Talk:Root beer float

Could someone verify that chocolate ice cream foams significantly MORE THAN vanilla. Even with vanilla, the root beer foams enormously...I don't think it's the flavor; it's a root beer trait. Kaz 16:27, 21 Feb 2005 (UTC)

It's the yucca extract specifically added to root beer as a foaming agent.

Rmhermen 22:13, 10 March 2006 (UTC)

Black Cow

In New England, or at least Massachusetts, a Black Cow is not a root beer float, but root beer blended with vanilla ice cream.

In Oklahoma a Brown Cow is milk or ice cream blended with Coke, and sometimes chocolate syrup. A black cow is just a cow that is black.

---

I was actually told that a Black Cow is a root beer float done with chocolate ice cream instead of vanilla. Is this a legitimate application of this term or what? Danarchy 07:43, 24 September 2007 (UTC)

What causes the foam?

do you know why a root beer float foams?

It's the yucca extract specifically added to root beer as a foaming agent. Rmhermen 03:48, 20 March 2006 (UTC)

I think the presence of ice cream also provides more places for bubbles to form from the root beer. --Ihope127 19:31, 20 June 2006 (UTC)

Yes, it's the ice cream. The carbon dioxide won't come out of solution and form bubbles unless "nucleation sites" are present, and the nucleation sites for bubbles are just microscopic bubbles. Ice cream contains zillions of microscopic bubbles, and these trigger the formation of much larger bubbles when the root beer hits. Try this: pour root beer into milk. Nothing happens (you just get some brown milk.) But try pouring root beer onto ice cream (or pour it into melted ice cream) and you get a huge explosion of foam. The tiny bubbles in the ice cream all become inflated with C02 gas. Also try this: pour root beer into whipped cream. Same thing happens: a big explosion of foam as the micro-bubbles in the whipped cream all grow large. PS, "foaming agent" doesn't cause bubbles to form, instead it's more like an edible detergent which preserves the foam and keeps the bubbles from popping. --Wjbeaty 01:56, 4 July 2006 (UTC)

Brown Cow v. Black Cow

The Cripple Creek story tells us the original root beer float was dubbed a Black Cow, and the Variations section says a Coke float is also called this. So Black means either Coke or root beer. But the first part of the article says Brown Cow also means either Coke or root beer (though this may be a result of confusion between "former" and "latter"). So both names mean either drink, or so the article presently says, in a very confusing way.

This needs to be clearer. Either say either term can refer to either float, or pick one color per soda. In all likelihood, in the same place the two terms mean different things, but from region to region the colors switch meanings. But I've never personally heard either drink referred to as anything other than a float, so I don't think I'm the one to do the clarifying. Someone with personal experience want to give it a go?

In other countries...

Floats are also known as (and perhaps more commonly known as) spiders in Australia. Perhaps there should be some mention of names for floats in other countries. --Colourblind 02:27, 7 July 2006 (UTC)

Great minds think alike

I am particularly interested in the origin of "black cow" for a special reason. When I was a kid (in Norway) there was a soft drink called Hires that I don't remember much about but I suppose it must have been green - the back of the label had a recipe for a dessert called Green Horse which was basically an ice cream float made with Hires. Our family became quite fond of the sweet cold dessert, and when Hires got discontinued we tried to find a substitute and ended up using Coke. The first time we had this new mix, my father decided we couldn't call it Green Horse any more, so he came up with a new name. You guessed it - Black Cow. For all these years I have thought he made it up and only we knew about it. Then I came here today and found this article using the term. Either the explanation is in the section heading, or he must have picked it up somewhere, or somehow his invention made it out into the big world...130.67.140.148 18:29, 23 May 2007 (UTC)

Variations

I don't know what this variation is called (if anything), but at a party I had a root beer float served with a shot of Bailey's in it. I wonder if this should be mentioned. It was VERY good by the way. :) Danarchy 07:46, 24 September 2007 (UTC)