Articles with cashew

The Float

An ice cream float or ice cream soda (United States, United Kingdom, Canada, South Africa and East Asia), coke float (United Kingdom and Southeast Asia), or spider (Australia and New Zealand), is a chilled beverage that consists of ice cream in either a soft drink or in a mixture of flavored syrup and carbonated water. When root beer and ice cream are used together to make the beverage, it is typically referred to as a root beer float.

The ice cream float was invented by Robert McCay Green in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1874 during the Franklin Institute’s semicentennial celebration. The traditional story is that, on a particularly hot day, Mr. Green ran out of ice for the flavored drinks he was selling and used vanilla ice cream from a neighboring vendor, thus inventing a new drink.

His own account, published in Soda Fountain magazine in 1910, states that while operating a soda fountain at the celebration, he wanted to create a new treat to attract customers away from another vendor who had a fancier, bigger soda fountain. After some experimenting, he decided to combine ice cream and soda water. During the celebration, he sold vanilla ice cream with soda water and a choice of 16 different flavored syrups. The new treat was a sensation and soon other soda fountains began selling ice cream floats.

Well, Mr. Dewie’s has recently teamed up with Alameda Point Craft Sodas to create our own Root Beer Float.

We are beginning with our cashew vanilla ice cream as a traditional flavor, however we will likely be introducing other combinations such as a Ginger Float using AP Craft’s Ginger Beer poured over two scoops of our Turmeric Spice cashew ice cream!

The Root Beer float is now being served in our Albany retail location and offered in our custom glass take-home barrel. 

The Brouhaha on Cold Brew – Another “Local Flavor”

When it’s too hot outside to sip a hot caffeinated beverage, much less hold it, you’re more likely to choose a cold cup of java for your morning jolt or afternoon pick-me-up. Well, Mr. Dewie’s has teamed up with Timeless Coffee (Berkeley & Oakland) to offer another option:

Mr. Dewie’s “Cold Brew” Cashew Ice Cream! That’s right, not just cold brew, but frozen cold brew!

You’ve seen this cold brew coffee trend the last several years, but what makes cold brew coffee so special anyway?

First and foremost, cold brew has a stronger and more intense flavor than hot coffee. The method for making this delicious high end drink entails brewing in cold (or room temperature) water, rather than hot water. Shocker, we know. But there’s much more to it. Let’s delve into the details of this popular drink, in the hope to entice you to get over to Mr. Dewie’s and give the really cold “Dew-Brew” a try.

Cold brew is created by steeping medium-to-coarse ground coffee in room temperature water for 12 hours or longer and then filtering out the grounds for a clean cup without sediment.  Unlike regular coffee, cold brew is never exposed to heat. Cold brew uses time, rather than heat to extract the coffee’s oils, sugars, and caffeine. Iced coffee is created like any regular hot coffee brew method. It’s simply hot coffee that has been cooled down so that it can be poured over ice.

Pouring day-old cold coffee left in the pot over a handful of ice cubes is not iced coffee — at least, not optimal iced coffee. Letting brewed coffee sit around for awhile causes it to oxidize, making the flavor go bitter, flat, and otherwise funky.

Cold brew coffee is for those who plan ahead. It’s a long, gradual process, that can take up to 24 hours, like making sun tea, only without the sun. The result is a very smooth, rich infusion, with low levels of acidity, which can be a relief to those with sensitive digestive systems. But this process can flatten a coffee’s taste, leaving behind the nuances of properly ice-brewed coffee, which some describe as a full-bodied, Guinness-type mouthfeel. The upside: The cold-brew process, while it takes time, is less fiddly than ice brewing — basically, you just set it up and walk away till it comes time to strain the concentrate.

So, while it’s sunny outside, and while we still have some of this truly refreshing and intensely coffee flavored special available, hurry in and try some of our really cold coffee concoction!