hello and welcome to lofty pursuits in public 
displays the confection in Tallahassee Florida  
I'm Greg today we're gonna take a step back 
from candy making and we're gonna cover the  
New York egg cream a chocolate milk and seltzer 
soda that contains neither egg nor cream since  
March 15th is national egg cream day we thought 
this was the perfect time to do a video on an  
egg cream and of course an egg cream is one of 
those perfect drinks that can only be had at a  
soda fountain lofty pursuits is more than just a 
candy store we have a full-service soda fountain  
in the middle of it too we also sell toys we also 
serve breakfast of course the story of a New York  
egg cream begins in New York City the egg cream 
comes from a mixture of theatre soda fountain  
history in New York City so let's go to where soda 
started in New York I'm standing on the corner of  
water and Wall Street a heart of and behind me 
was a coffeehouse Foldit on top it was a place  
of financial trade it was a place where all sorts 
of business took place as an upscale restaurant of  
its time and it was also the location of the 
first place he could get effervesce of water  
that was man-made in New York City before this 
point all the carbonated water you can get yeah  
either how to go to a natural spring the naturally 
carbonated it or you had to get it bottled in with  
that corks bottles like champagne is now but 
the odds of it getting to you is difficult it  
was very very expensive to some entrepreneurs 
felt they could man make this expensive drink  
and put it in the heart of the trading district 
of New York City at an 1809 that's exactly what  
they did their technology wasn't perfect and the 
product didn't catch on at least not at first but  
every carbonated drink including the egg cream can 
trace its roots back to this very location back in  
1800 and while man-made carbonated water existed 
in other cities in other places it expanded like  
crazy in New York City and that was because of 
st. Patrick's Cathedral so the story of the urge  
of the egg cream has a couple of parts part one 
where it started part two why it started and it  
started in New York City because of this place 
st. Patrick's Cathedral you see st. Patrick's  
Cathedral is under construction from of the first 
decade of the 1800s to about 1850 and during that  
time they made tons and tons of marble dust that 
they had to get rid of well some entrepreneurs  
realized if he dissolved marble dust into sulfuric 
acid it would produce carbon dioxide and that's  
how the carbonated the sodas because this thing 
was under construction soda water was cheap and  
New York City became the center of the development 
of the American soda pop now the next part of this  
is downtown on Second Avenue and that's where 
the egg cream started and it started because  
of the theater district that was down there 
now this theater here on Second Avenue is  
important this used to be in a sphere stop isn't 
playing here four years of the 90s you come here  
for performance done in the language Yiddish a 
traditional Jewish language that was very popular  
for theater in this Jewish neighborhood and there 
were theaters like this all over this part of New  
York there also lots of them in Paris France 
and one performance boris thomashefsky who came  
backwards and forwards between the two countries 
to perform came here after having a drink in paris  
that he wanted to have duplicated and for that 
drink to be duplicated he went across the street
most parts of the country the soda fountain 
tradition is connected with the drugstore  
condition or the department store tradition 
but in New York City soda pumps will stand  
alone in there with both candy shops over this 
unique retail thing that later developed into  
the bodega or the corner store here they were in 
every neighborhood they had a soda fountain they  
sold ice cream they sold eggs they sold newspapers 
they sold cigarettes they sold lots of things in  
season when I was growing up there was one near my 
house called shot ashes it sold toys or yo-yos or  
kites actually the existence of that candy stores 
why lofty pursuits is what it is the combination  
of ice-cream and toys and candy were directly 
influenced from the New York tradition of the  
soda phone and right over here Louis store had one 
in the 1890s and starting the 1890s he developed  
the chocolate syrup that he made an egg cream out 
of and that's the New York egg cream this is where  
it was developed right here on the corner of 7th 
Street and 2nd Avenue here in New York before I go  
on let me point out that the origin of the egg 
cream is in a lot of dispute there were drinks  
in the day made with actual eggs and cream perhaps 
this is a cheaper version of it it could come from  
the word act because it means pure and Yiddish but 
the story I like is that this Boris the actor came  
across the street looking for a drink called a 
chocolate at creme which is something he picked up  
in Paris and if you say that with a bad Brooklyn 
accent you're asking for a chocolate egg cream  
and Louise's store had competitors one block 
down was a gem spa and it's still standing you  
can even find another candy shop just a couple 
