Caramel Chai Tea Latte Cream Cola Floats

These Caramel Chai Tea Latte Cream Cola Floats are the perfect summertime treat...a little fancier than your average float, but totally worth the extra effort (and time on the treadmill!). #IDelightinChai

I'm pretty sure I invented the cola float. Well, I'd like to think I did. (Cue flashback harp music). As a little girl, the neighbors who lived directly across the street were known to me as Grandma and Grandpa (as a later-in-life-child, all of my biological grandparents passed away before I was born). Once a week, they'd take me to the local soda drive-in and we'd order root beer floats. When I was six, I felt it was time to tell them the truth of the matter: "I don't like root beer. At all.". I waited in anticipation of their complete and utter disappointment that I faked my way through many years of Root Beer Float Fridays as they turned to me from their front seats in their car. 

"Well, let's see if they can make yours with regular cola," Grandma Hyde said. "No use ordering something you don't actually like, right?"

And the first non-root-beer-float was born (I'm *pretty* sure that's historically accurate, y'all...I mean I haven't checked Wiki to make sure they have my name spelled correctly, but I trust them on this). Nobody was upset that I didn't like root beer (I still don't...I mean, who wants to drink liquified anise root...amIright?). We just invented our own version right then and there. Check out my glorified version of the original cola float below.

Since most cream sodas are based off of a root beer (again...I just can't root beer, y'all. Can't. Root. Beer.), I made up a cola cream soda to take this totally over the top. And it's super easy.

I'm not doing a printable, formal recipe here...because, really, this is one of those, "a lil' of this, a lil' of that" kind of concoctions (which also means I'm turning into my mom. Whenever I ask her for a recipe that's the exact verbage I get! Oy.)

Depending on the number of floats you're making, this is a 1:1 ratio of your favorite cola mixed with International Delight's Caramel Chai Tea Latte. (See...you probably thought you'd have to swing by the coffee house for something this fancy, right? This goodness is right in the dairy case, y'all). I use a fun glass bottle to mix mine with a funnel. I tilt the bottle around to incorporate both liquids...but not too much, so the soda doesn't lose its fizzy quality.

Fill up your cups with vanilla ice cream (vanilla bean flavored is even yummier, if you have access to that). I like a lot of ice cream in my float...it melts off so much, I figure the calories must as well, (wink).

Then top with the cream cola mixture. 

I also like to add whipped cream on top along with a generous drizzle of caramel sauce. I just get store-bought for this, but you could make this crazy, over-the-top by using your favorite homemade caramel sauce recipe and real sweetened whipped cream, too. My heart is beating faster just thinking about that.

My family absolutely loved these. Such a fun flavor combination. These are the perfect treat to take back ten minutes in your day. Just sip and enjoy. And no root beer in sight. ;)

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This conversation is sponsored by International Delight. The opinions and text are all mine.

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