovaltine®, some chocolate syrups today are fortified with vitamins and/or minerals. It may make sense for the underweight child to use these, particularly if it raises milk consumption. On the other hand, fortification does not reduce calories for those watching their waistlines. Like any sweet thing, chocolate syrup may be best for occasional indulgence only.
If you don’t have syrup at home, and can’t get to the store, most cookbooks, and certainly the Internet, have recipes for making the syrup at home. It’s usually a combination of white sugar, cocoa powder, vanilla, and milk or butter. Freshly made hot syrup provides a fantastic hot fudge topping for homemade ice cream, or many would argue, just about anything else you can think of!
Discussion Comments
My favorite treat was to make a mocha shake with chocolate syrup. My parents wouldn't let me use leftover brewed coffee, but I could put a package of instant coffee in the blender, along with the chocolate ice cream, milk and chocolate syrup. It was pretty stout, but I got used to the coffee flavor and couldn't wait to get home to make another one after school.
Now, I like to add dark chocolate syrup to my gourmet coffee sometimes. I've also tried white chocolate mocha syrup, but I think that's an acquired taste. It was a little too sweet for me.
I always thought that chocolate syrup made the best chocolate milk, because it usually dissolved completely into the milk without any residue at the bottom of the glass. My mom bought cans of the dry chocolate milk mixes, but the powder would usually collect at the bottom and never quite disappear. A couple squirts of dark chocolate syrup, however, would work every time.
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