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Be it a scoop of ice cream, a slice of brownie or a humble glass of milkshake, a drizzle of chocolate syrup can amp up any dish to a different level altogether. The sugary elixir that chocolate syrup is can elevate the taste and mouthfeel of any bland dessert to a new level altogether. An ardent dessert lover, I can turn my days around with a decadent dessert with a generous drizzle of chocolate syrup on it.
Recently, while watching the movie ‘The Princess Bride’ on Amazon Prime, I came across a scene that forced me to put my thinking caps on. The famous actor Billy Crystal who played a medicine man, coated a pill in chocolate to bring the main character back to life. As fun as it sounds, this practice has a real medical history too.
Legend has it that back in 1500 B.C., chocolate was first consumed as a drink made with fermented, roasted and ground cacao beans. Unlike the modern-day chocolate syrup or chocolate milk, the drink was quite bitter from the cacao beans. By the 1700s, the drink was sweetened to match the preferences of people which had a strong resemblance with the modern-day hot chocolate. This drink was first prescribed to patients with ‘wasting disease’ due to the extra calories. The Industrial Revolution in Europe fueled the need for easy-to-swallow pills that weren’t as bitter as plant-based pills. Hence, to cater to the needs of the patients, druggists started coating the pills in sugar syrup and provided them to their patients. As the popularity of these pills rose rapidly as people of every age group could easily swallow them down, the druggists started coating the pills in a concoction made with sugar and chocolate.
This very concoction was then used to jazz up regular everyday desserts by the general public and with no time chocolate syrup’s use changed from treatment to treat.
