These Grown-Up Ice Cream Floats Are Dessert Perfection

 

We’ve found the winning formula for hot afternoons by the shore: fizzy soda + big scoops of ice cream (+ a little booze for the grown-ups!). Here are five awesome ways (including two that are sans spirits for the little ones!) to scoop and spike your way to dessert heaven:

Campari Orange Cream Float

Get the Recipe: Campari Orange Cream Float Everyone’s favorite Italian aperitif isn’t just for negronis and the occasional pre-meal nip. Its bitter anatomy (reportedly alcohol and sugar infused with orange and rhubarb) plays perfectly opposite sweet ingredients like Ciao Bella’s blood orange sorbet.

Pistachio-Elderflower Float

Get the Recipe: Pistachio-Elderflower Float Had a hankering for a Champagne topper and now you have a bottle of St. Germaine collecting dust on your bar cart? Get creative by pairing the elderflower aperitif with pistachio ice cream and a little ginger ale.

Coffee-Bourbon-Cola Fizz

Get the Recipe: Coffee-Bourbon-Cola Fizz Get buzzed with our high-octane combo of cola, coffee, and Kentucky’s finest. A Pirouline cookie straw just puts it over the top. Booze-Free Floats:

Salted Root Beer Caramel Cookie Float

Get the Recipe: Salted Root Beer Caramel Cookie Float How to best a classic root beer float? Try Talenti’s caramel-sea salt ice cream, a sprinkling of crushed Biscoff cookies, and a soupcon of sea salt.

Chocolate–Black Cherry Float

Get the Recipe: Chocolate–Black Cherry Float Dr. Brown’s deli icon gets an upgrade thanks to chocolate-cherry ice cream and a squirt of Hershey’s chocolate syrup. Don’t forget to freeze your glass 10 minutes before serving for an extra frosty dessert.