B-O-S-C-O

Once upon a time in a galaxy far far away, I loved Bosco.

Bosco is a chocolate flavored syrup most often added to milk to make: you guessed it: chocolate milk. Instantaneously. Like Nestle's Quik - only much much better. Bosco makes cold or hot milk palatable.
Bosco can also be drizzled (generously) over ice cream for a delectable chocolate sundae.

When I was a kid and gaga over Bosco, my fave way to enjoy it was to forego the glass of milk and pour it straight out of the bottle onto a teaspoon which went directly into my mouth. Oh yeah.

Bosco was a must-have staple in the kitchen of my childhood. Years after I grew up and left home, the syrup was still available on grocery stores shelves. As an adult, I continued the indulgence.

Then, suddenly, one day - Bosco - was - gone. It just up and disappeared off the grocery store shelves. In time, I had to wonder whether it was still being manufactured. For years, I searched in vain for the thick-walled brown Bosco bottle, with a shape and girth something like a laboratory beaker on steroids. That which contained the tasty chocolate syrup within. There were other chocolate flavorings in abundance, both powdered and syrup - but not a bottle of Bosco to be had anywhere.

Time passed, and I continued to hunt for Bosco.

Then the internet became a search tool, and things started to look more promising in unraveling the mystery of the disappearance of Bosco. The internet really IS the super highway, where one can zip along and see new and old things, come across fresh (and even spent) ideas and innovations. The web is a wondrous place to spend hours upon hours, paying attention and learning. The internet can also reunite us with old friends (a special plug for Facebook), places in the past where we once trod - and - food products we once coveted.

On the internet, I found Bosco.

But wait.
Years zip by.
Tastes change.
Palates become more, er, well - shall we say snobby - um, sophisticated.

Now that I am an aficionado of the very excellent cacao offerings of Sharffen Berger chocolate, will Bosco still offer that chocolate high of yesteryear? Or will what has always been the admittedly ersatz chocolate flavor of Bosco finally be fully detectable on my highly developed and discriminating taste buds?
We adults like to think our maturation in all areas of life as an 'upgrade' from the more primitive leanings of our childhood. Yet in too many instances, our grown-up tastes/views are not always an improvement over the kid perspective....

Hmmmmm... food preferences....
I've mentioned time and time again on this blog that in my childhood home, the family ate fresh, from scratch, home-cooked fare every day. Canned, frozen and pre-prepped packaged foods were bought on occasion and considered special treats. I once thought Kraft Mac n' Cheese was deliciouso. No longer. Swanson TV dinners and pot pies were often heated up for weekend lunches, or as an after school snack. To eat one today would find me recoiling at the grease, the high sodium content as well as taking note that any meat product contained therein would yield a suspiciously rubbery chew. The very idea of Chef Boy-R-Dee canned spaghetti grosses me out now. There was a time when I ate it every week. Older and wiser, it's clear to me now that Mrs. Paul's frozen fish sticks are an abomination.

The jury is still out on Bosco. Now that I can secure it, should I or should I not buy a bottle for my larder - at the very least, for old times' sake?

When I fully suspect that a spoonful of the heavy corn syrup brew, with the negligible taste of faux chocolate, might very well prompt - the gag reflex?
Do I still love Bosco?
Do I really want an answer to that question after all this time?

Eh.

For a listen to the Bosco commercial jingle, click here - then on the arrow by the Bosco bottle.

Schematic 18th century engraving of a cacao tree by Dominican priest Jean-Baptiste Labat