Wednesday's Unscientific Survey

[nanila]

[Keiki and me in our hotel room after a visit to the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum in Washington D.C. Please note awesome new hoodie (grey, zip-up, with "Blackbird SR-71" embroidered on it).]

Keiki and I returned yesterday from a four-day trip to the States, during which I ate and drank All The [American] Things. It occurred to me, during my third root beer* float, that I have a very specific way of consuming a float. First, I use the long spoon (there must always be a long spoon) to eat the foam created by the initial contact between the ice cream and the root beer. Then I use the long spoon to poke the scoop of ice cream around, scraping off the bits that are melting into the root beer. When I'm finally bored of that, I stir the remaining ice cream into the root beer until it's well blended. Only then do I drink it through the straw (there must always be a straw).

So now I want to know, how do YOU consume your ice cream soda?

* Root beer, for UK persons who have not had the pleasure, is a bit like dandelion & burdock. Except sweeter, of course.

Comments

[yvi]

Consume your what now?

That concept pretty much unknown in Germany as far as I am concerned.

[redsixwing]

Hi! I'm an American who had German guests a couple of years ago.

We served them root beer floats. They were...unimpressed. I gather the soda in question is both too sweet and too medicinal-herby flavored to be appealing.

[nanila]

I get that root beer can be overpoweringly sweet, but I don't understand the medicinal-herby thing, which I've heard from a lot of Brits.

Did you try serving them Coke floats? Or were they put off any further experimentation by the root beer?

[redsixwing]

I think a lot of people read the licorice root/vanilla combination that way. (Personally, I like it.)

They were so put off by the root beer floats that they didn't want to try anything else. We'd previously given them s'mores as well (for those who've never had one, graham cracker sandwich around a bit of chocolate - and American chocolate is nastily sweet, I admit - and a roasted marshmallow. Basically sugar on a sugar sandwich with some sugar on the side) - and that may have had something to do with it, poor guys.

They did quite like the local microbrew, though. :)

[nanila]

Yeah, s'mores are pretty cloying. I find them difficult to consume now, although I loved them when I was seven.

I'm glad you managed to find something they enjoyed!

[nanila]

I can understand not having root beer floats as root beer seems to be mostly an American thing. But I can imagine putting ice cream in a lovely malty (alcoholic) German beer. Drinking that sounds quite nice!

[yvi]

I don't think Germans have evolved to find that thought appealing ;-)

[yvi]

(I don't drink any alcohol, by the way. But most people I know wouldn't like the idea if tampering with the "perfect" German beer, I think)

[nanila]

I can understand that perspective. German beer is pretty awesome on its own. Especially weissbier. Consuming weissbier is the drinking equivalent of eating a slice of a freshly made loaf of bread.

[redsixwing]

I eat them pretty much the same way you do. That initial frozen froth is the best thing ever. (Unless you do it with birch beer, which is tastier yet.)

[nanila]

I've never had birch beer. One day I must try it!

The very best root beer floats I ever had were made with the root beer that my uncle used to brew. It was a lot...rootier...than the commercial stuff, and less sweet. I suspect it might have also been mildly alcoholic. :P

[redsixwing]

Oh yum!

Actually-brewed root beer is mildly alcoholic, yes. *s* I'd dearly love to try brewing my own some day, I like a slightly different mix of spices than most.

[nanila]

Now I want to try that as well, especially since it's not easy to find root beer in the UK. I can't imagine anyone here would want to import the commercial stuff anyway, it's far too sweet for the British palate.

[ankaret]

I don't think I've ever had one, but now I mean to.

[nanila]

Excellent! You could, as a substitute, use Fentiman's dandelion and burdock if you can't get your hands on American root beer.

[davidgillon]

Thoroughly approve of the hoody, I have a Paris Airshow teeshirt with the B-2 emblazened across the back that I'm inordinately fond of.

I was never a float fan, but ISTR my sister eating/drinking them exactly the same way.

BTW, have you seen the (not quite latest anymore) xkcd - I saw it and thought of you ;) http://xkcd.com/1532/

[nanila]

I'm looking forward to wearing the hoodie to work in a casual sort of a way. :D

That XKCD made me chuckle. Nervously. :P

[nicki]

Rootbeer, in case you are interested, is the favored soda of relatively intelligent N. California teens/tweens ages 12-14 when offered a choice of Rootbeer, Sprite, or Coke.
(as measured during an end of the year play-day for honors students, several years running)

I only like rootbeer if it is the less sweetened varieties done by small craft style companies. I'm not a big fan of floats.

[nanila]

My uncle used to brew his own beer, and he also made root beer for the kids. His homebrew was the best I've ever had. Is Thomas Kemper still considered pretty good by those who like their root beer less sweet?

[nicki]

Sounds yummy. Thomas Kemper is generally considered pretty good. They have a lot of other slightly non-mainstream sodas as well.

[highlyeccentric]

I eat the ice cream first then the remaining fizz, then drink it! And I'm generally only interested in Coke spiders - lemonade too weak, i don't like creaming soda, and something like Fanta would be awful as a spider. We don't get root beer in Aus.

[nanila]

Thanks for sharing your technique! I've never tried a float with lemonade. Now I'm wondering if they could be tasty with a combination of "proper" lemonade (as in the stuff made from lemons) and lemonade-the-soda and a scoop of vanilla.

[weaverbird]

I hoover up the frozen foam with the straw, then poke the straw through the ice cream and pull up a bit of root beer, along with the ice cream caught in the straw. After doing that a few times, I generally go back to the foam for a bit, then stir most of the ice cream into the root beer and drink it.

[nanila]

Oh, I like the idea of vacuuming up the foam through the straw. I'm going to try that!

[soliano]

I consume my floats the same way you do. Yum!

[nanila]

*fist-bump of float solidarity* Huzzah!

[emelbe]

My float consumption looks all over the place but is pretty consistent from float to float. I'll use the spoon on the root beer/ice cream mix, the ice cream, and the whipped cream if there is any and alternate the spoon scoops with straw sips of unmixed root beer from the bottom. I do that until it's all nearly mixed then give it a good stir and polish it off with the straw. The cherry, if there is one, is allowed to marinate until all the liquid is gone and fished out with the spoon very last.

I have also been known to have actual beer floats (I suggest stouts with vanilla or pumpkin ales with vanilla) and cream soda floats (with ginger ice cream).

[nanila]

Ah yes, leaving the cherry for last. Some people have to eat them first, but some people are wrong. :P

I LOVE the idea of pumpkin ale with vanilla. I don't know if you can get it at this time of year but if you could bring over a bottle of pumpkin ale for us to make floats with while you're here, that would be awesome. Totally awesome. Epic, even.

[emelbe]

I shall look for it! If I don't find it (and I am unlikely to find it) I'll hunt down some other scrumptious and flavored and distinctly American beer to add to my attempts at maxing out the alcohol import allowance. I may've already had a thing of two planned but careful reading tells me another big bottle of beer won't tip it over the limit. Ahem.

Also stouts with chocolate and chocolate stouts with anything are suuuuuuper tasty too. Can you tell I've done extensive research?

[nanila]

\o/ I'm sure I can scare up some chocolate stout and a selection of chocolate here, and we can have a tasting afternoon. Mmm.

[pbristow]

By proxy.

Speaking of which: Thankyou! *BURP* =:o}

[nanila]

You're most welcome! (I had four in total, mmmm. :D)