# Root-Beer Floats **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** soda-softdrinks\ **Created:** [May 27, 2013, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/root-beer-floats/659443 "2013-05-27T02:40:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2013, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/root-beer-floats/659443/1 "2013-05-27T02:40:30Z")
One of the wonders of the West I’ve introduced the wife to is root-beer floats. She loves them. So do I. I think root-beer floats would do wonders for world peace if anyone would think to spread them around a little more. The rains have finally started, but it’s still hot as blazes outside. So yesterday (Sunday) I went to the little shop downstairs and picked up a small carton of the only flavor they had on hand at the moment, something called Rocky Chocky (or Chocky Rocky?) from Wall’s. (Wall’s, a British brand, is Good Humor in the US, I think.) I know traditionally you’re supposed to use vanilla ice cream for root-beer floats, but the wife turns up her nose at all things vanilla on all occasions. And I’d been dripping sweat from cleaning our balcony, and I fixed us a couple of BIG glasses. Mmmmm. And we prefer a sweeter root beer like Mirinda over A&W, which is a little too sharp for our tastes (except, oddly, in A&W shops, which we do have over here). You can only get A&W in cans here anyway, while Mirinda comes in large bottle. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2013, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/root-beer-floats/659443/2 "2013-05-27T03:13:13Z")
A&W is the touchstone by which all rootbeer floats are measured. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2013, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/root-beer-floats/659443/3 "2013-05-27T03:14:25Z")
Why is A&W in the can so different from the product in the A&W shop? Really, at least over here the canned stuff is way too sharp. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2013, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/root-beer-floats/659443/4 "2013-05-27T03:23:09Z")
Too carbonated, most likely. It has to be draft, in an iced mug to be perfect. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2013, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/root-beer-floats/659443/5 "2013-05-27T03:43:09Z")
And not diet. I live on diet pop, but diet A&W is vile. ---
**Author:** ![Inner\_Stickler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inner_stickler/32/318_2.png) [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2013, 4:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/root-beer-floats/659443/6 "2013-05-27T04:23:34Z")
This surprises me because draft or canned, A&W tastes sickeningly sweet to me. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2013, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/root-beer-floats/659443/7 "2013-05-27T04:27:04Z")
Love love _love_ root beer floats, and have since I was kid, when my parents would sometimes take me to a greasy spoon near the highway - good cheeseburgers and root beer floats I still fondly remember. Nowadays I’m partial to IBC root beer, but have no objection to A&W. ---
**Author:** ![Inner\_Stickler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inner_stickler/32/318_2.png) [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2013, 4:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/root-beer-floats/659443/8 "2013-05-27T04:33:52Z")
Diet IBC root beer also tastes awful. Perhaps root beer is simply not conducive to artificial sweeteners. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2013, 4:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/root-beer-floats/659443/9 "2013-05-27T04:56:00Z")
I have the regular IBC, not the diet. A root beer float is _never_ going to be health food. ---
**Author:** ![NDP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ndp/32/55_2.png) [@NDP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NDP)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2013, 5:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/root-beer-floats/659443/10 "2013-05-27T05:03:06Z")
Do they have [Barq’s](http://barqs.com/)where you are? ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2013, 5:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/root-beer-floats/659443/11 "2013-05-27T05:31:21Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > Too carbonated, most likely. It has to be draft, in an iced mug to be perfect. Probably that’s it, because the root beer at the A&W shops here is good. > [@Inner\_Stickler](#): > > This surprises me because draft or canned, A&W tastes sickeningly sweet to me. It’s not the only example of something tasting different over here, although they usually make it sweeter if anything. Sprite and 7-Up are much sweeter here than in the US. > [@NDP](#): > > Do they have [Barq’s](http://barqs.com/)where you are? No, no Barq’s, but I remember it. Over here, we have only Mirinda in bottles and A&W in cans. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2013, 6:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/root-beer-floats/659443/12 "2013-05-27T06:52:14Z")
