Ice Cream Floats

[bigbear]

Ginger ale with coffee ice-cream.

[bergerka]

My mom taught me this one: chocolate soda with coffee ice cream.

Otherwise, I actually like a diet root beer float (this has nothing to do with calories or the lack thereof...I er...just find regular soda too sweet and diet soda just right. Yes, I'm a sick fuck) with chocolate chip ice cream. The kind they have at Baskin-Robbins with the little bitty chips that is kind of like stracciatella gelato.

K

[Susan in FL]

My favorite are beer floats, currently stout and either vanilla or vanilla fudge ice cream.

[Cusina]

Gosh, I had completely forgotten this, but when I was little we used to make purple cows. Vanilla ice cream in grape juice. I loved them then, wonder if I would now?

Frozen custard in Sprecher Root Beer is my current favorite. umnah!

And tall glass, long spoon and straw would be my favorite way to eat them. Not too much mixing, but enough to get the flavor combo going.

[ludja]

Viennese Eiskaffe

(ice cold strong coffee in a parfait glass with vanilla ice cream and whipped cream on top; this is an extremely refreshing dessert in the summer).

Haven't tried this, but I think a good Italian lemon soda (not too sweet) with vanilla ice cream would be great.

edited to add: thanks for the link to the beer floats Susan in FL; sounds interesting!

Edited March 3, 2004 by ludja (log)

[phaelon56]

Over in the National Root Beer Float Day thread (only on eGullet) the illustrious Varmint posed this question

Q: Must a root beer float be made with vanilla ice cream? What other variations of ice cream work well?

I myself can't think of another good candidate for root beer (other than bubtter pecans without the pecans) but it got me thinking about other possible soda/ice cream float combination

• Coke or Pepsi with lemon or lime sherbet (or sorbet for you foo-foo foodies )
  
• Espresso or coffee soda with coffee or chocolate ice cream
  
• Cream soda with orange sherbet (I hate cream soda but even I might like this one)
  
• Fresca with rainbow sherbet
  
• Coke or Pepsi with cherry ice cream
  
• Italian orange bitters soda (Chinotto) with basil sorbet (I know, I know but they don't make basil infused sherbet)
  

What have I missed?

[Varmint]

Blenheim's red cap ginger ale with a lime/mint/rum sorbet.

But adding sorbets is almost cheating. To make a true float, I think the frozen product must be frozed dairy concoction. Otherwise, it's just too easy.

[phaelon56]

So sue me. Oops.... wrong guy to say that to

It may be too easy but I'm struggling to come up with more than a candidate or two that seems as though it would work. I did once have a chocolate malted ice cream at Gramercy Tavern that was light on the chocolate and had a pronounced maltiness. I think it would work in a root beer float but it's not the kind of thing I'll find on the shelf in a grocery store.

[viva]

I always crave the Rock N' Rye with strawberry or vanilla ice cream.

And I used to *lurve* 7-up with Neapolitan (yep, all three flavors) when I was growing up.

I'm lovin' the idea of cream soda with orange (and raspberry!) sherbet. And it would have to be sherbet, because sorbet would be nasty. Sherbet's got the egg whites or whatever in it to make it a creamier. And thus, more like a dreamsicle.

[bsan]

Sorry...I prefer the traditional root beer float with vanilla ice cream. I must be too traditional.

[bloviatrix]

I keep thinking that Coke and cinnamon ice cream would be a great combination.

[Carolyn Tillie]

Does a float have to use something fizzy for the liquid? I love coffee ice cream with Iced Coffee -- isn't that a float?

But I could had Ben & Jerry's Cherry Garcia ice cream wtih Cherry Soda to the list.

How about Ginger Ice cream with Ginger Ale?

A Citrus Sorbet (take your pick) with Grapefruit Soda?

I think the possibilities are endless...

[bergerka]

If anyone tries to tell you that coffee ice cream in coffee isn't a float, send 'em to me and I'll make sure they sleep with the fishes. Both vanilla and chocolate ice cream are also wonderful in coffee.

My mom orders a chocolate soda with coffee ice cream when she goes to Baskin-Robbins, but of course that's a soda, not technically a float, even though it's ice cream floating in soda and is really really really delicious.

I like Dr. Pepper floats with vanilla, chocolate (yes, it's good, try it sometime) or chocolate chip ice cream (I like little chocolate bits at the bottom of my float, yes, I'm weird). And a tall glass of orange juice with a scoop of vanilla ice cream is to die for - an orange juice float!

oooh how about pineapple juice with raspberry sherbet? I'll bet raspberry sherbet or cherry sherbet would be good in a Dr. Brown's Black Cherry soda, too.

K

[Varmint]

Wouldn't cream soda with chocolate ice cream work well? It is chocolate and vanilla, you know.

[evilhomer]

cream soda + orange sherbet <> Orange soda + vanilla ice cream

Ginger Beer + coconut ice cream (+ amber rum)

Ting + mint

anything + pistachio

[phaelon56]

cream soda + orange sherbet <> Orange soda + vanilla ice cream

Ginger Beer + coconut ice cream (+ amber rum)

Ting + mint

anything + pistachio

I like those but orange soad is frequently just so darn fake tasting that I think the cream soda combo might be better (depsite the fact that I hate cream soda and love orange soda).

Wow. Ting and mint. That rocks. I also really like the ginger beer idea. I love ginger beer but had been struggling to think of an ice cream flavor to pair with it.

If I could just remember what the ice cream flavors are that they offer at the Chinatown Ice Cream factory in NYC I'd have more combos. They have a great selection of flavors I don't generally see elsewhere (lychee, mango, papaya, green tea etc.)

I think green tea ice cream in ginger ale is another possible winner.

[elswinger]

Varmint, Chocolate ice cream and vanilla soda is my favorite float!! Sometimes I'll even add a shot of Stoli cinnamon or vanilla vodka to give it some kick.

[WoodleyGrrl]

I think that Vernors and vanilla ice cream makes the best ice cream float in the world. We used to get it when we had a sore throat when we were kids.

Edited August 13, 2004 by WoodleyGrrl (log)

[JumpinJude]

I grew up enjoying floats made with Coke and chocolate ice cream, usually Breyer's. I still love it.

I tried a root beer float for the first time when I was 30, at the Phelp's, NY, Sauerkraut Festival. Not a big fan of root beer, but my then-new husband asked me to try it. Yeah, whatever. I'll stick with Coke and chocolate!

[Stigand]

Tizer, a venerable bright red soft drink from the UK, makes great floats with plain vanilla ice cream - I used to love them as a child, even though I didn't really drink Tizer on its own. Tizer is red, sweet and lemonade-y.

Raspberry Ripple ice cream (perhaps also a UK thing - it's basically cheap vanilla with seams of goopy raspberry jam) is also good in a soda with lemonade.

Edited August 17, 2004 by Stigand (log)

[Carolyn Tillie]

Okay, I think you people are going to kill me....

Have any of you ever tried making a float with Stout Beer?

I have tried it with Imperial Stout, Mackeson, and Young's Double Chocolate Stout. With vanilla ice cream, it ain't bad, folks!

[dumplin]

When I was in college, for Rush Week our society made root beer floats. They were so popular that we bought all the 5 gallon tubs of vanilla ice cream. We had to start using the ones that were half chocolate/half vanilla. I tried a root beer float with chocolate ice cream. (We were saving the vanilla for the freshmen.) It was really good! I got a few other people to try it, and soon everyone wanted one. It worked out well because there was a lot of chocolate ice cream at the grocery. Of course, we're talking about cheap root beer and cheaper chocolate ice cream. For the record, a regular root beer float with vanilla is just not interesting to me.