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Root Beer Floats


jsmeeker

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I haven't had one in a long time, but I love root beer floats. Root beer. Ice cream. So much yum. What's your favorite root beer to use? What about ice cream? Do you use an ice cream flavor other than vanilla? How do you build it? Add ice cream to glass then pour the root beer over it? Or do you pour root beer in the glass, then float the ice cream on top?

Jeff Meeker, aka "jsmeeker"

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A&W rootbeer, vanilla ice cream. Pour the root beer into an A&W mug and top with the ice cream - damn I could go for one of those now.

Anna Nielsen aka "Anna N"

...I just let people know about something I made for supper that they might enjoy, too. That's all it is. (Nigel Slater)

"Cooking is about doing the best with what you have . . . and succeeding." John Thorne

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A&W rootbeer, vanilla ice cream. Pour the root beer into an A&W mug and top with the ice cream - damn I could go for one of those now.

So that is one of those really thick mugs? - and would it reside in the freezer during non-use?

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Never did like the ice crystals....but do love a rootbeer float. Don't make them at home, only diet soda here. But this week as part of their "30th?" anniversary the local Tom Wahl's has them for $.99. A better bargain there could hardly be.....their own recipe rootbeer, plus a BIG squeeze of soft serve. May not be classic, isn't homemade but it's GOOD. Time to celebrate anniversaries

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Your favorite vanilla ice cream and the best root beer you can buy. I like my ice cream and my root beer not too sweet. I try to find artisanal root beers made with cane sugar and as few preservatives as possible, and I'm pretty used to HD vanilla (not the vanilla bean flavor). Ice cream first, then pour over beer. I'm not a soda drinker, but a root beer float is a gift from the gods.

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I like A & W but not as much as I once did. Something has been lost along the way and it doesn't have the "bite" that I recall so fondly from the days of the A & W Drive ins.

Today my storebought favorite is I.B.C. Root Beer and it has an interesting history.

One I would really prefer but sadly is not available here, is River City Root Beer from Minnesota.

Some friends drove their motorhome back there for a niece's wedding and came back with a few cases which they shared with me and some others.

It is very spicy and develops a full head of foam which is difficult to find on today's root beers.

"There are, it has been said, two types of people in the world. There are those who say: this glass is half full. And then there are those who say: this glass is half empty. The world belongs, however, to those who can look at the glass and say: What's up with this glass? Excuse me? Excuse me? This is my glass? I don't think so. My glass was full! And it was a bigger glass!" Terry Pratchett

 

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I despise Rootbeer! (I had the real deal German measles as a child and one of the meds was a vile rootbeer flavored thing... Can't stand the smell of it, never mind taking a sip!)

But, I love a Coke float! Best made with real Coke (the Mexican stuff, made w/o HFCS) and good chocolate ice cream (Blue Bell is my fave).

Y'all have me craving now... Coke and chocolate ice cream just went on the weekend shop list!

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I demand this thread be closed due to blasphemy! Plus jsmeeker is just making fun of me!

root beer floats are terrible! The ice cream hides all the deliciousness of the root beer and wastes it! May as well just use coke 'cause you can't possibly make coke taste worse than it already does, so ice cream would just improve it. But add ice cream to root beer?? Blasphemy!

I suppose I might allow other people people to add ice cream to inferior root beer, but please do not taint precious brews!

Incidentally, I thought Sweet Moses had a better looking ice cream float than VTR, but VTR's root beer tasted better. It was spicier and more complex (but not too spicy). But Sweet Moses had a huge root beer float with really beautiful mounds of ice cream. Like H-cup mounds.

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A&W rootbeer, vanilla ice cream. Pour the root beer into an A&W mug and top with the ice cream - damn I could go for one of those now.

So that is one of those really thick mugs? - and would it reside in the freezer during non-use?

I hate it when people figure out my secrets! Yes, there are always a couple in my freezer not only for root beer but for beer when it comes warm from the store and I have a thirsty visitor who simply won't wait. :biggrin:

Anna Nielsen aka "Anna N"

...I just let people know about something I made for supper that they might enjoy, too. That's all it is. (Nigel Slater)

"Cooking is about doing the best with what you have . . . and succeeding." John Thorne

Our 2012 (Kerry Beal and me) Blog

My 2004 eG Blog

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Yes, there are always a couple in my freezer not only for root beer but for beer

Which leads us to beer floats... but I won't drift this off topic. :biggrin:

It's kinda like wrestling a gorilla... you don't stop when you're tired, you stop when the gorilla is tired.

