Bosco Chocolate Syrup is a brand of

chocolate syrup Chocolate syrup, sometimes called chocolate sauce, is a sweet, chocolate-flavored condiment. It is often used as a topping or dessert sauce for various desserts, such as ice cream, or mixed with milk to make chocolate milk or blended with mil ...

first produced in 1928. The company, Bosco Products, Inc., is based in Towaco, New Jersey, and products are sold throughout the United States and Europe.

History

Bosco Chocolate syrup was purportedly invented in 1928 in Camden,

New Jersey New Jersey is a U.S. state, state located in both the Mid-Atlantic States, Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United States, Northeastern regions of the United States. Located at the geographic hub of the urban area, heavily urbanized Northeas ...

, by an unknown physician. The William S. Scull Company, founded in 1931 in Camden, acquired the manufacturing license. The Scull Company's most famous product was Boscul Coffee, which gave the product its brand name, "Bosco". In the 1950s, Corn Products Company acquired the brands Bosco, and Bosco Products, Inc. in 1985. The name recalls the Ancient Greek word βόσκω (''bóskō''), "I nourish." Bosco Chocolate Syrup, at that time called Bosco Milk Amplifier, was heavily advertised on children's shows during the late 1950s and early 1960s, such as ''The Popeye Club'', a local

Atlanta, Georgia Atlanta ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Georgia (U.S. state), most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It is the county seat, seat of Fulton County, Georg ...

, program featuring ''

Popeye Popeye the Sailor Man is a fictional cartoon character created by E. C. Segar, Elzie Crisler Segar.TV Land TV Land is an American pay television channel owned by Paramount Global through its networks division's MTV Entertainment Group. It was originally launched as Nick at Nite’s TV Land as a spinoff of Nick at Nite programing block consisting e ...

during its earliest years. Bosco ads often featured the "Bosco Chiller-Diller" concoction. Bosco TV and radio ads also featured the "Bosco Nova" song and dance, set to a bossa nova beat. The company has branched out and makes other products, including candy bars bearing the brand name.

Vik Muniz Vik Muniz (; born 1961) is a Brazilian artist and photographer. His work has been met with both commercial success and critical acclaim, and has been exhibited worldwide. In 1998, he participated in the 24th International Biennale in São Paulo, ...

, a

modern art Modern art includes artistic work produced during the period extending roughly from the 1860s to the 1970s, and denotes the styles and philosophies of the art produced during that era. The term is usually associated with art in which the tradit ...

ist, is famous for recreating well-known works of art, such as '' The Last Supper'' by

Leonardo da Vinci Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci (15 April 1452 - 2 May 1519) was an Italian polymath of the High Renaissance who was active as a painter, draughtsman, engineer, scientist, theorist, sculptor, and architect. While his fame initially rested o ...

, entirely in Bosco Chocolate Syrup. A Bosco portrait by Muniz sold for $110,000 in 2007.

Production process

Formerly, bulk materials were added via automatic measuring devices into

stainless steel Stainless steel, also known as inox, corrosion-resistant steel (CRES), or rustless steel, is an iron-based alloy that contains chromium, making it resistant to rust and corrosion. Stainless steel's resistance to corrosion comes from its chromi ...

cooking vats. Minor ingredients and flavorings were blended into the batch separately, through a custom blender device, adhering to stringent product handling standards. While in the vats, Bosco was pasteurized for product uniformity and then cooled for bottling. Computers measured and monitored the product temperatures.

Malt extract Malt is any cereal grain that has been made to germinate by soaking in water and then stopped from germinating further by drying with hot air, a process known as " malting". Malted grain is used to make beer, whisky, malted milk, malt vinegar ...

and

vanilla Vanilla is a spice derived from orchids of the genus ''Vanilla (genus), Vanilla'', primarily obtained from pods of the flat-leaved vanilla (''Vanilla planifolia, V. planifolia''). ''Vanilla'' is not Autogamy, autogamous, so pollination ...

was added and combined with

cocoa powder Dry cocoa solids are the components of cocoa beans remaining after cocoa butter, the fatty component of the bean, is extracted from chocolate liquor, roasted cocoa beans that have been ground into a liquid state. Cocoa butter is 46% to 57% of the ...

, which yielded the distinctive Bosco taste. As of 2020, Bosco no longer follows this process. The recipe now omits malt extract and vanilla, altering the flavor and viscosity of the product. Bosco was once packaged in glass jars, but is now sold in plastic squeeze bottles. As of 2015, Bosco is produced in several flavors in addition to the original chocolate:

strawberry The garden strawberry (or simply strawberry; ''Fragaria × ananassa'') is a widely grown Hybrid (biology), hybrid plant cultivated worldwide for its fruit. The genus ''Fragaria'', the strawberries, is in the rose family, Rosaceae. The fruit ...

, sea salt

caramel Caramel ( or ) is a range of food ingredients made by heating sugars to high temperatures. It is used as a flavoring in puddings and desserts, as a filling in bonbons or candy bars, as a topping for ice cream and custard, and as a colorant ...

, fudge brownie, sugar free, and mocha (the last of which was added c. 2012, replacing berry blue).

References

Sources

* *

External links

*
Bosco syrup commercial with song ''"I love Bosco"''

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

Gallery of classic graphic design featuring Bosco
*
Bosco Chocolate Drink DICK VAN DYKE 1959
via

Bosco - Milk Amplifier.wmv
{{Chocolate beverages Food and drink companies based in New Jersey Confectionery companies of the United States Brand name chocolate Syrup Products introduced in 1928

History

Production process

See also

References

Sources

External links