Bingo.
The best root beer I’ve EVER had (and I’m an aficionado) is Big Shot, from New Orleans. It comes in two-liter bottles, and there are several other Big Shot-brand sodas, from orange to pineapple. But it is the smoothest, creamiest root beer I’ve ever had. Once I brought back a case of two-liter bottles from a New Orleans road trip! Unfortunately, it isn’t available anywhere else, and I’ve even contacted the company to mail-order some… to no avail. I love A&W and IBC, but Big Shot beats them all.
And personally, I like Breyer’s Vanilla with the little vanilla bean specks! Gotta have a frosty mug, no matter what ingredients you’re using.
sometimes i stop for 2 pints on the way home. 1 pint of ben and jerry vanilla, and a pint of diet a&w or stewarts.
it is the only way to drown your sorrows. or float them away.
My dear sweet grandma used to make us root beer floats. Only, she used Pepsi and chocolate ice cream. I don’t recommend the combination to the squeamish.
(I don’t even think it was ice cream, it was that ice milk stuff, all thin and watery. Sheesh.)
Amateur.
Pardon me while I . . . :: barf :: . . . um, write that name down. Damn, if I don’t hate Dominion. It’s a root beer with aspirations of being a cream soda, or vice versa.
Actually, A&W is the best ONLY if served (fresh) from an A&W restaurant, draft style, as it were. The glass bottled stuff was an okay substitute, but the reigning plastic bottles lose something in the translation. The difference in taste between the draft and the plastic bottled stuff is phenomenal. Some lovers of the latter may not care for the former. Naturally, any root beer served in an aluminum can should be avoided. Stewart’s is expensive, good, but coasts on nostalgia.
That is all.
I’l usually settle for IBC and Breyer’s, but dammit, I miss the days when I had my first real job - tending the fountain at Swensen’s - and we used to make sarsaparilla floats. Stuff has a harder kick. And boy, you’d be boggled at the things people will special-order (a root beer float with daiquiri ice? A pineapple malt? Eeeew!)
Someday, when I have more space for insanely one-use kitchen gadgets, I’ll have a real, honest-to-goodness shake blender, the kind with the stick that you center in the big metal glass. And I will have real malt powder - none of that wimpy Carnation stuff you buy at the grocery store.
Eva Luna, 3rd-Generation Ice Cream Professional
Mmm, root beer floats. I like mine with Barq’s or IBC. I don’t like to use vanilla bean ice cream for them, though. The flecks put me off, though usually I don’t mind them.
Mountain Dew floats are delicious, but a bit much for me. Too much caffeine at once. I also like to make grape soda floats.
Have you tried draft style Old Dominion?
Surely I can’t be the only one who likes Virgil’s root beer?
The best root beer I ever had was the homebrew stuff at the late lamented Unicorn pub in Seattle. The first time you tried it, it had a weird herbal flavor that was kind of offputting. The second time you tried it, you realized that it was utterly fantastic.
Oh, but I am… sweet, sweet Mt. Dew floats… mmm…
All right. I’m back. (why, yes, I did get a hair cut, thank you for noticing!) I’ve made my trip to 7 Eleven. There I got some ice cream - the only kind I could find was Hagen Daas, which is perfectly fine by me. I got the A&W Root Beer yesterday when I went grocery shopping. (I forgot to get ice cream then :smack: )
So, I freeze my glass ahead of time, while I’m out for my walk to the 7 Eleven. When I get back it’s nice and cold and has that layer of frost on it. It’s bigger than it looks, and holds 16 oz. I get home and take it out of the freezer. I put on some tunes. You know, to get in the mood. Adam Ant will do for this little experiment. (yeah, I threw him in 'cause when I was drawing, “Desperate But Not Serious” came up in my playlist, and I decided to draw him, too.)
I start out by tentatively scooping out just one scoop of ice cream into my cup. It’s a nice big scoop. I go off to get another spoon, because the one I was using was way too weak, and kept bending like a pansy. Grr. So when I come back… I swear to Og, the Root Beer looked like it had inched closer to the glass. As I put another scoop of ice cream into my glass, I thought I heard the root beer growl. And possibly wink. I think it had serious plans for that ice cream.
I only have this little bit of ice cream packed into the glass, but I thought I should try maybe pouring a tiny bit of root beer onto it, just so I could get an idea of the foamage I would get when the thing was full. Bad idea . Lots of foam. The root beer is mocking me.
Eventually, the foam settles back down to a respectable level. I decide to just start packing the ice cream into the glass, and handle it when I got there. I keep a closer eye on that root beer. I know it’s plotting against me. I’m already pretty sticky.
So, I get the glass full of ice cream, and pour root beer very, very slowly over it… but it just doesn’t want to behave. I mean, I’ve made root beer floats before, but this is ridiculous. Maybe it’s the Hagen Daas. Whatever it is, the damn root beer knows, and isn’t telling, and is enjoying this foaming deal way too much. Whenever I put the cap back on it, it makes this hissing noise. I know now it’s stifling it’s laughter. Infidel. Cisco did warn me, after all… but this is even more than I expected. And I expected lots!
I do try to slurp. It makes me very gassy.
Finally, after the foam has settled a little bit, I take my spoon and dig in. It is delicious! It makes me feel incredibly full, though. That’s a lot of ice cream and root beer by the time I’m done.
I did finally get back at that damn root beer.
My own personal review: I’d make this again. Foam be damned. It’s worth it. Yummy, thank you** Cisco**!
(For inquiring minds, my most recent Doperpic. Don’t click if you don’t want the illusion shattered!)
Anastasaeon, I think I just might love you.
Wait… you hate Bryer’s ice cream, but think A&W is good root beer?
You kids today…
Man, that was so good, I’m craving it again… I went out and bought more ice cream and root beer. Now if I could just button my pants… :o
That’s the only drawback. I feel like I just ate a herd of deer.
Wow, Anastasaeon, not only are you abso-freaking-lutely hilarious, you have some real artistic talent. I was laughing my ass off reading that. I seriously burst out pretty loud a couple of times, which I’m almost sure scared the crap out of the migrant workers who are right outside my window.
Thanks for participating in this and the coke-au-lait thread. You took two really, really mundane pointless threads and made them classic (to me, at least.)
Hah! I told you so! I was not joking in the OP when I said you’ll probably need to unbutton your pants.
I made one in a 32oz cup last week right after dinner and used about a liter of root beer (with the eat and refill method.) I really thought I was going to puke there for about a half hour.
But y’all are missing the best part! Where’s the ounce of hot fudge drizzled slowly into the root beer float?
Seriously. You gotta try it.
If you’re really lucky and live on the west coast, you can get yourself a sixer of Thomas Kemper root beer. Not only that, but you can combine the other flavors with ice cream (like black cherry) and man oh man, is that GOOD stuff.
I had this at my lips when I read your post
I had to pick up something else to drink before my body will allow me to put more root beer in there…
Anastasaeon, not only was that utterly adorable, it was a thorough exploration of the disasters of adding too much ice cream to your floats.
Chilled glass, small layer of root beer on the bottom, root beer on the top to fill up, slurp excess foam as it appears, get long spoon, enjoy. Add corn syrup after you slurp the excess foam if desired.
I can’t really provide proof at the moment, though, since I’m stuck with this godawful stuff. Ugh.