Cream soda
Cream soda is a sweet, carbonated soft drink usually flavored with vanilla. It is sold in colors including pale brown, pink, and clear.
Soda fountain: A counter or shop dispensing carbonated drinks, often mixed to order with flavored syrups. Cream soda grew from the syrup-and-carbonation drinks served at nineteenth-century soda fountains.
Vanilla: A fragrant flavoring derived from orchids of the genus Vanilla, especially Vanilla planifolia. Vanilla supplies the characteristic aroma in many cream soda recipes.
Italian soda: A drink made by combining flavored syrup with carbonated water, often served over ice. It shares the syrup-and-soda format but usually lacks cream soda’s established vanilla profile.
Root beer: A sweet, carbonated soft drink traditionally flavored with roots, bark, herbs, and spices. Root beer shares cream soda’s soda-fountain history but has a more herbal, root-based flavor.
Carbonated water: Water containing dissolved carbon dioxide, which produces bubbles when pressure is released. Early cream sodas combined sweet flavoring with the same effervescence supplied by soda water.
Simple syrup: A concentrated solution of sugar in water used to sweeten foods and drinks. Soda fountains used sweet syrups as a base for mixing cream soda.
Boston cooler: A beverage made with ginger ale and vanilla ice cream, associated with Detroit. Its name can suggest a cream soda float, but its defining soda is ginger ale.
Vanilla Coke: A cola soft drink flavored with vanilla. It shares a vanilla note while retaining the darker, cola-based flavor of Coca-Cola.
Hires Root Beer: A root beer brand introduced by pharmacist Charles Hires in the 1870s. Its early promotion alongside other flavored soda-fountain drinks shows the market cream soda entered.
Carbonation: The process of dissolving carbon dioxide in a liquid to create bubbles and a sharp sensation. Carbonation gives cream soda its fizz and balances its pronounced sweetness.