Root Beer Float Shot
Root beer schnapps and Irish cream — the root beer float (Frank Wisner's Black Cow, 1893) in a shot, root beer dating to Charles Hires's 1876 commercial formula.
- ½ ozroot beer schnapps
- ½ ozvanilla vodka
- ½ ozheavy cream
- whipped creamgarnish
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The Root Beer Float Shot translates the classic American soda fountain combination — vanilla ice cream in root beer — into a quick-drinking shooter. The root beer float, created by Frank J. Wisner in Colorado in 1893 by adding ice cream to root beer and calling it the Black Cow, became a staple of American drugstore soda fountains through the early 20th century. Root beer itself traces back to colonial-era herb brews before Charles Hires commercialized the formula in 1876. The shot version uses root beer schnapps or actual root beer combined with Irish cream or vanilla vodka and cream to approximate the dessert's characteristic vanilla-root beer combination. The shot gained popularity as part of the broader dessert cocktail trend of the late 1990s and 2000s.
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