Coffee Ice Cream Sodas

Author Notes

I suppose you could call this drink a “Spiked Affogato Float,” but actually it’s nothing more than a traditional creamery-style ice cream soda, with a few modest improvements. My first job as a teenager was at an ice cream shop owned by two of the nicest, hardest working people that I’d ever met, other than my parents. On those sweltering summer nights in Virginia, people would line up out the door for cones, sundaes, shakes, malts and sodas. That’s all we sold, other than some very simple ice cream cakes. I developed within a few days a callus on my index finger like nothing seen before or since, making cold, sweet treats that invariably started with a scoop or two of ice cream. Every night I’d go home, sticky all over and dead tired, but you know something? I loved that job. I learned that chocolate was far and away the favorite flavor for shakes, and that nearly all the banana splits were ordered by young men, to share with the young ladies who were with them. I made a vanilla malt every day for a gracious gentlemen who tipped handsomely and, without fail, thanked me with a kind word about how I made his malts just the way he liked them. And then there were the ice cream sodas. I made dozens of them every week. The most popular flavor was, hands down, coffee. I didn’t care much for coffee, but oh! How I adored those coffee sodas. The secret to a great ice cream soda lies in the stirring of a big glob of hard ice cream into the syrup before adding the seltzer. When you use a great ice cream in the base, you don’t need a thick syrup to make a good soda. In fact, just some sweetened, ultra-strong espresso, with a touch of liqueur or rum, tastes better. You can top the soda with whipped cream, or a drizzle of chocolate syrup, or both, but I actually prefer it without. Either way . . . . . enjoy!! ;o) —AntoniaJames