Root beer is more than a glass on its own — it floats ice cream, anchors an old-fashioned, and mixes long and easy. Here are classics and a few of our own, across the whole botanical-soda family. Pick your soda from the cellar.
The drink that started it all: cold root beer poured over vanilla ice cream until the foam climbs the glass. It is the house benchmark every other float is measured against.
Ingredients
2-3 scoops vanilla ice cream
8-10 oz cold root beer
Whipped cream (optional)
Maraschino cherry (optional)
How to make it
Chill a tall glass and start with the ice cream, then pour the root beer slowly down the side so the foam builds without flooding the glass. Finish with a crown of whipped cream and a cherry, and serve with both a straw and a long spoon.
Drier and more herbal than a root beer float, with sarsaparilla's saponin-driven bark and licorice notes playing against sweet vanilla. A soda-fountain classic for anyone who finds root beer too candied.
Ingredients
2 scoops good vanilla ice cream
8-10 oz cold sarsaparilla
Whipped cream (optional)
How to make it
Drop the ice cream into a chilled fountain glass, then pour the sarsaparilla down the side to control the fizz. Let it foam, top with whipped cream if you like, and drink it right away before the bubbles fade.
A Detroit original named for the Boston-Edison neighborhood: Vernors ginger ale blended with vanilla ice cream into a spiced, creamy shake rather than a fizzy float. Aged ginger ale's pepper cuts the cream beautifully.
Ingredients
3 parts vanilla ice cream
1 part Vernors (or other bold ginger ale)
Extra ginger ale to loosen, if needed
How to make it
Unlike a float, blend the ginger ale and vanilla ice cream together to a thick, milkshake-like consistency, roughly three parts ice cream to one part soda. Add a splash more ginger ale if it needs loosening, and serve in a chilled glass with a spoon.
Vanilla on vanilla, with cream soda doubling down on the ice cream for a soft, nostalgic float. A splash of orange tips it straight into creamsicle territory.
Ingredients
2 scoops vanilla ice cream
8-10 oz cold cream soda
Splash of orange soda or sherbet (optional)
Whipped cream (optional)
How to make it
Add the ice cream to a chilled glass and pour the cream soda slowly over it to manage the foam. For a dreamsicle twist, swap a scoop for orange sherbet or add a splash of orange soda, then top with whipped cream.
All the spicy, tart snap of a Moscow Mule with none of the vodka, carried entirely by a bold ginger beer. The zero-proof proof that a great mule is really about the soda.
Ingredients
4-6 oz ginger beer
1/2 oz fresh lime juice
Fresh mint leaves
Ice
Lime wedge, for garnish
How to make it
Muddle a few mint leaves with the lime juice in the bottom of a mug, then fill with ice and top with ginger beer. Stir once and garnish with a lime wedge and a fresh mint sprig.
An old fashioned that leans into root beer's native vanilla, bark, and spice notes instead of fighting them. The sarsaparilla-adjacent botanicals make bourbon taste like it was always meant to go there.
Ingredients
2 oz bourbon
1/4 oz root beer syrup (or 1 barspoon)
2-3 dashes aromatic bitters
Splash of root beer or soda water
Large ice cube
Orange peel, for garnish
How to make it
Stir the bourbon, root beer syrup, and bitters with ice until well chilled, then strain over a large cube in a rocks glass. Top with a small splash of root beer or soda, express an orange peel over the top, and drop it in.
Birch beer's bright wintergreen lift gives a highball a cool, almost minty edge that ginger and cola can't touch. It is the easiest way to show off a regional birch alongside good bourbon.
Ingredients
2 oz bourbon
6-8 oz cold birch beer
Squeeze of fresh lime (optional)
Ice
Lime wheel or mint sprig, for garnish
How to make it
Fill a Collins glass with ice and pour the bourbon over it, then top slowly with cold birch beer to keep the bubbles. Add an optional squeeze of lime, stir once, and garnish with a lime wheel or mint.
Bermuda's national drink: a layer of dark rum drifting down through spicy ginger beer like a storm cloud rolling in. The name is trademarked to Gosling's, who insist on their Black Seal rum to call it authentic.
Ingredients
2 oz dark rum (traditionally Gosling's Black Seal)
5-6 oz spicy ginger beer
Lime wedge
Ice
How to make it
Fill a tall glass with ice and pour in the ginger beer, then float the dark rum on top so it sinks through in a stormy swirl. Squeeze a lime wedge over and drop it in; stir only if you want to tame the cloud.
The 1941 Los Angeles invention that made vodka, ginger beer, and the copper mug all famous at once. Spicy, tart, and endlessly riffable, it is the gateway ginger-beer cocktail.
Ingredients
2 oz vodka
1/2 oz fresh lime juice
4-6 oz ginger beer
Ice
Lime wedge and mint, for garnish
How to make it
Build it right in the mug: add lime juice and vodka over ice, then top with ginger beer and give it one gentle stir. Garnish with a lime wedge and mint, and use a stainless-lined copper mug rather than raw copper for the acidic mix.
A summer shandy with ginger beer standing in for the usual lemonade, splitting the glass evenly with a crisp lager. Lower in proof, high on refreshment, and built for the back porch.
Ingredients
6 oz cold lager
6 oz ginger beer
Squeeze of fresh lime
Ice (optional)
Lemon or lime wheel, for garnish
How to make it
Pour a cold lager into a tall glass, then add an equal measure of ginger beer slowly to preserve the fizz. Finish with a squeeze of lime and a citrus wheel; keep it roughly half-and-half so neither side dominates.
A garden-party spritz that treats tonic as the botanical centerpiece, its quinine bitterness laced with floral elderflower and fresh herbs. For a zero-proof version, drop the gin and lean on elderflower cordial.
Ingredients
2 oz gin
1 oz elderflower liqueur
3-4 oz quality tonic water
Lime wedge
Ice
Rosemary, thyme, or cucumber, for garnish
How to make it
Build over plenty of ice: pour the gin and elderflower liqueur into a wine glass or highball, then top with cold tonic water and stir gently. Squeeze in a lime wedge and garnish with a herb sprig or cucumber ribbon.
A root beer float scaled up to fill a punch bowl, foam and all. Built for a crowd, it stays photogenic only if you add the ice cream at the last minute.
Ingredients
2 liters cold root beer
1 quart vanilla ice cream
Whipped cream (optional)
Ground nutmeg or cinnamon (optional)
How to make it
Pour chilled root beer into a punch bowl, then scoop vanilla ice cream in just before guests arrive so it foams instead of melting flat. Add the soda and ice cream last-minute, and ladle into glasses with a little of the floating cream in each cup.