Ice cream float

History

Robert M. Green invented the ice cream float in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1874 during the Franklin Institute's semicentennial celebration. According to the traditional story, Green ran out of ice for flavored drinks on a hot day and used vanilla ice cream from a neighboring vendor. In his own 1910 account in Soda Fountain magazine, Green stated that he wanted to attract customers from a larger soda fountain and combined ice cream with flavored soda. He sold vanilla ice cream with soda and a choice of 16 flavored syrups. The treat became a sensation, and Green's will instructed that "Originator of the Ice Cream Soda" be engraved on his tombstone. At least three other claimants exist: Fred Sanders, Philip Mohr, and George Guy, one of Green's employees, who claimed to have mixed ice cream and soda in 1872.

Variations

There are countless ice cream float variations, but a few have become especially well-known. In 2014, the Harry Potter area at Universal Orlando Resort introduced a drink made from brown sugar and butter syrup, cream soda, and whipped cream. Two years later, Starbucks released the Smoked Butterbeer Frappuccino Latte. A beer float combines Guinness stout, chocolate ice cream, and espresso.

The Shakin' Jesse version is blended into a milkshake-like consistency, while most bars serve the non-blended beer float. Today, a Boston cooler is usually made with Vernors ginger ale and vanilla ice cream. The first mention of a Boston cooler was in the St. Louis Post Dispatch, where a New York bartender claimed to have coined the term for a summer cocktail of sarsaparilla and ginger ale. By the 1910s, soda fountains used the name for a scoop of ice cream served in a melon half.

The name also covered other ice cream float combinations, including root beer, though ginger ale became the most common. As early as the 1880s, Sanders Confectionery in Detroit served a version with its own ice cream and Vernors. Originally, a Vernors Cream was sweet cream poured into Vernors; later, vanilla ice cream replaced the cream and was blended like a milkshake. A local myth claims it was named after Detroit's Boston Boulevard, but that street did not exist at the time.

The drink remains a popular summer treat in the Detroit area. In Mexico, popular versions use Coca-Cola with coconut and Kahlúa ice cream, chocolate Coca-Cola with vanilla ice cream, or red wine with lemon ice cream. Another variant, found in New Orleans and parts of Ohio, uses a pink, opalescent syrup made from equal parts almond and vanilla syrups, sweetened condensed milk, and red food coloring.