From Sparrow’s cocktail list, Float Around and Find Out is our most playful creation, a root beer float for grown-ups built on Jelinek Fernet and Licor 43 ($14).
About Float Around and Find Out
The name is a joke, and the cocktail delivers the punchline. Float Around and Find Out is a root beer float for grown-ups, built on Jelinek Fernet, the Czech cousin of Italian Fernet with its distinctive sarsaparilla character and gentle herbal bitterness, and Licor 43, the famous Spanish vanilla liqueur made from 43 botanicals. Heavy cream floats on top for the full soda-fountain effect. Where Fernet Branca is aggressively minty and medicinal, Jelinek is softer, far less minty, with a sarsaparilla note that is genuinely exceptional with root beer. For guests who have found Italian Fernet too intense, Jelinek is the version that changes minds.
The Recipe
- 1.5 oz Jelinek Fernet
- 1 oz Licor 43
- Root beer (to fill)
- Heavy cream (float)
Build in a rocks glass or tall glass over ice. Pour the Fernet and Licor 43 first, fill with root beer. Slowly float heavy cream over the back of a bar spoon so it sits on top. The cream is not mixed in, just like a classic American ice cream soda, so every sip passes through it for added texture. Licor 43 is made in Cartagena, Spain, from 43 botanicals with a heavy emphasis on vanilla and citrus, produced to the same secret recipe since 1946.
Tasting Notes
Fun, sweet-bitter, and deeply satisfying. Root beer carbonation and sweetness hit first. Then the herbal, sarsaparilla bitterness of Jelinek comes through. Licor 43’s vanilla and spice fill the middle. The cream adds richness and texture on every sip, with a long, warming finish.
What to Pair It With
This is a dessert cocktail. Order it after dinner, or instead of dessert, to close out a meal from the Sparrow menu. It pairs especially well after rich plates like the Sparrow-Smoked Rack or the American Wagyu steaks, and it is a fun way to end a long, satisfying evening.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Float Around and Find Out?
It is Sparrow’s grown-up root beer float, built with Jelinek Fernet and Licor 43 over ice, filled with root beer, and finished with a float of heavy cream.
How much is Float Around and Find Out at Sparrow?
It is $14 at Sparrow in Kirkland’s Juanita neighborhood on the Eastside.
Find it on the Sparrow beverages menu near the A Proper Rusty Nail and the Black Manhattan. We are in Kirkland on the Eastside, so reserve a table and come taste it.