Monday, April 15, 2013

The Float Without The Fluid: A&W Root Beer Float Ice Cream Topper Is All Right!


The Good: Good taste, Easy to prepare, Great no mess cap!
The Bad: Not the strongest flavor when applied to ice cream
The Basics: A&W Root Beer Float Topper is flavorful and accurate for what it is trying to be, but not as potent when on ice cream as I would like.


When it comes to ice cream toppings, I am discovering quite rapidly that there are any number of good ice cream toppings that just do not hold their own (flavorwise) against ice cream itself. One of the latest ice cream toppings to suffer this defect – though in a far less extreme form than the Dr. Pepper dessert topper from the same brand – was the A&W Root Beer Float dessert topper. It is good . . . but the flavor could be stronger and better when it is placed on ice cream.

Basics

The A&W Root Beer Float Topper is part of Vita Specialty Food’s topping line and it works just like a chocolate syrup (or actual soda syrup!), though it does not blend with milk to make a beverage. The 14 oz. bottle has a flip top which allows one to squeeze the fluid out onto ice cream. This doesn’t solidify, but it is one of the sundae syrups that does not run when placed on ice cream. Very nicely, this comes with a no-mess cap that actually does prevent the fluid from leaking out in any way to leave any residue on the lid. This makes this a waste-free topping experience!

Ease Of Preparation

One need not even shake the A&W Root Beer Float Topper. Simply remove the safety seal, flip open the cap and squeeze out the A&W Root Beer Float Topper. There is no trick to using this dessert topping.

Taste

For all of my ice cream topping reviews, I am utilizing Blue Bunny Chocolate Chip ice cream (reviewed here!) as it provides a neutral flavor base.

On its own, the A&W Root Beer Float Topper smells fascinating, like a blend of chocolate and root beer. I was surprised by this as I figured there would be just the scent of root beer, but there is a slight underscent of cocoa! On the tongue, this dessert topper tastes like a blend of syrup (like breakfast, maple, syrup) and root beer. The combination is sweet and delightful and it tastes exactly like It is supposed to. It leaves only a slightly sweet aftertaste in the mouth.

On ice cream, the A&W Root Beer Float Topper has the dry, robust flavor of root beer for about thirty seconds. However, after about two bites of ice cream topped with this topping, I found that it began to change into a generically sweet syrup that began to taste like diluted root beer, so that by the time I was done with the bowl of ice cream, it tasted about 1/3 as strong as it initially did and I was, in the end, somewhat underwhelmed.

Nutrition

A&W Root Beer Float Topper is a dessert topping therefore not the most nutritious things in the known world. I was shocked that there was nothing really unrecognizable in the A&W Root Beer Float Topper. The primary ingredients are corn syrup, high fructose corn syrup, and water. None of the ingredients insinuate that this is not vegan compliant and there are no allergy warnings on the bottle.

What is not a mystery is how high this product is in sugars. In each 2 Tb serving (who measures this out, as opposed to squirting it on their ice cream?!) of A&W Root Beer Float Topper, there are 130 calories, none of which come from fat! As a fat free product, it is easy to enjoy this quite a bit without guilt! While there is no fat and no cholesterol, a consumer gets 2% of their recommended daily allowance of sodium out of a single serving of this topping! Instead of being a nutritionally bad product, this really just contributes nothing to one’s diet, save sugars.

Storage/Cleanup

So long as one leaves the A&W Root Beer Float Topper in its bottle, (it does not need to be refrigerated after being opened), it ought to stay usable. Given that it has an expiration date of October 27, 2013, one assumes it will last quite a while unopened. I was surprised, though, that one 14 oz. bottle yields only nine servings – I think that is unrealistically high because many consumer will want to squirt more of this onto their ice cream to continue to enhance the flavor of their ice cream.

Cleanup is very easy as a general rule as it may easily be wiped up with a warm cloth. Because it is a sticky and syrupy product that is mostly dark, this ice cream topping does stain. On dishes, it washes off very easily.

Overall

The A&W Root Beer Float Dessert Topper is good, but lacks and enduring potency to the flavor to recommend it more enthusiastically.

For other ice cream toppings, please visit my reviews of:
Smucker’s Butterscotch Sundae Syrup
Chocolate Fudge Magic Shell Topping
Cupcake Magic Shell Topping
Reese’s Peanut Butter Topping
Heath Shell Ice Cream Topping
York Dark Chocolate & Peppermint Sundae Syrup
Dr. Pepper Cherry Dessert Topping

5/10

For other ice cream reviews, please visit my Ice Cream Review Index Page!

© 2013 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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