Aug 182021
 

Barq's Root Beer Float Tubes

My wife was shopping at Aldi for some ice cream treats and grabbed these cause they looked good and she knows I need moar content. I’d known about them for awhile but could never find them. I realize that I’m actually quite bad at tracking down things that aren’t root beer proper, and thus for over a year these had eluded me. Anyways, these are equal parts Barq’s Root Beer slushy thing and vanilla ice cream. They actually use Barq’s syrup and thus reading the ingredients reveals caffeine. I think these are the only caffeinated ice cream thing I’ve ever seen/had. They are in little conical type tubes that you squeeze from the bottom as you eat.

There’s a strong root beer flavor with that classic Barq’s taste. They definitely didn’t skimp on it. The vanilla ice cream is rich with a strong vanilla flavor as well, the combination of the two gives a wonderful root beer float experience.

This is by far the best root beer float frozen treat I’ve had. These things are delicious. Barq’s Root Beer float in a tube, I can’t recommend it enough, unless you absolutely need a decaffeinated ice cream treat. But at only 3 ounces a tube, and only half of that root beer, the caffeine is pretty trivial. Either way, I can’t recommend these enough. Get ’em if you see ’em.




Nov 182020
 

A quart of Honey & Mackie's root beer ice creamNot far from my house is a lovely craft ice cream shop called Honey & Mackie’s. They do small batch, hand mixed flavors that are truly top notch. Many a summer afternoon or evening, we’ve strolled there to get a waffle cone full of their decadent treats. They also have fries. Loaded fries that are kind of like a poutine, but not exactly but will definitely fill you up and are as high quality as their ice cream. So yeah, it’s one of those gems you find sometimes. They rotate through various flavors and this past week they made root beer ice cream, so I had to get some. Their method was to use root beer candy sticks, crush them up, and mix them in. I wasn’t sure how that would work, but I immediately went and bought a quart to give it a try.

It’s very rich and sweet with a distinct, minty root beer flavor. There’s lots of creamy vanilla, obviously, but it still tastes more root beer than float. The ice cream itself is very sticky and gooey and high quality. Despite being so rich and well flavored, it isn’t overpowering nor overly sweet.

Oh yum. This does not disappoint. It’s exactly the sort of quality you would expect from Honey & Mackie’s, if you’ve been there before and were expecting. This is hands down the best root beer ice cream I’ve ever had. I hope they bring it back as I would love to get this with maybe a scoop of cinnamon in a waffle cone. Anyways, if you’re in the Twin Cities area, you should definitely head over there. You won’t regret it.




The root beer (and some other) ice cream. It’s kind of pink. Strange color.

All of the different Honey & Mackie’s Flavors

May 082019
 

Kemps Pop Jr.'s
A while ago I was back in Cub Foods, getting some manner of groceries and I figured, hey, maybe there’s some new root beer frozen treat in the cooler. I don’t know why there would be. I doubt the stores change their stockings that frequently. Yet, there they were, more Kemps’ variety packs with a root beer in it. I don’t know why these are Pops Jr.’s. They look pretty regular sized to me. The same size as the float bars. Maybe a true pop are one of those double stick things and the juniors are single sticks? Would that mean the float bars were also juniors, even though they weren’t called that? I’m probably over thinking this.

It has a mild and generic root beer flavor that’s a little too weak yet still refreshing. There’s a minty hint to it as well which is nice, but you can only really notice that if you bite it, and if you have cold sensitivity on your teeth that could be a problem.

The flavor seems to be the same as their Float Bars recipe, which makes sense, but it’s stronger here as you don’t have the vanilla ice cream overpowering it. So in that respect I’ll say these are closer to the sort of root beer pop you’d want, but I still think it still falls short, and I don’t recommend it if looking for a root beer treat.