Soda’s bad for you. That’s a fact of life, and more people need to realize that. It’s one of the biggest culprits behind why America has gotten so fat, considering the average American drinks over 40 frigging gallons per year. Considering each serving is a good 150-200 calories, there’s plenty of evidence for why people shouldn’t be drinking multiple cups of it per day. Hell it reminds me of a friend of mine who even into high school, ate his cereal in Pepsi instead of using milk, since he was vegan. Hooray, no animals were mistreated, you just consumed nearly a pound of sugar! But I digress, this post isn’t meant to be a soda-bashing post. Soda should be considered a treat, like a dessert. Like ice cream. Oh boy, here comes a segue!

Vroooooooooomnope!

I rarely drink soda. Hell, I probably drink whiskey more often than soda. I’m not trying sound egotistical here, just offering some insight on how you can help kick the soda habit. As mentioned, in my opinion, the best way to look at the sugary drink is like that of a dessert. One of the more classic and retro American drink inventions is the root beer float, created in the late 1800s. It’s incredibly old, and to be honest I feel like it’s fallen by the wayside as a dessert beverage in modern times. I don’t know if this is because it’s so old or if it’s because people drink soda so often that it’s not special, but it’s a tasty treat that really should make a comeback. They’re incredibly easy to make at home, and they will satiate two cravings at once. So even though they’re indulgent and packed with sugar, they make for a great dessert or reward once in a while that are better than having a large serving of ice cream and multiple cups of soda separately. Consolidation-Jones FTW. If you’re intrigued and want to know how to make a homemade root beer float, you’ll be happy to know it takes like all of three minutes to do so.

Root Beer Float

• Ice cream of your choice
• 1 can/bottle of root beer
• Whipped cream
• Large cup and small cup
• Ice cream scoop/spoon
• Hot water
• Straw and spoon for eating

1.  Fill your small cup with hot water and place your ice cream scoop in the hot water. Let it sit there for about 30 seconds to 1 minute. You want the spoon to heat up since this will make it easy to take large, solid scoops of the ice cream out.
2. When spoon is heated, use it to spoon out several scoops of ice cream into the large cup, and compress slightly so that you have an inch or two of free space at the top of your cup.
3. Pour root beer over the ice cream so that it fills up to nearly the top. Be careful with the foam, as the ice cream tends to make the soda extra fizzy.
4. Once the fizzing subsides, fill up cup a little more so that it’s filled with the root beer. Top with whipped cream.
5. To serve, stick a straw down one side going through the soda and avoiding the ice cream, and place a spoon on the other. The correct method of consuming these is as follows:
   -Eat several bites of ice cream with spoon.
   -Take a sip of soda through straw.
   -Repeat until finished.

Pro-Tips

• The classic ice cream flavor for this is vanilla, however chocolate works well too. You can use more elaborate flavors, however anything that has chunks or pieces is a bad idea since the average person tends to find having chunks floating in a drink repulsive.
• You can use a large 2l bottle of soda and fill it to your heart’s content, or the smaller cans and glass bottles as well, though you’ll find the cans tend to be the exact amount needed for one float.
• A useful trick I’ve found for ‘killing’ the fizz while pouring is to stick your finger into it. This works better for regular drinks and not as well on floats since the head tends to be thicker, but it will still work.
• Any straw will work, but the thicker they are, the better.