Ice cream first or root beer first? Support your argument.
Ice cream first. It’s just less messy that way.
Definitely ice cream first, because the foam can get out of hand very quickly and ice cream first is easier to control.
Another ice cream first. Foams up nicely, slurp a little off the top and add more root beer.
I’m gonna go against the grain, here.
Root beer first. Root beer has a tendency to bubble/fizz up something fierce, and when it comes in contact with ice cream those bubbles tend to stick around for a long time.
So, when you add the ice cream to the root beer (carefully, to avoid splashes), you can get a higher root beer float : glass ratio.
I like to put a little root beer in first, maybe half an inch to an inch; then the ice cream, THEN fine tune the rest of the treat. I get all paranoid at the idea that there won’t be any liquid root beer, otherwise, and that it will only be foam and ice cream.
This is exactly why I do the root beer first. 
It does? On what?
On anything more dense. 
First we must discuss ingredients. A&W or Mug root beer are both good; Barq’s, while fine for drinking straight, tastes really weird when used for floats for some reason. The ice cream should be something high quality, with a minimum of additives such as guar gum (preferably none, like how Breyer’s used to be, grumble grumble). Cheap ice cream has a bunch of that crap in it, and doesn’t melt the same way.
Now we come to the question of whether to add the root beer first, or the ice cream. Foam is created when root beer and ice cream come into contact. If you add the ice cream first, all or most of the root beer will touch the ice cream before reaching the bottom of the glass, and you will have a ton of foam. But if you add the root beer first, only the top layer of root beer will touch the ice cream, assuming you don’t slam dunk the scoops into the glass.
Bearing all this in mind, it’s really very simple:
- Fill a glass half full of root beer.
- Add two scoops of ice cream.
- Enjoy your frosty beverage.
My WAG: it might be because of the caffeine, which typically lends a bitter flavor.
Ice cream first, of course. And its called a Black Cow where I come from.
I’ve always known a Black Cow or Brown Cow to be made of chocolate ice cream and root beer.
Incidentally, cherry vanilla ice cream works very well in a root beer float, even if it DOES have those cherry bits in it.
Wow! A scientific [?] reason to do what I want to do anyway! I do root beer first because I like less foaming. Fetchund likes the ice cream first.
When I worked at Dairy Queen 30 years ago (DAMN, I’m old), we put the ice cream in first but we tilted the cup so that it made a thick column all the way up the side.
If I were to make one at home, I’d put a scoop (or 2) in first.
Ditto.
We use thick beer mugs from the freezer, and I’ve found that if we but the ice cream in first, it tends to stick to the sides and bottom of the mug with a quickness. If we add some root beer first, and then add ice cream, and then more root beer, the ice cream actually floats. And that’s really the whole point, isn’t it?
Root beer first = Less foam + More pleasure.
I’d go with the root beer first. It may be messier, but most of the great things in life are great precisely because of the possibility of getting messy.
To my great sorrow, I discovered some time back that IBC Root Beer, which is in every other way the perfect beverage, does not extend its divinity to the making of floats. One finds that upon contact with the ice cream, IBC tends to form root-beery ice shards that disrupt the aesthetic smoothness of texture requisite to a properly prepared RBF.
ACK! say it ain’t so! if IBC (my drinking favorite) is persona non grata for root beer floats, what’s a girl to do? i can’t make my nephew inferior root beer floats for memorial day weekend!!!
what IS the best root beer to use?
We had an awesome thread about root beer floats awhile back where Anastaseon (hope I spelled that right) drew pictures of herself trying my recipe. I think she’s since said that she lost the pictures, unfortunately.
Oh yeah, ummm, ice cream first, but I think the last couple times I’ve tried root beer first and liked it.