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Mike's Mix: Cafe Caribe's Hard Root Beer Float

FALCON HEIGHTS, Minn. (WCCO) -- Café Caribe, on Carnes Avenue at the entrance to the Midway at the Minnesota State fair, opened 17 years ago.  This year, for the first time, adults will get to imbibe like kids with the brand-new Hard Root Beer Float.

"So, it's [made with] Not Your Father's Root Beer, which is 5.9 percent alcohol, from Small Town Brewery," Café Caribe co-owner Jenny Chesin said.

Small Town Brewery was founded as a small family brewery in Illinois, and they're known for making what some call hard soda; sweeter, alcoholic brewed beverages.  As a company, Small Town has been at the forefront of a trend that many large, nationwide brewers are watching closely (as detailed in this recent WSJ article).

This particular sweet, flavored beer came to the attention of Cafe Caribe's owners at a tasting, and I saw and talked to a lot of customers enjoying the root beer on its own.

But – Hey!  This is the State Fair! – so Chesin and Café Caribe jazzed it up.

"We are pairing it with Blue Bunny ice cream as a hard root beer float. It tastes just like a root beer float," Chesin said.

Seyara Smith, one of the bartenders at Cafe Caribe, told me that customers who try the float have loved it. Of course, I had to try it, myself.

Chesin wasn't kidding when she said the beer tastes just like root beer -- it really does.  And, the addition of ice cream will make this alcoholic treat as refreshing as it is dangerous on a warm day.

Pacing yourself with food is always a smart idea, and Café Caribe has a wide variety of options that break from the fried-stuff-on-a-stick tradition, including jerk chicken and last year's best seller, the Lobster Roll.

Chesin told me "[it's] a cold lobster salad in a citrus dressing... kind of spicy... served New England style on a lobster roll bun."

So grab a table, listen to the live music they have on-site all day, every day and don't be surprised if you see Bill Koontz from Columbia Heights who, on day one of the fair, was already back for his second taste of that root beer.

"They're awesome, they're unbelievable," he told me, "and I normally don't drink, I mean I'm not a beer drinker, or a drinker at all, and my kids got me hooked on it. They're just great."

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