Soda Fountain Odyssey- Egg Cream results

I tried my hand at old time sodas over the weekend.  My goal was to make an egg cream and after a few attempts I went from horrific to hey that's not bad.  The egg cream is a fancy name that sounds much more complicated than it is.  In essence its just soda water added to chocolate milk.  The thing is being a dairy soda combination you have a large margin of error.

This seemed the logical start for my soda odyssey considering my patent Dr. Pepper and cream.  Thought this proved to be the reverse of that wondrous concoction.  Where the Dr. Pepper and cream you float in the dairy like a civilized person the egg cream relies on the foaming of soda hitting dairy.  I have used this foaming for effect in the past but more as a novelty in my Snow Ball sodas.  Its sort of a pain in the ass as there are several places too much soda dramatically change the character of the beverage.

Basically you are told to make an even mix of whole milk and chocolate syrup.  You are going to be told to use U-bet brand but that is improbable to find in California so I went with Hersey's.  I am going to admit my milk was only 2% so i tied some half and half I had laying around which provided better results.  Separation of chocolate flavors and mellowing of the soda.  Next add in the soda. I used Seltzer and would advise it against club soda.  You are not trying to make a phosphate just keep the flavors clean to start with Seltzer, siphoned for best results.  Go slow here is my best advice, add a bit and sample.  You are going to find there are about four flavors you can get here depending on the mix.  One is basically a sharp chocolate milk if you add only a bit of soda, you get more of the chocolate flavor to stand out.  Then you have the flat cream soda that is what i go for in my Dr. Pepper and cream drinks.  Next you have an effervescent cream soda that is light and still rich in chocolate flavor this is probably where you want to hit to recreate the original.  Next you have the slightly chocolate club soda flavor.  Not sure how my seltzer got a club soda flavor but its horrid and there is not turning back here just dump it.