Are you a millennial like me? If so, you must remember the New York Seltzer craze. Those cheery glass bottles with their cartoony NYC skylines were everywhere. And I know this seems off topic, but stick with me because I had entirely forgotten about the existence of that stuff until I popped open a can of A&W’s new Ice Cream Sundae flavored soda and was instantly transported back to a bygone 1991 and watching Rugrats while carefully holding one of those aforementioned glass bottles because very young me staunchly refused to allow my seltzer to be poured into another vessel.
Basically, what I’m trying to say is that if you yearn for the taste of a long-discontinued cream soda flavored seltzer, which came back in 2015 and was discontinued again, have I got a product for you.
This soda isn’t bad, but I wouldn’t say it tastes like an ice cream sundae, either. Maaaaaybe a mid-tier egg cream. At best. On that front, I’m disappointed. It smells chemically, leaning toward chocolate, but I don’t really taste much in the way of chocolate flavor at all. The overwhelming taste is cream soda (as if that weren’t evident by the first paragraph) with a smack of something… else. Something I can’t quite put my finger on. Is it supposed to be maraschino cherry? Maybe caramel? Whipped cream? Sprinkles? I don’t know, but I can say that it really doesn’t add much to the final product. If you generally like cream sodas, you’ll probably like this one just fine.
There’s a strong and up front vanilla note surrounded by an artificial undertone that’s a bit distracting but not too horrible. It fades away quickly into a mild vanilla aftertaste. I think this would make a decent float, as the game you can play by scanning the QR code on the packaging suggests. The color is also a bit paler than I expected, but then I do tend to get my sundaes with chocolate ice cream, so that one might be on me.
On the whole, this is worth a try for the novelty factor, but don’t expect something completely new and unique.
Purchased Price: $8.78
Size: 12 pack/12 fl oz cans
Purchased at: Walmart
Rating: 5 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: (1 can) 150 calories, 0 grams of total fat, 0 grams of saturated fat, 0 milligrams of cholesterol, 70 milligrams of sodium, 40 grams of total carbs, 0 grams of dietary fiber, 40 grams of total sugar, and 0 grams of protein.
This reminded me a lot of the Hot Fudge Sundae Pop Tarts. I mixed it with my Buffalo Trace Bourbon Cream and that was a good choice
How the hell did you miss the HUGE UPFRONT CHOCOLATE SYRUP note? That’s like 80% of the taste!
It’s okay but Freestyle Coke machine Barq Root beer with vanilla is much better
If only they offered this in a zero sugar version. I try not to buy sodas with sugar if I don’t have to.
They do offer it in zero sugar. I have been enjoying it quite a bit
my dad used to consume insane quantities of Canfield’s Diet Chocolate Fudge soda, which I always thought was borderline undrinkable. I wonder if he would’ve liked this…
I bought a 12 pack of the soda shop flavor because I thought A & W couldn’t go wrong but I was wrong. I don’t get any kind of a root beer flavor just a sickening chocolate something or other. Tastes like the base may be cream soda and I dislike that. It is so sickening sweet that it made me feel nauseous. I should have read the reviews first.
I agree it is horrible I can barely drink 1/2 a can. Unfortunately I bought a 12 pack since I love there root beer and creme soda, I figured this would be really good. IT IS NOT!!!
I bought it thinking it was going to be an additional treat to A&W Root Beer, especially since I’m a chocoholic and love ice cream sundaes. It’s the furthest taste from any ice cream sundaes I’ve ever had.
And if icream sundaes tasted this way I would never eat one again. I’m pretty disappointed in the new flavor here.
Now I only have 11 more to go…