The root beer float litmus test

When I was a kid, there was nothing better on a warm summer afternoon than a root beer float. That perfect mix of sweet, bubbly, tangy and creamy. I still don't understand why it hasn't become America's top export.

Root beer is not like its distant cousins - cola or ginger ale. At a time of globalisation when you can find almost anything anywhere, root beer is a rarity. I've never seen it, or anything resembling it, outside the US. Even less likely to be found is that brown and orange A&W logo - something I could spot from miles away when I was a kid.

Because it's so hard to find in Europe, my kids have never seen or tasted it. I thought nothing of this until we were in the US this past summer. Some family and friends couldn't believe my kids had never heard of root beer. Even if these friends didn't drink it themselves, they still knew what it was and their kids had at least heard of it.

This happened throughout the summer. My dad asked the kids if they wanted a PB&J and they looked back at him like he was speaking code. My kids (unlike most Swiss kids) really like peanut butter but they didn't know the very important acronym. The list goes on - cookies and cream ice cream, skittles and a drive thru were new concepts. Then there was the word "puking", which apparently I had never said in front of my kids before although they actually do a lot of it.

Some of this is a generational thing and some of it depends on where you are in the US and of course, your income level. My family drank a lot more root beer and seltzer than kids these days. This was also before the arrival of Yerba mate, coconut water, and Red Bull.

But, it isn't always generational. My kids wouldn't know what Pirate Booty is (puffed rice and corn snack), Bamba (peanut butter puffs from Trader Joe's) or even graham crackers (these have been around a lot longer). These are all familiar snacks to most California kids today.

My kids started to look more alien to my friends and family by the day. People asked them: Do you know this? Do you know that? It was like a litmus test, but of what? Was it a test of how "American" my kids were? Or was it more of a test of the reach of America's corporate influence? Or was it a test of my parenting? Was I giving my kids a proper American education?

I'm sure many parents experience the same thing when they live far from where they grow up or even if they raise their kids in a different environment than their own. Few outside Switzerland know the milk-based soft drink Rivella but most 7-year-old kids in Switzerland could spot it in a vending machine.

It's a heavy weight to bear - to help your kids feel at home where they live, where they were born, or where they "come from" whatever that means to them. Parents bear this weight when the kids are young. But I take some satisfaction in a few things.

First, there is still some things in this world that can only be found in one place. My kids have just started to notice that they see McDonald's and Starbucks everywhere. They are also learning that you can only find a cinnamon-sugar Cragel (croissant-bagel hybrid) at the bagel shop across from their aunt's house in San Francisco. And, they look forward to it every time. The same could be said about their favourite yogurt-raspberry cake from the local bakery in Switzerland.

Second, it's cool to learn something new. There were times when my kids felt embarrassed that they didn't know something but more often, they felt like they were being let in on a secret world. I caught them adding some of the new words and phrases to their vocabulary or ordering a snack just so they could say the new word.

Picture: my son eating an ice cream from another rarity in Switzerland - an ice cream truck (yes the one with that plays songs as it rides past playgrounds attracting a swarm of kids).

#rootbeer #globalization