A Boston cooler is Vernors ginger ale poured over vanilla ice cream and stirred into a thick float, often served in a chilled glass with a long spoon.

Dr. James Vernor, Michigan's first licensed pharmacist, began aging his ginger ale base in oak barrels in 1862 before being drafted into the Civil War; he came back to find it deliciously different and opened his Woodward Avenue soda fountain in 1866. The Boston cooler emerged from Detroit soda fountains in the early 1900s and is now the canonical Michigan summer drink; ginger ale and vanilla ice cream, never sarsaparilla. Vernors trademarked the term in 1967.

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