Rootbeer floats are great I just wonder how anyone ever got the idea to put ice cream in root beer.
Robert M. Green's account, published in Soda Fountain magazine in 1910, states that while operating a soda fountain at the Franklin Institute's semi-centennial celebration in Philadelphia in 1874, he wanted to create a new treat to attract customers away from another vendor who had a fancier, bigger soda fountain. After some experimenting, he decided to combine ice cream and soda water. During the celebration, he sold vanilla ice cream with 16 different flavors of soda water. The new treat was a sensation, and soon other soda fountains began selling ice cream sodas.
Another account is that of Fred Sanders, who owned the successful Detroit confectioners, the Pavilion of Sweets, first opened on June 17, 1875. One night in 1876, some customers came in shortly before closing time and ordered sweet cream sodas, a popular drink at that time. Sanders' ice delivery hadn't come that day, leading his sweet cream to go sour, so he used ice cream instead.
-Shamelessly Stolen from Wikipedia
Soda floats are a good idea and a wonderful thing.
The thing that irritates me most is how tricky it is for me to track down where I live. In Asda they have 6-pack cans, and in Sainsbury's they have 2-litre bottles, but neither of those stores are particularly close to me, meaning that I can only get it as a 'treat'.
Still bloody lovely though.
Also Waitrose sell Bunderburg root beer... Otherwise I find the best selection is found in Chinatown.
Edit: Obviously not Chinatown, NY. A Chinatown somewhere in the UK.
Oops - sorry man - I was thinking specifically of Londons Chinatown (just off Leicester Square)... But pretty much any 'Chinese supermarket' should stock a good selection (When I was at uni - Bristol had a great little supermarket)
Well, I can't believe it but someone forgot to mention that Root Brew is indeed BREWED. This is probably how it go its name since it was BREWED along side actual beer. Someone labeled it as beer and someone corrected saying it was "Root" Beer so it wasn't mistaken for the boot leg booze. Also, I didn't realize that Root Beer wasn't everywhere. now that you mention it though I never did see any Root beer in any of the Arabic shops or markets, I just never thought about it.
Tasted it once. Baecause of Monkey Island actually. Didn't really fancy the taste. We have these gums here in Sweden, with a polar bear on the cover that tastes almost exactly the same. Don't know if they're international. The taste is okay for a gum, but I think it becomes to sweet for a soda.
I have no idea what you guys drink out there, but in my homeland a nice, thick glass of boza puts some hair on a man's chest and some chest on a woman.
Just had a delicious root beer float. Probably my favorite desert, currently competing with Rita's blue raspberry water ice. I had no idea that it was primarily an American beverage though. I feel bad for some of you guys.
They used to sell root beer in McDonalds over here in England...I don't think it sold too well, since they took it off the menu. It is an acquired taste.
Wait, you don't have rootbeer in other countries? That's a shame. I'm drinking it right now; it's marvelous. I've always dreamed of moving to England, but if there's no rootbeer...
Wait, you don't have rootbeer in other countries? That's a shame. I'm drinking it right now; it's marvelous. I've always dreamed of moving to England, but if there's no rootbeer...
i think id have to get it imported it if i moved to another country. i couldnt go without it.
I've never had root beer, but I've heard the Swedish drink Julmust is supposed to resemble it as it is also an non alcoholic beer type of drink. Commonly drunk around Christmas and Easter as the name implies. Damn near impossible to find other times of year to my personal dismay as I love the drink.
Anyway, some american will have to go to an IKEA store with a food department and tell me if it really does taste like root beer or not sometime Either way it's an awesome drink in itself
I've never had root beer, but I've heard the Swedish drink Julmust is supposed to resemble it as it is also an non alcoholic beer type of drink. Commonly drunk around Christmas and Easter as the name implies. Damn near impossible to find other times of year to my personal dismay as I love the drink.
Anyway, some american will have to go to an IKEA store with a food department and tell me if it really does taste like root beer or not sometime Either way it's an awesome drink in itself
First of all, to set the record straight--my grampuh invented root beer. And aluminum foil. On the same day, incidentally.
Second of all, yes. Root beer floats are Americana (for some reason, it had never occurred to me that root beer itself would be, too), and very American in that way. I once tried to serve an Italian friend of mine (she's not as bitchy as this makes her sound) a root beer float, as we were in a group and we were all having one.
She said it was disgusting. Laughing, in a non-horrible way, she said the very concept was nasty--"who would think of such a thing?" she said.
She even tasted it. Didn't change her mind. Was still disgusting.
...Psh. See if I ever take her out for a deep-fried Twinkie...
Do other countries eat corn dogs? I know that the USA is responsible for those.
Haha we make all the best stuff in this department. Also this is drifting into a very Sam & Maxish thread, with talk of corn dogs, and towering sugary deserts combining things in unholy ways which offend Europeans in their grossness.
