News

A&W scoops the competition on Root Beer Float Day

August 6, 2019

When it comes to claiming a favored U.S. summertime beverage, Lexington, Kentucky-based A&W may have a frothy head or two over its competitors with its proprietary root beer blend, which the QSR revolves around. Today, the brand celebrates that glorification of root beer that combines the beverage with ice cream on this National Root Beer Float Day. 

From 2 to 8 p.m. local time today, the brand's approximately 600 U.S. restaurants will give away small root beer floats in its efforts to raise money for Disabled American Veterans through guests' donations to the group, which serves more than a million veterans annually, a news release said. Last year, the brand raised $150,000 for the organization and has set a $200,000 goal this year — some 126 years after the first documented root beer float was served in 1893. 

The brand said the frothy foam reaction created by the interplay of root beer's carbonation with ice cream is apparently very popular among its customers, who ordered and consumed 1.1 million gallons of root beer last year in floats, freezes and over ice.

Photo: Provided.