Carob Syrup for Desserts

I can't tolerate much chocolate (a true tragedy--it gives me headaches), and being a near-vegan I avoid dairy products, so I've missed a lot of desserts that I was accustomed to. I'm surprised that few carob-based products appear in "health food" stores. I was told by the grocery buyer at Earthfare in Asheville that he grew up in a health-food home, and back then there was lots of carob, but people became disappointed that it was a poor substitute for chocolate, and it lost popularity.

Carob is not counterfeit chocolate as this post describes well! But it is something you can use instead of chocolate in maybe half the places you would use chocolate, and it tastes wonderful there--different, but wonderful.

Thus I'm a consumer of the stuff, as I describe in my message to my friend Iris (who avoids eating too much rice because of the arsenic levels found in rice):

1. [To make a drink like chocolate milk] It worked perfectly with the carob syrup (which I made myself from powder, and was trivial to make). The snack was delicious, and I expect to replace my Rice Dream Carob Drink with this when I finally run out (I bought a case). I used Almond Milk, not Rice Milk, so I imagine you would enjoy this as a snack.

2. Using the uncooked powder really didn't work--the powder never completely disappeared, no matter how much I stirred, and it tasted nowhere as good.

I bought this powder a year ago at Whole Foods:

It is widely available on the web if Whole Foods doesn't still carry it. Equal parts water and powder, stir periodically for about 10 minutes in a saucepan on a suitable temperature, and you're done. Refrigerate. 

Besides the drink, the syrup is heavenly on coconut whatever "ice cream", and would probably be great on any fake ice cream that you would otherwise think of putting chocolate syrup on.