THINGS.
- Who the heck knew tennis is so beautiful?!?? I went to the U.S. Open last week and am a changed woman.
- Yom Kippur. Are you ready? I am ready. Well, as ready as one can be.
- The newsletter! Have you signed up yet? Right this way.
Yay. Now let’s talk about egg cream.
I love egg creams for two reasons: 1) They’re delicious, and 2) they contain neither eggs nor cream, which makes them an enigma of sorts. If they weren’t already a quintessential New York THING by way of, you know, geography, this fact would make them so.
Which brings me to a third reason for loving them: They’re quintessentially New York!
For once in my life, i’m going to keep this post relatively short (really) (REALLY) so we can get to the heart of the matter (the egg creams themselves!). Below, I’ve included a shopping list as well as some instructions for set-up so you can hop to it. I’m thinking this would be an altogether lovely addition to any dinner party, birthday shindig, Shabbat din, Valentine’s soirée, really extra weeknight dinner, or old-timey-themed gathering of just about any kind.
Find all the details after the jump, and have fun with it!
DIY Egg Cream Bar
What You’ll Need:
The Basics
- Milk (whole milk, skim milk, oat milk, whatever! Anything goes, but egg creams are traditionally made with whole.)
- Chocolate syrup (U-Bet is the classic syrup used in old-fashioned egg creams, and it works well because of its thin, runnier texture. You can, of course, go with Hershey’s or another syrup if that’s all you’ve got! I went with U-Bet Chocolate, U-Bet Coffee, U-Bet Strawberry, and Hershey’s Caramel. U-Bet Vanilla is another option.)
- Seltzer (Go ahead and use an old-fashioned syphon bottle if you’re able to get your hands on it! Otherwise, individual seltzer bottles (mini Pellegrino / Perrier works!) are probably the easiest way to give each guest a chance to make their own egg cream—maximum, “just-opened” fizz is crucial, though. The Coconut La Croix bottles are just so cute and I thought their flavor would work well here, so that’s why I went with those.)
- Tall glasses (These are the ones I went with because I thought they were just too cute to pass up, and they came with the classic long metal spoons, which I needed for stirring. Which brings me to…)
- Long metal spoons, for aggressive and effective stirring.
- Tiny u-bet labels (optional, but soooo cute! Find a printable and instructions here, and note that I affixed these labels to each syrup bottle with grey baker’s twine
Optional Extras!
- Syrup bottles for the syrup options (these would work beautifully too)
- Vintage-inspired milk bottles for the milk options
- Paper straws
- Rock candy swizzle sticks, to dress things up
- Table runner or table cloth (if only to keep your space clean!)
- Fresh flowers
- Serving boards to house each “category” of item (milk with milk, syrup with syrup, etc.) and keep things looking tidy
- Kahlua, rum, amaretto…I didn’t include any alcohol, but that would be a fun addition.
Set-Up Tips
- Start by arranging your bar into three distinct “stations” like the ones pictured here. As I mentioned above, I like the idea of using serving platters beneath each station to keep everything looking tidy and cohesive.
- Note that if you’re going by the traditional egg cream recipe, the visual order of “ingredients” should probably go: milk, then seltzer, then syrup. But if you feel like confusing everyone, follow my lead and do it ANY OLD WAY YOU PLEASE. (It was just so pretty when I placed everything this way. So sue me.)
- Add fresh flowers, a table runner, and whatever other decorative elements make you happy.
- One easy way to direct traffic at make-your-own / DIY bars like these is to put the empty cups wherever you want the “starting line” of all the action to be. This is probably fairly obvious, but worth mentioning anyway.
- It’d be wise to keep a roll of paper towels out on the table to deal with the somewhat inevitable mess that comes with 84 bottles of various liquids and sticky syrups. A small garbage pail on one side of the table isn’t a bad idea either.
- That’s about it! Have fun with it and make it your own.
Egg Cream Recipe Tips
Nearly every “traditional” and “authentic” egg cream recipe on the internet is different—this one says to start with seltzer in the glass; this one doesn’t seem to care which order you pour the milk and syrup in, but definitely wants you to hold off on the seltzer till later on; this one encourages you to wait until the last second to throw in the syrup.
It all feels very controversial.
Personally, I decided to stick with the Country Living test kitchen’s basic recipe for a class Brooklyn egg cream, reprinted from The Soda Fountain. You can find that recipe over here. (Full disclosure: I worked at Country Living when I first published this post!)
In terms of telling your party guests how to make their own, though, what’s most important is 1) the order of things and 2) reminding them of a simple ratio. The order goes: milk first, then seltzer, then syrup, then vigorous stirring. And the ratio you’ll want is 1:3, milk to seltzer. Plus an eyeballed three tablespoons of syrup.
You might want to write that out and frame or hang it somewhere nearby.
But anyway, if at first they don’t succeed, well…that’s what the extra seltzer bottles are for! And it’s fun to try (and fail, and try again) to make an egg cream. Promise. So don’t worry so much about perfection here—it’s more about the overall experience.
Have fun and remember to tag me on Instagram if you do end up making this! I love seeing your creations.
