Vanilla Italian Cream Soda

This week’s Italian theme must come to an end, and I wanted to go out on a sweet note. Vanilla Italian Cream Soda seems like the perfect way to do that. And it involves cherries and whipped cream. How can anything that has those two ingredients be bad??!!

This post was originally published on December 15, 2017. The text and photos were updated on August 14, 2021. The review and rating have not been changed.

This cross between creamy vanilla ice cream and fizzy soda is the perfect sip when you want a sweet treat.

The Ingredients

Another recipe with a short list of ingredients—always a plus in my book! I had everything on hand except the half-and-half and whipped cream. Yup, I had maraschino cherries waiting for me to use them in something yummy. Glad I checked before I went shopping!

The Process

My cream soda was mixed, poured, and garnished in 3 minutes. Well, 2 were poured and garnished with cherries. The rest was waiting patiently in the pitcher.

The ingredients include optional whipped cream, and I ended up not using it. The sparkling water and half and half foam up a lot when you first mix them together. The foam lasted through pouring the sodas into the mugs, and it looked like whipped cream.

This recipe has two main parts, making the vanilla simple syrup and making the Italian sodas. It’s still amazingly easy to do, garnish and all. If you want to make it even easier, you can buy plain simple syrup and add vanilla extract. Buying vanilla simple syrup would be even easier, but I’ve never been able to find it.

Want to make an adult version? Easy! Just add a shot of vanilla vodka to each glass, then top with the cream soda and garnish. But I will warn you that it’s not easy to taste the alcohol, so sip slowly.