Heighten Your Ice Cream with Syrup

July 21st will be National Ice Cream Day so to help you prepare we are going back to look at some chocolate syrups we were sent to review at the beginning of this year. Don't worry; we tasted them soon after getting them because we had an unseasonably warm January 2020. We got two varieties of Premium Syrups from Amoretti -- White Chocolate Syrup and Dark Chocolate Syrup. The bottles are huge -- 25.4 fluid ounces or 740 ml each and each is 15 inches tall with the pump installed. I don't know about you, but this was a problem in terms of storage for me in my house. Amoretti sent us two of their huge syrup bottles and the pumps to go with them for free in exchange for us testing and writing about them for you all; no other form of compensation was received for writing about our experience with these two products.

Let's talk about the syrups on their own. You can see one serving, one pump, of each syrup in a small shot glass. The White Chocolate Syrup has a yellow color which is actually what white chocolate often looks like depending on how much dairy, cocoa butter, or vanilla you might add in your recipe. The Dark Chocolate Syrup is indeed dark in color. The white is slightly thicker I noticed and a bit more sticky; it was common for a drop of it to remain in the pump and drip out later. The White has a sweet taste and a bit of a burn to it but there is no alcohol on the ingredient list. The Dark has a light chocolate flavor but is still very sweet; much sweeter than I had hoped but not that burn. Of course, why would you eat/drink either of these on their own? You wouldn't so let's talk about how they worked with other foods and drinks.

We tried them both in hot cocoa and hot chocolates of various types, made with milk or with just water. In each case, the Dark increased the chocolate flavor in a very positive way. The White added sweetness and toned down the chocolate which might be helpful if there is someone in your household who the brand of hot cocoa or chocolate you love best to be too bitter for them. The syrups stirred in fully and easily make them simple to use for all ages in your household. However, the height of the syrup bottles and the length of the pump means you need to hold the cup close to the top of the bottle or risk the syrup going astray so adults and older teens should do that, not kids.

We didn't stop our testing there. Next we tried it on ice cream which is why we're sharing our results with you today. I recommend pumping it out into a little container then slowly dripping it on the ice cream because directly from the pump itself created more clumps of syrup. Both syrups didn't taste as good sitting on top of ice cream. I tried the syrup by itself and there is a sharp aftertaste to each though I'm not sure exactly why; that aftertaste was missing in the the hot drinks we tested back in the winter and spring of 2020. My father taught me to make "ice cream soup" – basically let the ice cream melt a bit then stir it until it has a soft serve consistency – and that improved the flavor.

I was assured by the representative of Amoretti that the "natural flavors" listed in the ingredients were white chocolate and dark chocolate but I really like to see that confirmed on the label, too. However, the flavors were inline with other syrups we've tried of the darker variety and this was the first time we'd tried a white chocolate type of syrup and it seemed good aside from the aftertaste. Have it in beverages to get the most positive experience.