Back to the Soda Fountain

Yesterday Miya wrote that February and March are tough months. I wholeheartedly agree; it seems like when winter first rolls around you’re all excited about the holidays, and then it’s January and the snow is a novelty and then it keeps coming and you start to slowly go crazy. Finally you make it to February, it’s the shortest month of the year, yet somehow manages to go on forever. March has such possibilities, all of us remember a March from when were younger where there were a streak of 70 degree days… we’re sure of it, but we all also remember those terrible late March snow storms… Ah March, you are a fickle month! It’s enough to make even the most optimistic among us see the glass as half empty, which makes this glassware posting particularly on point.

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I’m a big fan of this glass for a couple of reasons. Yes, the whole half full thing, but I also think it’s great for this time of year for another reason: creamy drinks. Milk based drinks are so yummy, and yet I find when I order one they’re huge, and too rich for me to finish. This glass is a perfect solution to that problem. Another reason for suggesting a milk-based drink – in these dark and dreary months, that vitamin D is going to help combat SAD. Thinking even more about your health, I’m recommending that you make an Egg Cream in this glass. It’s got the dairy AND chocolate, another proven mood elevator (for the record, we at Jackalope solidly believe the “chocolate is good for you” hype).

Egg Cream (recipe from Bonni Lee Brown):

Approximately ½ cup of whole milk (it has to be whole or it won’t foam!)

1 cup of seltzer

2 tablespoons of chocolate syrup

Pour 1/2 inch of cold milk into a tall soda glass. Add seltzer or club soda to within 1 inch of the top of the glass; stir vigorously with a long spoon (this will cause it to become white and bubbly with a good head of foam).

Very gently pour 2 tablespoons of chocolate syrup slowly down the inside of the glass; briskly stir with a long spoon only at the bottom of the glass where the chocolate sits. The resulting drink should have a dark brown bottom and a 1-inch high pure white foam top (if you mix it too much, the foam disappears).

Now, if your mood needs a little more assistance to get elevated, you can add Bailey’s, Kahlua or anything else (within reason…don’t add citrus just to test me) you think could be yummy.

So sit back and enjoy, and try to start thinking positively… April will be here soon!