Bosco Chocolate Syrup

Bosco chocolate syrup

Bosco Chocolate Syrup is a brand of chocolate syrup 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.^[1]

History

Bosco Chocolate syrup was purportedly invented in 1928 in Camden, NJ by an unknown physician.^[2] The William S. Scull Company, a company founded in 1831 in Camden, NJ, acquired the manufacturing license. The Scull Company's most famous product was Boscul Coffee, who gave the product its brand name, "Bosco".^[3] In the 1950s, Corn Products Company acquired Bosco, and Bosco Products, Inc. acquired the brand in 1985.^[1]

The trade name "Bosco" was first used in 1928, and was registered in 1968. The website "bosco.com" is unaffiliated with the cocoa product and its producer; the domain name was subject to arbitration.^[4]

The company has branched out and makes other products, including candy bars bearing the brand name.^[5][6]

Nutritional and food value are reported.^[7]

Production process

Bulk materials are added via automatic measuring devices into stainless steel cooking vats. Minor ingredients and flavorings are blended into the batch separately, through a custom blender device, following product handling and quality assurance codes. While in the vats, Bosco is pasteurized for product uniformity and then cooled for bottling. Computers measure and monitor the product temperatures. Malt extract is added, which combined with Bosco cocoa powder yields the distinctive Bosco taste.

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, sea salt caramel, fudge brownie, sugar free, and mocha (the last of which was added ca. 2012, replacing berry blue).^[8]

Cultural references

Advertising

• 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 program featuring Popeye cartoons, as well as live action sequences.^[9] An important feature of many of the television advertisements was the jingle, I love Bosco.
• Bosco commercials were featured frequently as some of the "retromercials" used in lieu of commercial breaks on TV Land during its earliest years.

Art

• Vik Muniz, a modern artist, is famous for recreating well-known works of art, such as The Last Supper by Leonardo da Vinci, entirely in Bosco Chocolate Syrup.^[10][11][12] A Bosco portrait by Muniz sold for $110,000 in 2007.^[13]

Film

• Bosco Chocolate Syrup was used as fake blood in Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho (1960), during the shower scene.^[14]
• Bosco Chocolate Syrup was used as fake blood in George A. Romero's Night of the Living Dead (1968).^[14]

Music

• Avante Garde saxophonist Marion Brown's Quartet performed a song titled "Bosco" on their La Placita album, recorded Live in Willisau, Switzerland on March 26, 1977.^[15]

Television

• In the Seinfeld episode "The Secret Code", George Costanza reveals his ATM PIN "Bosco" to J. Peterman's mother on her deathbed, who in turn repeats the phrase as her last word before she dies. He is then in a predicament at the end of the episode where he refuses to give up his ATM pin (Bosco) to save a man whose shirt is caught in an ATM machine while the building is on fire. ^[16]

References

Notes

1. Linda J. Barth (20 August 2013). A History of Inventing in New Jersey: From Thomas Edison to the Ice Cream Cone. The History Press. pp. 69–70. ISBN 978-1-62584-675-4.
2. Sietsema, Robert (July 7, 2009). "A Short, Unsatisfying History of Bosco Chocolate Syrup". Village Voice. Retrieved 29 March 2016.
3. "Boscul Coffee - William S. Scull & Company". dvrbs.com/. Retrieved 29 March 2016.
4. Carmody, James A. (June 29, 2000). "Bosco Products, Inc., Towaco, NJ, USA COMPLAINANT, vs. Bosco E-Mail Service, Vancouver, BC, Canada and Mailbank.com, Point Roberts, WA, USA RESPONDENT. DECISION Claim Number: FA0005000094828". Retrieved November 21, 2015.
5. "Makers of Bosco Syrup to Offer Chocolate Bars". Candy Industry. January 4, 2011. Retrieved November 22, 2015.
6. "Bosco Natural Milk Chocolate Bars: 12-Piece Box". Retrieved November 21, 2015.
7. "Bosco Chocolate Syrup". fooducate.com. Retrieved November 23, 2015.
8. "Syrups & Bars". Bosco. Retrieved November 20, 2015.
9. McClellan, Don (26 September 2009). ""Flip the Spoon" rarely remembered". Don McClellan's half-a-century with WSB Television. Retrieved 3 November 2013.
10. Barth 2013, pp. 69-70.
11. Goldberg, Vicki (September 25, 1998). "ART REVIEW; It's a Leonardo? It's a Corot? Well, No, It's Chocolate Syrup". The New York Times. Retrieved November 23, 2015.
12. The Last Supper in Ten Unusual Mediums
13. "Just in time for the holidays, a $110,000 syrupy portrait". USA Today. Reuters. October 3, 2007. Retrieved November 23, 2015.
14. "Bosco Syrup Introduces Mocha Flavored Syrup: The First New Flavor In Nearly A Decade". The Wall Street Journal. 22 April 2013. Archived from the original on March 3, 2014. Retrieved 25 February 2014.
15. Marion Brown Quartet – "La Placita" - Live In Willisau (1978) Netherlands: Timeless Records
16. Gardner, Urban (1 August 2011). "Burnishing the Bosco Brand". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 20 November 2015.(subscription required)

Sources

• Barth, Linda J. (August 20, 2013). A History of Inventing in New Jersey: From Thomas Edison to the Ice Cream Cone. Charleston, South Carolina: The History Press. pp. 69–70. ISBN 9781626192065. Retrieved November 22, 2014.
• Sietsema, Robert (July 7, 2009). "A Short, Unsatisfying History of Bosco Chocolate Syrup". The Village Voice. Retrieved November 21, 2015.

External links

• 1950s Bosco Chocolate Syrup Commercial YouTube
• 25 second animated commercial with song I love Bosco (and others if you tarry on the page) YouTube
• Gallery of classic graphic design featuring Bosco
• Official website
• Van Dyke, Dick. "Bosco Chocolate Syrup (Commercial)" (Video). YouTube. Retrieved November 22, 2015.