REVIEW: A&W Limited Edition Ice Cream Sundae Soda

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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.

REVIEW: Blue Bell A&W Root Beer Float Ice Cream

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There’s a saying that if at first you succeed, then do something very similar so you can succeed again. OK, I might not have that exactly right, but the folks at Blue Bell know what I’m talking about. Last year, they introduced the Dr Pepper Float flavor, which I thoroughly enjoyed, and apparently, many others did as well because it’s now a permanent member of the Blue Bell lineup. For this summer, they have introduced the A&W Root Beer Float Ice Cream, which, despite its name, is only partly ice cream, namely vanilla, and the rest is root beer-flavored sherbet. Just like its Dr Pepper sibling, the A&W version is an instant classic in my book.

Through some kind of magic, which is vaguely explained in the ingredient list as “natural and artificial flavors,” the sherbet perfectly duplicates the taste of root beer. Plus, the consistency of the sherbet, which has a slightly more granular texture compared to the creamier ice cream, delivers a taste experience that almost made me think it was carbonated.

And here’s a tip: if you let this sit out for a few minutes instead of digging in right out of the freezer, the ice cream starts to melt a little faster than the sherbet, and it adds a bit more of the rich and creamy vanilla flavor to the mixture. Whatever Blue Bell did to make the Dr Pepper Float flavor so good, it did it again with this one.

Of course, I did have to try making a float with this ice cream and some actual A&W Root Beer, and the results were quite good, though perhaps not as mind-blowing as I was expecting, especially considering my choice of drinking vessel.

It turned out to just be a root beer float with a little extra root beer punch. So, if you have a busy schedule and don’t have the time for the two minutes of preparation that goes into making an actual root beer float, the Blue Bell version serves as a fine—perhaps even superior—substitute. You don’t have to worry about getting the right ice cream-to-root beer ratio; there’s no danger of the foam spilling over the top of the glass, and you’ll have tons more free time on your hands if you don’t have to do the mixing yourself. I just hope this version joins the Dr Pepper Float as a year-round product.

Purchased Price: $3.99
Size: One Pint
Purchased at: H-E-B
Rating: 9 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: (2/3 cup) 170 calories, 5 grams of fat, 3 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat, 15 milligrams of cholesterol, 50 milligrams of sodium, 29 grams of carbohydrates, 0 grams of dietary fiber, 21 grams of sugar, and 3 grams of protein.

A&W Sparkling Vanilla Cream Soda

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Recently, I’ve been sucking down many of these A&W Sparkling Vanilla Cream Sodas.

I’ve been doing so much sucking that I feel like I’m either a baby sucking on a tit, a crack addict sucking on a crack pipe, or Paris Hilton making another sex tape.

I just have this “thing” for vanilla cream sodas, much like I have a thing for Rachael Ray, old school hip-hop, saying the word “incestuous,” and words that don’t start with “qu,” like Qatar, qanat, and qintar.

The A&W Sparkling Vanilla Cream Soda was very good, but it tasted just like their regular cream soda. Now I thought the “sparkling” would add something sparkling, much like how bubbles help champaign sparkle and glitter helps Sparkling Barbie look more like a stripper, but it didn’t.

The only thing different about this soda than the previous A&W Cream soda is the “Vintage Bottle,” which if you take off the label or stick in a small brown paper bag, looks like a beer bottle.

This means that with the amber-colored A&W Sparkling Vanilla Cream Soda and the “Vintage Bottle,” I can be a total poser at a party and pretend I’m cool with a “beer” in hand.

It’s much like when I was growing up and pretended apple juice was beer, bubble gum cigarettes were actual cigarettes, and my switchblade comb was an actual switchblade knife, which I used to try and recreate the fight/dance off scene from the Michael Jackson video for Beat It.

Just beat it, beat it, beat it, beat it
No one wants to be defeated
Showin’ how funky and strong is your fight
It doesn’t matter who’s wrong or right
Just beat it, beat it
Beat it, beat it, beat it

Maybe it’s better that I be a poser with my fake beer, because if I drank as many bottles of beer as I have with the delicious A&W Sparkling Vanilla Cream Soda, I might end up passed out on my bathroom floor, lying in my own vomit, with a Sharpie mustache drawn on my face, and two arrows pointing to my mouth also drawn on my face with the words, “Stick it in the hole for a prize,” written on my chin.

Plus, someone would probably take pictures of me in this position and post it all over the internet with the word “0wn3d!” on it.

Item: A&W Sparkling Vanilla Cream Soda
Purchase Price: 99 cents
Rating: 4 out of 5
Pros: Damn good. Refreshing. Kind of addictive. If I take off the label or stick the bottle in a brown paper bag, it looks like I’m drinking beer, which in turn, makes me looking cool. My switchblade comb. Michael Jackson before the sleepovers and plastic surgery.
Cons: Not different in taste than the previous A&W Cream soda. Possible passed out drunk pictures posted on the internet.

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