Chips Ahoy! Ice Cream Creations Root Beer Float

In honor of the UK's recent introduction to Chips Ahoy! via Dairy Milk, I am reviewing one of the weirdest varieties of Chips Ahoy! that comes from across the sea. Thanks to my family (and primary readership!) for sending these along with a care package - there will be plenty more reviews where these came from, thanks to them. :D

Root beer - most English people I've met aren't fans, so it makes sense that you'll never see a cookie like this over here. I mean, you can barely get just root beer over here. It's a shame, it's a nice flavor if you grew up on it - but I suppose it's a bit like Dandelion & Burdock is to me...it just sounds bad, and tastes weird if you don't know it.

Anyway, even as a root beer-swillin' American I find these cookies quite strange - they're less weird when you realize they're from a line of ice cream themed cookies that include safer bets such as Dulce de Leche, Mint Chocolate Chip, and Mocha Chunk. America is going through a real weird food phase if you ask me; one of the recent winners of the Lay's flavor competition was Cappucinno, and Oreos also have a Root Beer Float variety...in addition to others, such as Fruit Punch & Watermelon, which I will be reviewing later.

The Chips Ahoy! come off as even stranger than those, however, as when I lived in the US Chips Ahoy! was always quite pedestrian. I remember the excitement I felt when the chewy/microwavable variety came out...Then of course, there was all that business with the Cremewiches, which I would happily beat somebody up for a box of. Or agree to only ever listen to their annoying jingle again for the rest of my life. They were one of my very first 'new food excitements' in the early 2000s, haha. After that, it was all countdowns to Vanilla Coke & limited edition Snickers for the rest of my life. Cremewiches were Chips Ahoy cookies meets Oreos, basically.

The Root Beer Float Chips Ahoy! are a less obvious pairing, but are they as good? Well, how dare you even suggest that - nothing will ever top Cremewiches - nothing. However, these are pretty nice!

They're the chewy kind, and really loaded up with chips. They're a bit smaller than a Crunch Cream and much dinkier than a digestive or Maryland. American snacks can pack in the same amount of calories as UK snacks in about half the surface area. Hey, we call it exceptionalism. The chewiness is unique to these sorts of cookies, it's a really specific kind of easily torn and crumbless texture...Almost, nearly like cookie dough rather than actual cookies. This softness is great for me, it just really takes me back home as 'chewy' cookies here are usually much more chewy chewy, whereas these are a very soft chew.

They taste like root beer & vanilla - if that sounds good to you I'd seek these out. Root beer for those of you who haven't ever really tried it, is probably best described as a bit of wintergreen mint, a bit of vanilla, and some vaguely 'spicy' herbs. Man, I have no idea how accurate that is - root beer has to be tried to be understood!

The vanilla comes from the cookie base and the white chips, whereas the brown are where the root beer flavoring is. These were nicely accurate - not overly strong and therefore too chemically or artificial tasting, although keep in mind you're eating root beer float cookies so you should expect some artificial taste.

I was a big fan of these, and while they were small the unique flavor made two cookies at a time feel like a fair amount. Dunk them in milk for an even more authentically moist root beer float experience! Or even more wild, do some kind voodoo (or foodoo as I like to call it) and make a root beer float at home with extra vanilla ice cream, whipped cream, and crumbled Chips Ahoy! Root Beer Float cookies. Go on...I dare ya.