Ice cream float variation of ice cream soda was available at local soda fountains and nationally, at Dairy Queen stores for many years. A similar soda made with chocolate syrup but vanilla ice cream is sometimes called a "black and white" ice cream soda. Also known as a "black cow" or "brown cow", the root beer float is traditionally made with vanilla ice cream and root beer, but it can also be made with other ice cream flavors. The similarly flavored soft drink birch beer may also be used instead of root beer. In the United States and Canada, the chain A&W Restaurants
No-Cal Soda No-Cal Soda No-Cal was the first zero-calorie soda. Marketed to diabetics, not dieters, in a number of flavors, the most popular being black cherry. Hyman Kirsch and his son Morris, both Russian immigrants living in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn, New York, began selling sodas in 1904. Their involvement with the Jewish Sanitarium for Chronic Disease (now known as Kingsbrook Jewish Medical Center), led them to the invention of a sugar-free drink to meet the needs of the hospital’s diabetic patients. Hyman and Morris developed a line of carbonated, sugar-free, zero-calorie soft drinks which they called No-Cal, that they began