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Chocolate Cream Nectar
This may be made either from cake chocolate or from any of the cocoa pow ders, and a trial will determine which is the more agreeable. Melt two squares of chocolate or an equivalent amount of cocoa powder in four tablespoons of hot coffee. Add one and one-half cups of sugar and three cups of water. Boil clear and strain. There should be one quart of the liquid. When cold add one tablespoon of sherry wine and pour iced into glasses in which you have placed one tablespoon of whipped cream, not too stiffly beaten. Stir well before drinking.
The wine may be omitted and one teaspoon of vanilla substituted. This is good hot if a portion of hot milk is added to the chocolate syrup, and the whipped cream placed on the top.
A soda-fountain style chocolate syrup, served cold over a spoonful of whipped cream. The instructions assume the chocolate of the period, so a few substitutions are worth making before you start.
- Two squares of chocolateA square is one ounce of unsweetened baking chocolate, so two ounces total. Modern unsweetened chocolate is a fair match for the "cake chocolate" meant here.
- Cocoa equivalentFor two ounces of unsweetened chocolate use about 6 tablespoons of natural (non-alkalized) cocoa powder. Dutch-process cocoa will give a darker, milder drink. The recipe itself takes no position, telling you to try both and see which you prefer.
- Melting in coffeeFour tablespoons of hot brewed coffee is barely enough liquid to make a paste; work it smooth off the heat or over very low heat so the cocoa solids do not scorch, then add the sugar and water.
- "Boil clear"Boil the syrup only until the sugar has fully dissolved and the liquid looks glossy rather than cloudy, roughly 3 to 5 minutes. Cocoa never goes truly transparent; the cue is that no grit remains, and straining catches whatever does.
- Yield and strengthYou end with about a quart of liquid, roughly eight half-cup glasses. The recipe pours it iced straight into the glasses rather than diluting it; it is very sweet on its own, and chilled soda water or plain cold water can be added to taste.
- The whipped cream"Not too stiffly beaten" matters. Cream taken only to soft, barely-holding peaks will disperse when stirred, which is the point of the drink; stiff cream sits in a lump.
- Sherry or vanillaOne tablespoon of sherry across a quart of syrup is a background note, not a cocktail. Use a dry or medium sherry; cream sherry pushes an already sweet drink over.
- The hot versionThe recipe gives no proportion, only "a portion of hot milk" added to the syrup, so start with a small amount of syrup in the cup and add milk to taste. Float the cream on top rather than stirring it in, as the recipe directs.
Drinks like this belong to the era when the drugstore soda fountain set the fashion for what people made at home. The method, a heavily sweetened chocolate syrup cooked in quantity and then combined to order with cold water, soda, milk or cream, is fountain practice, and household books of the period carried variations under names like nectar and frappe. The small amount of coffee used to melt the chocolate deepens the cocoa without reading as coffee. The single tablespoon of sherry, offered with vanilla as an alternative, reflects a time when a spoonful of wine in an otherwise nonalcoholic drink was an ordinary flourish rather than a statement.