I finally found a root beer this week, after years of searching. I'm disappointed to say I didn't like it. Though it was an Aussie import, perhaps American root beer is different.
In any case, you Americans still have a way to catch up with Scotland with unhealthy foods. The land where I've seen people deep fry a toffee apple and then put sugar on it (as if to counteract the alleged vitamins in the apple if they had survived that long). Granted, he was drunk at the time...
In any case, you Americans still have a way to catch up with Scotland with unhealthy foods. The land where I've seen people deep fry a toffee apple and then put sugar on it (as if to counteract the alleged vitamins in the apple if they had survived that long).
I don't know, we do have deep fried Twinkies (although, it appears to have possibly been created by someone from Rugby, England).
I've never had root beer, but I've heard the Swedish drink Julmust is supposed to resemble it as it is also an non alcoholic beer type of drink. Commonly drunk around Christmas and Easter as the name implies. Damn near impossible to find other times of year to my personal dismay as I love the drink.
Anyway, some american will have to go to an IKEA store with a food department and tell me if it really does taste like root beer or not sometime Either way it's an awesome drink in itself
Nope, Root Beer tastes very different to jumust
I found it tastes quite simillar to these:
Nope, Root Beer tastes very different to jumust
I found it tastes quite simillar to these:
I had a professor who always smells like those, or rather his hair did. He was like the stereotype of a professor, his hair standing in all directions, completely disconnected from the real world and could hold monologs discussing with himself with loud "hmmms" and "that's right" and "I didn't think of that".
Whenever he walked by you the smell was over whelming. We had a theory he had to feed his hair with those in order for it not to implode.
Good times
Shame on the julmust though, gotta love that drink though
Comments
On the subject of soda floats...
Robert M. Green's account, published in Soda Fountain magazine in 1910, states that while operating a soda fountain at the Franklin Institute's semi-centennial celebration in Philadelphia in 1874, he wanted to create a new treat to attract customers away from another vendor who had a fancier, bigger soda fountain. After some experimenting, he decided to combine ice cream and soda water. During the celebration, he sold vanilla ice cream with 16 different flavors of soda water. The new treat was a sensation, and soon other soda fountains began selling ice cream sodas.
Another account is that of Fred Sanders, who owned the successful Detroit confectioners, the Pavilion of Sweets, first opened on June 17, 1875. One night in 1876, some customers came in shortly before closing time and ordered sweet cream sodas, a popular drink at that time. Sanders' ice delivery hadn't come that day, leading his sweet cream to go sour, so he used ice cream instead.
-Shamelessly Stolen from Wikipedia
Soda floats are a good idea and a wonderful thing.
MUG!
Also, I think root beer was invented in Colorado. But that is coming from a rusty memory bank of this brain, so I could be wrong.
Also Waitrose sell Bunderburg root beer... Otherwise I find the best selection is found in Chinatown.
Chinatown, New York?
Edit: Obviously not Chinatown, NY. A Chinatown somewhere in the UK.
Oops - sorry man
And we have soda floats but we call them spiders.
Yikes!
i think id have to get it imported it if i moved to another country. i couldnt go without it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julmust
Anyway, some american will have to go to an IKEA store with a food department and tell me if it really does taste like root beer or not sometime
i'll have to try that sometime then
Even Coke and Pepsi floats are nice. Try it sometime... though nothing beats a rootbeer float.
Second of all, yes. Root beer floats are Americana (for some reason, it had never occurred to me that root beer itself would be, too), and very American in that way. I once tried to serve an Italian friend of mine (she's not as bitchy as this makes her sound) a root beer float, as we were in a group and we were all having one.
She said it was disgusting. Laughing, in a non-horrible way, she said the very concept was nasty--"who would think of such a thing?" she said.
She even tasted it. Didn't change her mind. Was still disgusting.
...Psh. See if I ever take her out for a deep-fried Twinkie...
Haha we make all the best stuff in this department. Also this is drifting into a very Sam & Maxish thread, with talk of corn dogs, and towering sugary deserts combining things in unholy ways which offend Europeans in their grossness.
I have seen them over here in the supermarket, but they are just not the same.
In any case, you Americans still have a way to catch up with Scotland with unhealthy foods. The land where I've seen people deep fry a toffee apple and then put sugar on it (as if to counteract the alleged vitamins in the apple if they had survived that long). Granted, he was drunk at the time...
Deep fried Mars bars are nice though.
I don't know, we do have deep fried Twinkies (although, it appears to have possibly been created by someone from Rugby, England).
Nope, Root Beer tastes very different to jumust
I found it tastes quite simillar to these:
I had a professor who always smells like those, or rather his hair did. He was like the stereotype of a professor, his hair standing in all directions, completely disconnected from the real world and could hold monologs discussing with himself with loud "hmmms" and "that's right" and "I didn't think of that".
Whenever he walked by you the smell was over whelming. We had a theory he had to feed his hair with those in order for it not to implode.
Good times
Shame on the julmust though, gotta love that drink though