If you're a fan of flavored vodkas and can stand a little fun being poked at you, I recommend this post from the A.V.Club. They reviewed three new flavors of vodka from Three Olives brand, and it's pretty amusing.

The flavors in question are tomato, root beer, and triple shot espresso. Not being a huge vodka fan in the first place, I found this review ,um, not too helpful, but entertaining. In the name of humor, they were a little homophobic, but I tried to remember to take it with a grain of salt.

Apparently, the tomato flavor was the least popular, which sounds reasonable to me. Can anyone find a reason for tomato flavored vodka? It didn't even get great reviews with bloody mary mix. The root beer flavor was deemed "all right', but apparently it went well in a root beer float. The triple shot espresso was by far the favorite. A.V.club also tried it with a Starbucks Mocha Frappuccino to raves.

If you have your own personal review of these or any flavored vodkas I'd love to read it. Maybe it'd inspire me to try vodka more often.

Though I drank a lot of root beer years ago, these days all of my soda needs are taken up by Diet Coke and Pepsi (yes, I have someone learned to love both of them). But icy cold root beer can hit the spot on a warm day. I have to admit I've never had it with alcohol involved.

But AOL Food has the recipe (from DrinksTV) for Hard Root Beer, which is basically 8 ounces of root beer and 2 ounces of spiced rum. Pretty simple and delicious-sounding (unless, of course, you don't like root beer and/or rum, I guess). Some people, however, think the amount of rum should be kicked up a notch. This one calls for some experimentation.

I don't actually drink a whole lot of soda, so when I indulge in a bottle of carbonated sugar-y syrup, I want it to be good. I want it to be as bubbly and flavorful as possible, because I sometimes go months between tastes. I was excited to receive this sample pack of Thomas Kemper, mostly because they've recently switched to sweetening their sodas with cane sugar (down with high fructose corn syrup) so there isn't as much guilt in drinking this beverage as with the conventional stuff.

On first taste, the root beer flavor was everything I look for in a soda. Fizzy, strongly flavored and creamy, I was ready to keep on drinking it. However, I was really disappointed by the other two flavors (and I hate saying this, since I really do like the Thomas Kemper company). The Black Cherry lands on the wrong side of the cough syrup divide and the Ginger Ale just doesn't have enough punch. My boyfriend was willing to finish the bottle of Black Cherry, but neither one of us wanted to kill the Ginger Ale. It was sort of disappointing.

Forget pre-mixed rootbeer floats...this nifty little gadget takes floats to the next level.

The Fizz is, essentially, a cheap plastic domed lid with an opening in the middle that holds a straw and is able to suck up liquids without letting them seep out.

As per the video on the item's website, appropriately set to the tune of Depeche Mode's "Just Can't Get Enough," the soda enthusiast simply scoops ice cream into the plastic resevoir, screws the lid onto the top of a plastic soda bottle (looks like it has to be plastic, not metal or aluminum), and squeezes the bottle, sucking part of the liquid into the vessel where it mixes with the ice cream for a no-mess float on the go.

This product immediately lost some of its appeal once I realized what it reminds me of: the ACT brand mouthwash that the dentist made me use when I was younger, which also involves squeezing liquid into a plastic resevoir at the top of a bottle.

I immediately thought of using the product to fix a root beer float (probably because that's what the website used as an example, and sometimes I'm easily swayed, especially when it involves refined sugar) but the website offers some other suggestions for flavor combos, including strawberry sherbet/lemon-lime soda, vanilla yogurt/orange soda, or crushed ice and flavored syrup.

If I haven't completely turned you off yet, what do you think? Yay or nay on the soda float-on-the-go?

I have always been a fan of root beer. When my sister and I were kids, our intake of sugary drinks was actively monitored by our mom and so there wasn't much in the way of soda in our house. When we'd go out to eat, my dad would often get a root beer while we had to content ourselves with milk. We'd beg for sips from his glass on those occasions and so I associate root beer with comfortable family outings and special treats.

When I heard that Thomas Kemper, craft brewer of quality sodas (out of my hometown of Portland, OR) had developed a low calorie root beer that was sweetened with Splenda and honey, I was really excited to taste it. The box arrived last week with three artfully arranged bottles of soda and I popped the whole thing into the fridge to chill.

A couple of hours later it was cool and ready to taste (I must say that drinking soda out of a glass bottle is far more satisfying than out of a can). Twisting off the cap, I took a long pull and swallowed. It was nice and fizzy, but sadly didn't live up to the flavor profile of Thomas Kemper's sugar version of root beer. It is missing the sharpness that root beer typically delivers. This product is totally drinkable and for those folks who are watching their calorie and sugar intake, I would say that it's a terrific option. But personally, I would rather have a single, sugar-based root beer once a month than drink this version on a more frequent basis.

