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New York Egg Cream Recipe

New Yorkers grew up on getting egg creams at the local soda shop. With this New York Egg Cream recipe, you can bring that nostalgia into your own home.

For more ideas, check out all of our drink recipes.

Glass with a brown drink and white foam on top.

There are a few things that are classic New York. Bacon, egg, and cheese on a roll. Pizza. Bagels. Times Square on New Year’s. Broadway. Soda shops. Egg creams.

If you’ve never lived in New York, or had a relative who lived in New York, you may not even know about an egg cream. Which is a complete misnomer, by the way. There’s no egg in it. Or cream.

So, what is a New York Egg Cream?

A New York Egg Cream is a drink with three common ingredients: milk, seltzer, and chocolate syrup.

That sounds simple, but it’s not. There are rules to the egg cream. Lots of rules.

First, your ingredients must be cold. Like, straight out of the fridge cold.

Second, the order of the ingredients is so important. (We’ll get to that in a minute.)

Third, you have to use whole milk. 

Fourth, you’re not allowed to drink it with a straw.

And finally, to purists, you can only use Fox’s U-Bet Original Chocolate Syrup. Personally, I’m gonna say you can use any chocolate syrup as long as it’s cold. But, I didn’t grow up in the early 1900s New York. So, maybe you can’t trust me on that last part.

An affogato with cookies and the words "Affogato Recipe" digitally written on top.

If you want another unique dessert drink, try an affogato. That’s vanilla gelato and espresso coffee combined to make a really delicious treat.

New York Egg Cream Recipe

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The small blue bowls on a counter. One has seltzer, one has milk, one has chocolate syrup.

New York Egg Cream Ingredients:

How To Make A New York Egg Cream:

Keep in mind that this recipe is a little bit of an estimate. You want to use around a 10-ounce glass for this, preferably a soda shop glass or, at the very least, a tall glass that’s wider at the top of the glass than it is at the bottom.

So, depending on the size of your glass, you might not be able to fit all the liquid in your cup. And if you can’t, it’s more important to eyeball it than to actually worry about the exact amounts.

Quick note: You want this drink to be cold, as cold as possible. You could freeze the glass before you make the drink, if you have time. We don’t do that, but it’s a good idea, especially if you’re making a few of these.

A Irish soda glass with milk in it.

Pour the whole milk in the bottom of the glass. The milk should be about an inch high.

And yes, it has to be whole milk in order to get the silky texture of the drink. You can’t get that from low fat or skim milk. If you don’t have whole milk handy, you can use half and half, but it won’t be exactly the same.

An Irish soda glass with milk in it and a bottle pouring water into the glass.

Aggressively pour the seltzer water into the center of the glass, stopping about a half inch from the top.

An Irish soda glass filled to the top with a white foamy liquid and a spoon in the glass.

Vigorously stir the drink using a long spoon until a beautiful foam forms on the top of the drink. The foam will expand, which is why a glass with a wider top is important.

A spoon with chocolate syrup above a glass with a white liquid in it.

Pour the chocolate syrup on to a spoon and very gently — keeping the spoon as close to the side of the glass as possible — put the spoon down to the bottom of the glass.

Then, gently (so completely the opposite of the last step) stir the chocolate syrup into the bottom of the drink. Avoid getting it into the foam at all costs.

What’s so important is you preserve the white, foamy head of the drink. That deflates quickly, so you’re going to want to drink this as soon as you’re done making it.

New York Egg Cream Recipe Frequently Asked Questions

New York Egg Cream vs. Manhattan Egg Cream

Remember before when I mentioned the order of the drink? Let’s talk about that now.

Purists will say a traditional egg cream’s order is: milk, seltzer, syrup.

For others, the order is: syrup, milk, seltzer.

The way the purists make it, you end up with that pretty white foam that will earn you some “oohs” and “ahhs.” It’s also the way they make it in Brooklyn, where my mom and the egg cream were born.

If you make it the way the others make it, you won’t end up with a white foam. The foam will be brown-ish, like the color of dirty snow, a couple days after the snow has been plowed in New York.

The egg cream will still taste good, it just won’t look as pretty.

And if you make it with vanilla syrup instead of chocolate syrup, that’s a Manhattan Egg Cream.

Yield: 1 Serving

New York Egg Cream

Egg Creams are such a classic New York drink. Find out how to make a New York Egg Cream on www.drugstoredivas.net.

Egg Creams are such a classic New York drink -- with no egg or cream!

Additional Time 5 minutes
Total Time 5 minutes

Ingredients

  • 1/3 cup whole milk
  • 2/3 cup seltzer water
  • 2 tablespoons chocolate syrup

Instructions

  1. Pour the milk in the bottom of the glass. The milk should be about an inch high.
  2. Pour the seltzer water into the center of the glass, stopping about a half inch from the top.
  3. Vigorously stir the drink until a beautiful foam forms on the top. The foam will expand.
  4. Pour the chocolate syrup on to a spoon and very gently put the spoon in the bottom of the glass. Then, stir gently to stir the chocolate syrup into the bottom of the drink. Avoid getting it into the foam.

Notes

Nutrition Information

Yield

1

Serving Size

1

Amount Per Serving Calories 154Total Fat 3gSaturated Fat 2gTrans Fat 0gUnsaturated Fat 1gCholesterol 8mgSodium 63mgCarbohydrates 28gFiber 1gSugar 23gProtein 3g

Did you make this recipe?

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Have you made this New York Egg Cream? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

Giangi

Saturday 24th of December 2022

Looks delicious and so easy to prepare, thank you.

Karen

Friday 23rd of December 2022

Amazing! I made exactly as instructed and was relieved to find there was no egg! Lol. It turned out perfect and everyone loved it. Thanks for sharing such a great recipe!

Daniel Young

Saturday 28th of August 2021

Yours is the first chocolate egg cream I've seen where the chocolate syrup is added last. I'm eager to try it that way. Another theory about the name is that the foamy white head resembled beaten egg whites.

drugstore diva lisa

Monday 30th of August 2021

That's so interesting about the name. I never thought of that, but it would make sense.

Sarah N

Sunday 31st of January 2021

It appears very similar, but it definitely had egg. It was at the Benjamin Franklin soda fountain.

Sarah N

Friday 15th of January 2021

The egg cream I had in Philadelphia had real egg in it. It came with a disclaimer, lol.

drugstore diva lisa

Sunday 17th of January 2021

I think that's a different drink, actually. We've been in Raleigh and they served drinks with eggs in them (with a disclaimer as well, haha), but they were not this.