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My favorite root beer is Sprecher's: caramel vanilla richness that goes quite well with vanilla ice cream (especially if it's University of Wisconsin Babcock ice cream).

nunc est bibendum...

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My issue with root beer floats is the odd tasting and weird consistency foam that forms when ice cream meets root beer.

One advantage to soft serve in lieu of ice cream is that one can easily take in both root beer and ice cream without the sense of bobbing for apples.

I may try a pairing of top grade ice cream and root beer some time, but my sense is that each would be wasted on the other.

Holly Moore

"I eat, therefore I am."

HollyEats.Com

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I like to put the ice cream in the mug and then pour the root beer in. Gives nice little ice crystals in the ice cream.

I'm with the ice crystals crowd. The more the better. Put the ice cream in first, then pour the root beer over. Keep root beer handy to add as the liquid gets lower.

I also have mugs in the freezer, for RBFs and for regular beer. I like IBC root beer but there are several artisanal root beer brewers that produce good quality old-fashioned root beer.

Vanilla is the classic choice for a reason. It's the best. But sometimes I use chocolate ice cream instead, just because I'm up for an occasional change.

I don't understand why rappers have to hunch over while they stomp around the stage hollering.  It hurts my back to watch them. On the other hand, I've been thinking that perhaps I should start a rap group here at the Old Folks' Home.  Most of us already walk like that.

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I like to put the ice cream in the mug and then pour the root beer in. Gives nice little ice crystals in the ice cream.

This is the key...the KEY to a good root beer float! I had a friend who insisted the ice cream should be added last. Insanity.

Barq's is a favorite, Mug Root Beer is good too, less bite to it. I like A&W okay, it's just not root-y enough for me. Then just some basic Belfonte vanilla. Experiments with homemade never went as well as run of the mill store bought varieties.

Jerry

Kansas City, Mo.

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My eG Food Blog- 2011

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Do y'all drink them or do you use a spoon? I love the ice crystals, too.

Barqs and Blue Bell, though neither was available to me as a kid. Probably A&W & Borden back in the day.

Dear Food: I hate myself for loving you.

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Virgil's and Blue Bell Homemade Vanilla for me. Even better is if you add 1 1/2 oz Fernet Branca, 1 oz Allspice Dram and a couple of dashes of Fee's Barrel Aged bitters (shaken over ice and strained) into the root beer.

Thanks,

Zachary

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Do y'all drink them or do you use a spoon? I love the ice crystals, too.

Barqs and Blue Bell, though neither was available to me as a kid. Probably A&W & Borden back in the day.

I use a spoon and a straw.

Jeff Meeker, aka "jsmeeker"

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Ice cream first, then root beer. Doing it in this order helps to make that special "tween" elixir of the root beer and melted ice cream coming together into creamy root beer-y goodness. :wink:

 

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Brian: Peter, those are Cheerios.”

– From Fox TV’s “Family Guy”

 

Tim Oliver

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Yes, there are always a couple in my freezer not only for root beer but for beer

Which leads us to beer floats... but I won't drift this off topic. :biggrin:

Wait...drift back a second... beer floats? I am intrigued! What kind of beer would you use?

I love root beer, it's my favourite soda. A&W root beer is my RB of choice for floats. Yum!

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The best one comes from A&W, delivered to the tray hanging from the side of the car when I was a child. Very thick chilled mug.

At home, one can use Boylan's root beer and Hagen Daz 5 Vanilla.

A root beer float requires a side car. This is a nice round ball of ice cream slapped onto the rim of the mug so that it's suspended there. One uses a spoon to add the ice cream as one pleases in order to perfect the ratio. Some is eaten with a spoon and some is drunk with a straw.

These are now increasingly available at the trendy drugstore soda fountains that are appearing. The places I've visited don't use the term side car and look at you likea you nuts.

Which should be salted before applied to ice cream . . .

I like to bake nice things. And then I eat them. Then I can bake some more.

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Yes, there are always a couple in my freezer not only for root beer but for beer

Which leads us to beer floats... but I won't drift this off topic. :biggrin:

Wait...drift back a second... beer floats? I am intrigued! What kind of beer would you use?

A stout

I was at a food and wine festival in Charleston a few years ago, and there was a beer vendor there giving out samples. One thing they did was a stout float. It was fairly tasty.

Jeff Meeker, aka "jsmeeker"

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