Here’s a great ice cold drink that’s quick, easy & safe for kids to make. And, wow, as hot as it’s been across the country, a good cold drink is something just about everyone could use right now - if not sooner.

Traditionally, this ice cold, kid-favorite drink is made with root beer and vanilla ice cream and is therefore more commonly known as a root beer float. But the great thing about this drink is that you can make it with any kind of cola, ginger ale, lemon-lime soda or fruit soda and any flavor of ice cream. As a younger kid, I liked ginger ale and vanilla ice cream. As an older “kid”, my new favorite combination is cream soda (I check the labels to find one that’s not full of artificial flavor - that’s usually not easy) and moose tracks ice cream (vanilla ice cream packed with chocolate strips and chocolate peanut butter cups). Actually, that’s the real fun of it: playing with different sodas and ice creams and discovering new flavor combinations.

Here’s a picture book outline of what you’ll need and how to make this drink. Just click any picture on this page for a direct link to complete easy to follow step-by-step picture book directions.

Needed

Your favorite well chilled Soda
Your favorite ice cream
An ice cream scoop or a big spoon
Tablespoon
Tall glass (12-16 ounces, and preferably one that’s been frosted in the freezer for at least 15 minutes or cooled quickly by stirring with ice cubes and cold water until the outside of the glass is cold)

1. Add 1-2 scoops of your favorite ice cream to a tall glass.

2. Soda first poured over ice cream tends to fizz and bubble to a froth very quickly. So, to avoid spilling over, slowly pour your favorite well chilled soda over the ice cream until the glass about 2/3’s full.

Then, gently stir the soda and ice cream with a tablespoon. Stirring gently like this will both calm the bubbling and add ice cream flavor to the soda. Once the bubbling has settled as shown here,…

…top the glass with more soda, and, WAH, enjoy!