This root beer is available starting this month, and they will be following it up with low calorie versions of their ginger ale and black cherry soda in April.

Don't you hate it when you ask someone what flavor they would like and they say they don't care, whatever, or surprise me? Well, one Singapore company has come up with the solution for your indecisive friends with the launch of new sodas appropriately named Whatever and Anything.

Anything is their carbonated soda which comes in six flavors: Cola with Lemon, Apple, Fizz Up, Cloudy Lemon and Root Beer. Whatever is non-carbonated teas that come in Ice Lemon, Peach, Jasmine Green Tea, White Grape, Apple, and Chrysanthemum Tea flavors.

So what's the big surprise? The cans aren't labeled beyond the names of 'Anything' and 'Whatever', so you truly don't have a clue which flavor you are getting beforehand.

(via TrendHunter.com)

At this point, we all know what happens when you combine Mentos and Diet Coke, but what about combinations of other sodas with other candies? Will they produce similar, or perhaps even more spectacular, results? Thanks to a video linked to by Brian, from Candy Addict, we now know the answer to this subset of life's little mysteries. These film makers bravely tested the following combinations in the name of science: candy corn and root beet, Sweetarts and Sprite and Toucan Toes and milk. Check out the video above to see their results.

I think we'll all sleep a little better tonight, although not quite as good as I'll sleep once I learn where I can get some of those Toucan Toes....

Root beer floats are fantastic, even if not all the products associated with them are. The combination of slightly peppery soda and creamy vanilla ice cream is hard to resist, so when I saw that Edy's/Dreyer's released a Root Beer Float ice cream, my initial reaction was "it's about time!" Then I saw that Breyer's has a Root Beer Float ice cream flavor out this summer, too. The difference between the two is that Dreyer's - which is limited edition - has vanilla ice cream with root beer flavored ice cream swirls, while Breyer's has vanilla with root beer sorbet swirls. Get them while you can - and try making a real root beer float with the ice creams for a double delicious summer treat.

I am disturbed that the slogan for The Fizz Cup is "Buy it. Try it. Die for it."

The cup makes root beer floats and no matter how good a root beer float is, it is hardly worth dying for.

The Fizz Cup screws onto the top of soda bottles and, using a straw that extends from the bottom of the bottle, though the cup and into your mouth, you can suck the soda up and create an instant root beer float. The advantage of using the cup is that it is highly portable, unlike a traditional homemade float in an open cup. Another selling point, according to the company, "It lets you have fun watching the soda and ice cream mix inside the dome lid, just like a volcano. Experience the science of fizz making with this special treat!"

Is a soda volcano worth dying for? No, and a mentos fountain is probably more exciting. Worth $10 + $6 S&H for a pack of 6? Maybe if you really need to take your floats to go.

If beverage review sites like BevNET or The Knowledge for Thirst are just a little too broad for you, have a look at Luke's Root Beer Pages. Indeed, this is a site with over 150 root beer reviews, as well as lots of other links, trivia and history. Some birch beer reviews even snuck in there as well. Root beers are reviewed on their flavor ("rootiness" being one of the flavor qualities), their mouthfeel and their "Over-all Root Beer Experience." The site doesn't look to have been updated recently, but that isn't too big of a deal if you just want some tasting notes. Pardon me while I run to the store to satisfy the root beer craving that reading all these reviews have created.

[Via Chow]

It's hard not to love a root beer float and even harder when it comes in an old fashioned soda fountain glass. These pastel-colored glasses will have you seeing the world through rose colored glasses as you sip a delicious, refreshing, old-fashioned treat in the comfort of your own home. A great way to show these off is to invite a few friends over and set up a grown-up ice cream sundae bar that will let you relive your childhood. The designer also offers banana split boats and appetizer plates in the same collection.

In case it's been a while since you had one, to make a root beer float all you need to do is scoop some of your favorite vanilla ice cream into a large glass and, carefully, pour over a can of root beer. If you pour down the side of the glass, instead of directly on top of the ice cream, you'll be able to reduce the amount of foam you create slightly. Drink it through a straw, but don't forget to keep a long-handled spoon nearby to scoop out all the ice cream!

I picked this soda, Journey's John Barleycorn's Root Beer, after reading the ingredient label. It said it contained flavoring from malted barley and wintergreen. In addition to both being unusual ingredients in root beer, the two seemed like an unlikely pairing in general.

The first thing I noticed was the relative lack of carbonation in the root beer; it was quite syrupy, actually. The flavor was unusual. The malted barley came through immediately, making it seem much more like beer than root beer, and it finished with the very fresh wintergreen flavor. There was an aftertaste of malt. It really concentrated on the barley/mint combination instead of playing up the spicy sassafras flavor I ordinarily enjoy in root beer. There’s a reason that it’s not a good idea to wait until after you’ve finished you beer to have a breath mint and not have it during: not the best flavor combination.