After a week of gloomy weather here in Connecticut, I took full advantage of yesterday’s sun by lying in the backyard with a cold glass of root beer and a good book. Nothing could have made that afternoon better. Well, okay, there was one thing: a gigantic scoop of velvety vanilla ice cream in my glass would have been nice. I can’t recall the last time I had a root beer float—it’s been years, I’m sure.

Just this morning, while perusing Evil Chef Mom, I stumbled across blogger Krysta’s twist on this quintessential summer dessert: Root Beer Float & 50/50 Popsicles. Talk about coincidence. As long as I have my root beer and ice cream waiting for me at home, I think I’ll jazz things up a bit by following Krysta’s lead with this recipe.

Krysta notes that the original recipe calls for yogurt instead of vanilla ice cream, but she opted for the decadent alternative. I’m sure glad she did, because the tiny vanilla bean flecks give these popsicles so much character; plus, yogurt can’t offer the same level of creaminess that ice cream can.

And for those of you out there who aren’t married to root beer, alternatives like Coke, Dr. Pepper, and cream soda work just as well.