Barq’s isn’t really that good, it’s just the caffeine in it that gets you addicted. A&W is good, sure. Let it sit out for a while if you want it to taste more like it does at the draft. In my experience, the draft is barely carbonated at all. They also use more syrup, but I’m not sure how to mimic that. And the bad thing about diet is not just the taste, but that it foams up really bad when you mix it with ice cream. And, unlike regular root beer, the foam doesn’t taste like the drink, but actually amplifies the artificial sweetener taste. ---
**Author:** ![flight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/bbce88/32.png) [@flight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flight)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2013, 7:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/root-beer-floats/659443/13 "2013-05-27T07:23:37Z")
There is no rootbeer but Virgil’s. I did a blind taste test a few years ago with several friends and my dad, who has been a great lover of rootbeer floats (primarily A&W) his whole life. I bought ever variety I could find in five different stores. This included A&W, Barq’s, IBC, and several others. There was no comparison at all, Virgils was ranked best by everyone, and the others were all midrange to poor in comparison. It makes an absolutely beautiful float, too. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2013, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/root-beer-floats/659443/14 "2013-05-27T13:56:33Z")
There’s nothing wrong with A&W, but there’s a whole world of truly great root beer above it. The high-quality root beers come only in glass bottles. And diet pop, of any variety, is truly vile. I’ll take you’uns’ word that diet root beer is even worse than others, because I’m not going to try any of that stuff again to confirm it. ---
**Author:** ![johnpost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f17d59/32.png) [@johnpost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnpost)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2013, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/root-beer-floats/659443/15 "2013-05-27T14:49:04Z")
there are multiple types of root beer float ecstasy. A&W tap root beer with A&W soft serve ice cream is excellent. so is hard ice cream in home made root beer. this also has the advantage that if the ice cream is dense enough and the root beer chilled that you can refill the root beer before all the ice cream is gone (leads to root beer bloat). ---
**Author:** ![AaronX](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/7bcc69/32.png) [@AaronX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AaronX)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2013, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/root-beer-floats/659443/16 "2013-05-27T14:52:22Z")
Hey, is the A&W root beer in Thailand by Coca Cola as well? Why is it root beer and vanilla ice-cream? Why not Coke and chocolate, etc.? ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2013, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/root-beer-floats/659443/17 "2013-05-27T15:11:31Z")
> [@AaronX](#): > > Hey, is the A&W root beer in Thailand by Coca Cola as well? > > Why is it root beer and vanilla ice-cream? Why not Coke and chocolate, etc.? No, A&W in Thailand is I believe a franchise operation not connected to Coca-Cola Co. Their local website is [here](http://www.awthai.com/newweb/index.php). ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2013, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/root-beer-floats/659443/18 "2013-05-27T16:36:01Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > Barq’s isn’t really that good, it’s just the caffeine in it that gets you addicted. I don’t always agree with you (I rarely agree with anybody) but you have a point. > [@](#): > > And the bad thing about diet is not just the taste, but that it foams up really bad when you mix it with ice cream. And, unlike regular root beer, the foam doesn’t taste like the drink, but actually amplifies the artificial sweetener taste. I wish to clarify that I was not speaking of using Diet A&W in a float, but in drinking it chilled but neat. Diet root beer in floats is an abomination in the eyes of God. ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2013, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/root-beer-floats/659443/19 "2013-05-27T17:46:38Z")
> [@AaronX](#): > > Why is it root beer and vanilla ice-cream? Why not Coke and chocolate, etc.? If you don’t have root beer, cola is a perfectly acceptable substitute. Never tried chocolate ice cream. Sounds interesting. Might be a little too sweet with root beer, but it would probably go well with Coke. ---
**Author:** ![Erdosain](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/erdosain/32/7284_2.png) [@Erdosain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Erdosain)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2013, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/root-beer-floats/659443/20 "2013-05-27T18:21:02Z")
I agree that diet root beer is generally an abomination, but I happened to pick up a bottle of A&W Ten the other day and it was excellent for a diet soda. It has just enough sugar to mask the aspartame flavor. But no, you shouldn’t use diet soda in a float. It’s just silly. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/root-beer-floats/659443.md?page=2)