"Egg Cream" because in the late 1800s, there were already many chocolate fountain/dessert drinks using actual eggs (e.g. 'Egg Brin'), and Auster wanted to capitalize on the name. Another plausable answer comes from the age of the egg cream. The first version of the egg cream did, in fact, use egg and cream, but due to the food limitations in WWII, eggs and cream were droped from the cheap soda's recipe. The most likely explanation for the name, however, relates to the fact that the term "egg cream" was a very common term in the past (especially in the United States) for beaten egg whites, and the foam on the top of the beverage resembles these.
Though almost universally made with chocolate syrup, they were sometimes requested with other flavors, especially vanilla or strawberry.
The egg cream is almost exclusively a fountain drink; although there have been several attempts to bottle it, none have been wholly successful, as its fresh taste and characteristic head requires mixing of the ingredients just before drinking. The drink could be described as a "poor man's ice cream soda," as it has a similar overall flavor, but traditionally sold for only a slight premium over an ordinary fountain soda.
Similar beverages
Other sweet soda- and milk-based beverages include the Vietnamese soda sua hot ga, a beverage prepared with sweetened condensed milk, egg yolk, and soda water. |
