Rant #2,116: Sugar Sugar

Well, the Yankees finally played their home opener, in the rain, but they won big over the Rays, so who's complaining?

And now that that event has finally taken place ...

I have previously spoken about the foods that I enjoy eating on Passover, the matzoh, the Temp Tee Cream Cheese, the tuna fish ...

But what beverages do I enjoy on this eight-day holiday?

Well, you can't beat milk or water any time, 365 days a year.

Water, I believe, is Kosher and Kosher for Passover to begin with. I think, and someone correct me if I am wrong, that all bottled water and seltzer, if it doesn't have any flavoring or anything else added, is Kosher for Passover, even if it doesn't say it on the bottle.

So plain Poland Spring Water, with nothing added to it, is Kosher for Passover.

Milk is a different story. Again, if I remember this correctly, depending on how it is processed, milk can be either Kosher for Passover or not. A stickler for this would simply buy milk labeled Kosher for Passover and not need to think about such things, but since I am not a stickler, I just drink whatever milk we have in the fridge during this time.

But if I want something a little different in my milk, you cannot--and I mean, you absolutely cannot--beat Fox's U-Bet Chocolate Syrup to make chocolate milk.

I mean, even the non-Kosher for Passover U-Bet is far and away better as a chocolate syrup than anything else, in my humble opinion, but when it is the Kosher for Passover U-Bet, watch out!

For the holiday, U-Bet--made by the same people who give us Gold's Horseradish, another Passover and non-Passover delicacy--uses real sugar, rather than high-fructose corn syrup, for sweetness, and there is a tremendous difference. People actually hoard Kosher for Passover U-Bet--I have two bottles of it in the fridge right now--and there is a good reason why.

U-Bet is thick as can be to begin with, and when you squeeze it into a glass, it oozes out of the plastic bottle so nice and slow, building up the moment.

Anticipation ... yes, that is the selling point of Heinz Ketchup, but it can also be a big selling point of U-Bet.

Pour milk into the same glass and with a little stirring, you get the best chocolate milk on the planet. The sugar, rather than the corn syrup, doesn't make it any sweeter, it just makes it more heavenly, more like real chocolate syrup should be, and was at one time before high-fructose corn syrup, cheaper than using sugar, became the norm.

And let me tell you, U-Bet's Kosher for Passover Vanilla Syrup is also quite good, although given the choice, I would rather put the chocolate syrup into my glass of milk than the vanilla syrup.

When you look for Kosher for Passover Fox's U-Bet, look for a slightly different bottle this year. The old photograph of the little girl (the company has no idea who this girl is) has been replaced by a drawing of a little girl, the bottle clearly says "Kosher for Passover," and the ingredients list on the back of the bottle includes sugar.

Another Kosher for Passover beverage treat for me is Coca-Cola and Pepsi-Cola formulated for the holiday.

Again, rather than high-fructose corn syrup, their ingredients include sugar, and the taste of these sodas is more like "the real thing," or at least what I grew up with as a kid.

The problem is that this year, the only Kosher for Passover soda that I found was of the diet variety, something that I abhor to begin with, so I didn't buy any this year.

I did buy Dr. Brown's Black Cherry soda, which ain't what it used to be. It has lost the sweetness in it that I remember, and the fizz factor is minimal, making it more like a Kool-Aid soda than a real black cherry soda, or at least the black cherry soda that I recall as a kid.

It was OK, but one bottle of it was enough for me.

As for foods to eat with your choice of beverage, this year, we had turkey at the first seder and brisket and chicken at the second seder.

I love turkey, and it went good with all the side dishes that we had, including my favorite, potato kugel, which I can describe as like a brick of potato. It is soft inside but with a hard, chewy top, and it just goes with turkey so well.

I do not like either brisket or chicken, so I settled on the brisket, which was OK, but to me tastes like potted meat. It was thinly sliced, which made it slightly better, but I have never been a fan of brisket, so no matter how it is made, I don't care for it.

I have since had eggs, and then fish, for dinner, and I am still not finished with the potato kugel, so who knows what I am going to have for dinner the rest of the week?

And going back to the first meal of the day, as an add-on to breakfast, you cannot beat Kosher for Passover macaroons. They come in so many flavors and varieties now, and I just love their chewiness, and getting it all down with a glass of milk.

So, to end the Kosher for Passover food odyssey we have been on here, just let's say that in 2018, and certainly here on after, there are so many foods designed for this holiday that you really cannot go wrong with whatever you choose to eat.

Matzoh stomach aside, there is no reason to search around like I did way back when for something to eat during this holiday. Necessity was certainly the mother of invention here, and foods abound now, making it easier than ever to abide by the dietary laws of the holiday.

Sure, we all waver a little bit during this eight-day period--I know that I do--but I do try to keep the tradition going as much as I possibly can.

So here's to matzoh ... but yes, I am already yearning for a piece of bread ... with Temp Tee Cream Cheese on it, of course.