of walks down st. Mark's cauldre's on Avenue A  
that makes a great egg cream now then gem spas 
kind of important for its name spas in its name  
the old soda fountains actually were considered 
health food stores you were getting the seltzer  
water because was man-made natural spring water 
and for the spring water what spring did you want  
they each had different minerals in it scientists 
had figured out what minerals were in the springs  
and they'd added to your bubbly water to give 
you supposedly the same health qualities that  
you'd get to going to Classic Springs like Spa 
in Belgium and seltzer in Germany you may also  
recognize a gem spa because it was the backdrop 
for that classic photo of the New York Dolls and  
if you don't know who the New York Dolls are 
Google that would lead into punk and glam rock  
and their great band now Louis store made his own 
syrup and it was a secret recipe took with him to  
his grave but it was very very successful he ended 
up opening five candy stores between Brooklyn and  
Manhattan and he made its fortune that way for 
those of you know egg creams he may be asking  
why I haven't mentioned Fox's you bet to chocolate 
syrup a lot of people think that without you bet  
it isn't an egg cream but the fact is for most 
of time it was a great egg cream and was made  
without you bet the soda fountains were tiny 
mom-and-pop operations and they bought their  
syrup from whoever usually was closest there were 
neighbors in the neighborhoods who made it and  
sold it to three or four soda fountains there 
were a couple of distributors who went around  
and then there was a man who said I think I can 
take over the soda industry in New York City and  
I think I can make money off it and in America we 
call that racketeering and he started a racket a  
soda fountains syrup racket his name was Harry 
s Dulwich and he was a lawyer who said that he  
could make these syrup companies a lot of money 
there were five big syrup companies in New York  
City and he got him all but one under his belt 
saying he was going to divide up territories  
and put all the little people out of business 
some stores he got by threatening them other  
tribute is he destroyed by saying their products 
were unsafe a lot of places he just followed them  
around with a truck and he made sure he sold 
the syrup for half the price of the other one  
so he put him out of business because they 
could never make syrup that cheap he lost  
money until they went out of business and this my 
friends is called racketeering and it's illegal  
he charged the syrup makers that survived the 
ones who worked with $6 a truckload for every  
truckload they delivered of syrup in the area 
and they divided New York City into territories  
so none of the syrup makers were competing with 
each other so they could drive the price of the  
syrup up the stores that made their own syrups 
like Louis stores were not affected by this but  
a lot of places it affected tremendously and 
when the court case happened soda fountain  
companies the major syrup distributors in New 
York City shut down one after another people  
went to prison there was only one survivor 
that's Fox's you see Fox's isn't necessarily  
the chocolate syrup of the egg cream it's the 
last man standing of a racketeering situation  
that they participated in and they were actually 
given court orders not to compete in certain ways  
in the soda fountain industry now if you ask me 
where to go in New York City for a good egg cream  
I would either say raise on Avenue a right off 
st. Mark's and that's because it reminds me of  
a soda fountain of when I was a kid or you can go 
to the Lexington Avenue candy store that's a step  
back in time they'd be continuously operated since 
1925 and then the only old place that still makes  
their own fountain syrups and they make their own 
chocolate syrup to make an excellent two egg cream  
it's the place I go when I want to get a treat in 
New York City now it's time for us to make an egg  
cream and we've got to start with the syrup this 
recipe will make about 35 centimeters or 12 fluid  
ounces of syrup enough for a couple of good egg 
creams and we're giving you two recipes here a  
simple one that I'm using in this video that was 
designed around ingredients you probably have in  
your kitchen and another one by Anton Osito which 
is a wonderful recipe from his book make your own  
soda and you should check that out there's a 
link to that in the description too into a pot  
wetting the sugar the water and the salt and 
we're stirring them all to dissolve the sugar  
and water we'll make a simple syrup the salt is 
just there to make the cocoa taste a little better
like most soda fountains recipes these things 
are affected by air pressure and temperature  
you're gonna have to play with us a little 
bit you may need to have your syrup cook a  
little longer or put a little bit more 
cocoa in it to your taste but I think  
you're gonna find this simple recipe just 
the basis of a very good egg cream and once  
you've tried the base recipe please feel 
free to experiment it had a few teaspoons  
of chocolate chips or a square of baker's 
chocolate to this or do something else and  
if you find a good new invention please post 
