Brooklyn Egg Cream, the Soda Fountain Drink
A fizzy, frothy chocolate drink, with neither egg nor cream despite its name, made with seltzer water. Sweet, slightly bitter from cocoa, served ice-cold in a straight glass.
A fizzy, frothy chocolate drink, with neither egg nor cream despite its name, made with seltzer water. Sweet, slightly bitter from cocoa, served ice-cold in a straight glass.
What's great about this country is that it invented an idea: the rich buy the same things as the poor. You can watch TV and see the Coke, and you know the President drinks the same Coke, and so do you. No money buys you a better one. A ten-cent drink at the drugstore counter is exactly that: the most beautiful, because everyone has the same. You drink it standing up, and you are anyone's equal.
- •Chocolate syrup — a good dash (sweet-bitter base)
- •Very cold milk — a glass bottom (body)
- •Seltzer water — to fill (fizz and foam)
Brooklyn Egg Cream, the Soda Fountain Drink
A fizzy, frothy chocolate drink, with neither egg nor cream despite its name, made with seltzer water. Sweet, slightly bitter from cocoa, served ice-cold in a straight glass.
Why this dish? Warhol worshipped the standardized drinks of mass America — he wrote that the president's Coke is the same as the tramp's. The egg cream, an iconic and cheap soda from the New York counters of his artist youth, embodies this same 'democracy of taste'.
What's great about this country is that it invented an idea: the rich buy the same things as the poor. You can watch TV and see the Coke, and you know the President drinks the same Coke, and so do you. No money buys you a better one. A ten-cent drink at the drugstore counter is exactly that: the most beautiful, because everyone has the same. You drink it standing up, and you are anyone's equal.
Ingredients (period version)
- Chocolate syrup — a good dash (sweet-bitter base)
- Very cold milk — a glass bottom (body)
- Seltzer water — to fill (fizz and foam)
Ingredients
- Chocolate syrup — 3 tbsp (sweet-bitter flavor)
- Very cold whole milk — 60 ml (richness)
- Very cold sparkling water (from a siphon if possible) — 200 ml (bubbles and white foam)
Method
- Pour very cold milk into the bottom of a tall straight glass.
- Add chocolate syrup without stirring yet.
- Forcefully spray the sparkling water, aiming at the center, to create a thick white foam.
- Stir briefly with a spoon and drink immediately, well chilled.
How it was made : The egg cream is an institution of New York soda fountains (late 19th-mid 20th century): a chocolate soda made with pressurized seltzer, sold for a few cents in drugstores and candy stores, accessible to all.
The contemporary twist : Serve it in a series, several identical glasses lined up — the pop drink par excellence, multiplied like a silkscreen.
Sources : Andy Warhol, The Philosophy of Andy Warhol (1975), passage on Coca-Cola · History of New York soda fountains
Andy Warhol · Charactorium