Vanilla ice cream + orange juice/soda = Creamsicle.
Vanilla ice cream + grape juice/soda = Purple Cow.
Smite the heretic!
Vanilla ice cream + root beer = Black Cow. 
I am going to have to experiment with making it using Dr. Pepper. That sounds GOOD!
Try making your ** Root-beer Float** with Coffee Ice Cream. It is astounding. You’re welcome.
Going along with Siam Sam’s original premise, consider this:
- The posters here all enjoy root beer floats.
- None of the posters here have attempted to overthrow a national goverment (well, as far as I know).
therefore, - The root beer float IS the key to world peace.
I love a good creamsicle float. Orange and vanilla is one of my favorite flavor combinations.
If you have an A&W restaurant near you, usually you can buy the draft root beer by the gallon. We used to live two blocks from one and my husband would walk down and pick up one for family parties. His family considers root beer floats the perfect party food. Nearly every family party has a bog standard box cake and root beer floats (almost always made with cheap ice cream in the big tubs and store brand root beer.
My favorite root beer is Henry Weinhard’s. It’s got a lovely smooth flavor. I would never muss it up with ice cream, though. It’s too good to hide.
I did that this spring when Jewel was stocking Green River for St. Patricks Day and I have to admit it was pretty awesome.
If all else fails, you can get Green River at Grange Hall Burgers on Randolph. You might even be able to talk them into making you a float with it
Er, um, well …
Alas! They’re not set up for that over here. Not even by the liter.
I love A&W Floats but when I was young, my mother used to make “poor man’s floats” out of Vernor’s ginger ale and milk. 
When my stomach is giving me grief I find it’s very soothing. I recommend 2 fingers of ginger ale to half a glass of milk.
Wasn’t it Shirley (of “Laverne and…”) who used to drink milk and Pepsi all the time?
I discovered Vernor’s during a trip to Ann Arbor about four years ago. I’ve never seen it outside of Michigan. After I returned to New York, I concocted an acceptable facsimile, out of desperation, by mixing 3 to 4 parts ginger ale with one part cream soda. I’ve never tried it with ice cream, but I imagine it would taste pretty good with a scoop of vanilla.
Do you have a Dominick’s near you? If you don’t, I’ll buy you some at mine - then you’ll have to come out and get it, but then you’d get to meet ME - so no downside there, right?
I think it was Laverne.
When I was in Florida, the neighborhood that my parents lived in had a large contingent of Michiganers, and of course, the general store stocked good old Vernors. It is an acquired taste. I remember ordering ginger ale in NY and thinking “What IS THIS STUFF?” Tasted rather flat. 
Yes, it was Laverne who drank milk and Pepsi. In fact, Penny Marshall drank it in real life – presumably still does – and added it to her character.
I see that Wikepedia lists “Black Cow” and “Brown Cow” as synonyms for Root-Beer Floats, but my Dad remembered getting a “Brown Cow” at the golf club (central Michigan) during Prohibition when his father got a “Black Cow” made with Beer.
Myself, I used to drink 4 pints/2 litres of raw milk a day. I still love RB or Coke mixed with milk at about half’n’half, but my gut can’t handle more than about 1/2 pint in a single serving now, so I’ve had to cut back.
I have a theory here.
As far as I know, the love of corn syrup as a sweetener in the US is due to the US Government corn subsidy which makes corn syrup cheaper than sugar. It seems quite likely that sodas in other parts of the world are made with cane sugar, and that is the taste you are interpreting as “sweeter”.
Thanks to an experiment by Pepsico a little while ago, introducing “Throwback” versions of Pepsi and Mountain Dew (and “Heritage” Dr. Pepper) which was made with sugar instead of corn syrup, I have had the chance to do a side-by-side comparison between the modern flavor and the sodas of my childhood, and the sweetness is both clearer and less cloying when sugar is used.
Unrelated: Some people live where A&W comes from Coke??
Where I am, A&W is distributed by the vendor of 7-Up, which is owned by the Pepsi vendor but separate.
The weirdest thing is Dr.Pepper, which is distributed by Pepsi and bottled by Pepsi and usually (though not always) included when there is a 2-for deal on Pepsi products. This is weird because the company that owns A&W and RC Cola and 7-Up and basically everything else from that local non-Pepsi distributor is called the Dr.Pepper-Snapple Group. Other brands they own that we get from Pepsi include Schweppes and Crush. 
Yeah, check this out: https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-zqli9hdZpSE/UUZ00kIiMII/AAAAAAABOCc/6LgQuJO6olQ/s800/2013_%25203_18_%25209_58.jpg
That and the restrictive import quotas on cane suger, which make sugar more expensive than cane syrup.
They’ve got you coming and going.
I’ve heard the cane-sugar theory before but don’t know if it’s used as a sweetener here. They grow enough cane here, that’s for sure. Thailand is an exporter.
Well, the ingredients on the can linked to above list sugar and not high fructose corn syrup, so at least that part of the theory is right. As for whether that is responsible for the perceived taste difference, more testing is needed.
Let’s not forget about the venerable Boston Cooler - Vanilla ice cream and Vernor’s Ginger Ale. Why we call something consumed primarily in Michigan, Toledo, and Cleveland a Boston Cooler has been lost to the mysteries of time, but it is a damned good concoction!