the recipe here in the comments of this video
it took a few minutes for this pot of water 
to hit a rolling boil and now we're adding  
the cocoa powder it's very important to have 
a whisk and to whisk this in you need to get  
it in completely and evenly sprinkle it lightly 
on the top you have two goals here one you don't  
want the cocoa powder to clump and two the cocoa 
powder actually needs to cook in the boiling water  
for a bit make sure you maintain a boil for at 
least a minute minute and a half you can actually  
go too far and burn the chocolate so I would 
recommend not going over a minute and a half  
let the syrup cool a bit maybe to 110 degrees 
in other words you know warm temperature from a  
sink type temperature and then add the vanilla 
extract if you added too soon it's not gonna  
work really well it's gonna burn off and you're 
not going to have the benefits of the vanilla
if you didn't whisk it well you may have some 
clumps so you may want to use a strainer at  
this stage but pour it off into another 
container I'm using a plastic container  
so I had to let this cool quite a bit before I 
poured it in or at risk melting the plastic if  
using the glass container you can pour it 
in a little warmer in any event chill this  
and it should thicken up and you should 
end up with a wonderful chocolate syrup
you
to make a great egg cream everything has to be 
really cold I've kept the milk and the Seltzer  
in a bucket of ice until it got particularly 
frigid and I'm using some whole milk that came  
from a local dairy and I'm putting in about four 
ounces of whole milk and then I'm filling up the  
glass almost all the way with seltzer if you don't 
have a device like a SodaStream I recommend small  
bottles of Seltzer so that when you open it 
up it'll be particularly carbonated if the  
Seltzer goes flat the egg cream does too this 
is where it's important to have a round sided  
glass I'm going to put it in about two ounces of 
the chocolate syrup and then I'm going to scrape  
the sides of it up this does two things it makes 
a Whitehead on top and it mixes the chocolate  
evenly from the top to the bottom if you've done 
it right you get a thick white head on top of  
a dark chocolate soda the whiteheads should be 
separate from the soda the head itself will be  
a little bit bitter because it has no sweetener in 
it and a little contrast with the sweet chocolate  
perfectly and all that's left is to enjoy it 
and you have to enjoy it quickly because egg  
creams don't last more than a couple of minutes 
so they're one of these drinks you really have  
to get at a soda fountain or make for yourself 
it's not something you can save it's something  
you have to enjoy in the moment and you know 
that you've made it right if there's a little  
bit of head left that's passed on and survived 
you drinking the egg cream it's sort of the final  
test and it all comes back around to that little 
candy store that was owned by Ben shottish in my  
neighborhood where I used to buy toys and comic 
books because one day I was hiding behind the  
comic spinner trying to read as many comic books 
as I could before bed and shottish threw me out  
and he was having an argument with a lady about 
the best way to make an egg cream and they must  
have made a ton of egg creams that day going back 
and forth and discussing quite argumentatively how  
low should be made and I read atomic comics but 
this showed me a couple of things one people are  
passionate about their egg creams and two part of 
the art of an egg cream is arguing about the best  
way to make it because it was afraid of getting 
kicked out of Ben's store I paid close attention  
to the conversation and I still remember his tips 
on making an egg cream now many years later about  
three years ago a wonderful couple named Beverley 
and dr. Leonard Kane came into my shop and the two  
of them complimented me on my egg creams they 
said they hadn't had such a good one since a  
little candy store closed down in Brooklyn that 
was downstairs from where they lived it ends up  
they lived over bhenchod ashes shop and I was 
being compared with what I considered the gold  
standard of egg creams and I still smile about 
this to that to this day and because of that I  
started National egg cream day and it's celebrated 
on March 15th then cherish's birthday and I ask  
you to celebrate it with me by going out and 
getting an egg cream or making an egg cream  
for yourself with you bet syrup you can buy in the 
store any chocolate syrup or some syrup that you  
make yourself and if you find a good syrup recipe 
make sure you post it in the comments here thank  
you for watching our video you can always find our 
candies at www.pd.net we're located right off i-10  
and Tallahassee if you ever want to by please come 
and visit we make candy on a regular basis and you  
can get a great New York egg cream or breakfast 
or play some games we are a toy store - we're  
an interesting shop I subscribe to us here on 
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and thank you for visiting lofty pursuits we hope 
you have a good egg cream day Greg's bowties are  
provided by Ty's calm purveyors of great Ty's yep 
we got a bowties sponsorship and a good one too
you