I love a good root beer float, but it’s so much work scooping ice cream into a glass and pouring root beer on top of it. If only there was a better way. Wait, there is! Both Mug and A&W launched Root Beer Float flavored sodas and this is my detailed report.

Context

There’s a wider trend among soda brands right now to capitalize on the dirty soda trend. Coke released a Cherry Float flavor, and Pepsi released a Wild Cherry and Cream variant. They both have ice cream imagery on the cans and mimic the creaminess of the viral sodas sold at Utah’s custom soda shops. I’ve tried both but haven’t written a review yet. I’ll get to it. Mountain Dew also released a Dirty Mountain Dew concept that’ll show up on here pretty soon.

A&W – Root Beer Float

I’m a fan of A&W, especially the root beer on tap at their restaurant locations. Check out my previous post and video about the history of the brand. It’s fascinating.

A&W previously released an Ice Cream Sundae soda (reviewed here). A lot of people mistakenly thought that this was intended to taste like a root beer float and were tragically disappointed. There was a lot more chocolate syrup flavor than anything else, and zero root beer. It was gross. This new flavor is very clearly labeled “Root Beer Float,” but how’d they do?

Pretty good! I don’t want to be cynical, but I’m pretty sure that they just mixed A&W Root Beer with A&W Cream Soda. The flavor starts off with the familiar minty notes that you’d expect, and then it finishes with a strong hit of vanilla. Vanilla is not the same thing as cream, or ice cream, but your brain will connect the dots.

Mug – Floats Vanilla Howler

The name isn’t as obvious as the A&W variant, and the can looks like a waffle cone. Why? Root beer floats don’t come in a cone. The whole “Vanilla Howler” thing is because of their bulldog mascot and their claim that it will make “thirsty dawgs howl”. Okay. Did you know that their bulldog mascot has a name? Yeah. His name is “dog”. I’m not even kidding.

I hadn’t had Mug root beer in a long time so I made sure that I tried the original flavor first. Where A&W leans into the sassafras and wintergreen (artificially), Mug is more caramel forward and warm. I could taste the vanilla flavoring already, so I was curious how far their float flavor would go.

It went pretty far! Mug went in a different direction and really punched up the effect. You can smell it before you taste it, and the root beer is immediately enhanced with a punch of vanilla and maybe even honey. It’s aggressive, and it lingers. While you lose some of the root beer flavor, you’re gaining a lot of other notes, and I was okay with that. I’d be hard-pressed to pair this soda with anything savory, and I believe it’s designed to be consumed on its own as a sweet treat. I liked it. I’m not sure I liked it more than the A&W Root Beer Float, but it’s different in a pleasant way.

Root Beer Floats with Root Beer Float Soda

My review wouldn’t be complete if I didn’t make root beer floats. I used Tillamook Old Fashioned Vanilla ice cream and made a float with each soda. The A&W Root Beer Float float was terrific, and maybe an improvement on the original. Lots and lots of vanilla flavor. The Mug Floats Vanilla Howler was a bit more bold against the ice cream, but it made those honey/caramel flavors stand out as a bit artificial…like they were too saturated when compared to the natural creaminess. It was still enjoyable, but maybe it was doing too much.

If you’re someone that enjoys novelty and variety in your life, I’d recommend both of these sodas.