August 19th is "Black Cow" Root Beer Float Day

The first root beer float - so the story goes - was served on August 19th, 1893, by Frank J. Wisner, owner of Cripple Creek Brewing, in Cripple Creek, Colorado. He called his creation the "Black Cow Mountain," and it soon became a hit with the kiddos, who began referring to the tasty treat as simply, the "Black Cow."

Nowadays, a root beer float means different things to different folks. For some, it's not a root beer float unless you use plain vanilla ice cream dolloped into your root beer. Others put a little spin on things: plopping some chocolate ice cream into their root beer and calling it a "chocolate cow" or a "brown cow." Still others insist it's only a "brown cow" or a "black cow" if you use regular cola and ice cream. Then there's folks in places such as northeastern Wisconsin, who only call it a "black cow" if the root beer and ice cream are all mixed together, instead of leaving the ice cream floating on top. And would you believe, there's also a such thing as a "purple cow?" Yup, a "purple cow," created when you put a scoop of vanilla ice cream in a mug of purple grape soda.

But what do you call a black-and-white cow in a hot pink bikini, floating in a giant mug of root beer and melting vanilla ice cream?

Blissfully content:



Sources:
"Black Cow" Root Beer Float Created - Answers.com
Ice Cream Soda - Wikipedia.org