Italian Sodas: An Incredible Adventure in Slurping

Image:Morguefile 

One of the big favorites at our tea room was an Italian Soda, or Cremosa. What are THOSE you ask? Only the best cold fizzy beverage in the universe, and possibly beyond. You make them at home, flavor them your way..and pretty soon you have a hot weather addiction that is almost as incredible as your coffee/tea addiction.

Basically you take 2 ozs of Monin, Da Vinci, or Torani flavored syrups and put it in the bottom of a frosted glass. You add ice and club soda and stir. That is the basic edition. We always added a generous amount of whipped cream on the top with a cherry.

A cremosa (some call it a French soda) is made the same way, only you would add about 4 oz of half and half or heavy cream to the glass before adding the club soda. Don’t forget the whipped cream and cherry on top.

Absolutely, you must drink it with a straw.

So now, what kinds of flavors? Well, that is limited by your imagination and ability to procure the flavored syrups. Here are a few combinations we like:

• strawberry- banana
• mango-mandarin orange-green tea
• blueberry- vanilla
• blackberry-white chocolate
• toasted marshmallow-coconut
• Lavender-lemon
• granny smith apple-caramel
• peach-passionfruit

We sort of made them up as we went along..and any of the flavors can be made into cremosas by adding the cream. Here is an article that I wrote with more recipes for Italian sodas and other healthy alternatives to cokes.

So o.k..there is a calorie or two in there. I admit it.
I prefer the Monin syrups..but you can use whichever you like. Give them a try..Let me know what you think. Just be sure to keep your glasses in the freezer to have that soda fountain/coffee shop iced glass that is so awesome for serving these!