A Sweet Beverage- Milkshake

A milkshake (sometimes simply called a shake) is a sweet beverage made by blending milk, ice cream, and flavorings or sweeteners.

Milkshakes originated in the United States around the turn of the 20th century, and grew in popularity following the introduction of electric blenders in the subsequent two decades. They became a common part of youth popular culture, as ice cream shops were a culturally acceptable meeting place for youth, and milkshakes became symbolic of the innocence of youth.

Full-service restaurants, ice cream shops, soda fountains, and diners usually prepare the shake in a milk shake machine. At home, a blender is more commonly used. Milkshakes may be made from any flavor of ice cream; additional flavorings, such as chocolate syrup, malt syrup, or malted milk powder, are often added prior to mixing.

Terminology

Terminology around the distinction between a milkshake that uses ice cream and other forms of flavored milk varies regionally. An ice cream-based milkshake may be called a thick shake to distinguish it. In parts of New England and eastern Canada, the name frappe is used.

Rhode Island residents sometimes refer to milkshakes as “cabinets”. A milkshake containing malted milk powder is sometimes called a malt. The term concrete is used for particularly thick milkshakes that do not spill when turned upside down, such as at the restaurant Culver’s.

History

When the term “milkshake” was first used in print in 1885, milkshakes were an alcoholic whiskey drink that has been described as a “sturdy, healthful eggnog type of drink, with eggs, whiskey, etc., served as a tonic as well as a treat”. However, by 1900, the term referred to “wholesome drinks made with chocolate, strawberry, or vanilla syrups.” By the “early 1900s people were asking for the new treat, often with ice cream.

The history of the electric blender, malted milk drinks, and milkshakes are interconnected. Before the wide spread availability of electric blenders, milkshake-type drinks were more like eggnog, or they were a hand-shake n mixture of crushed ice and milk, sugar, and flavorings. The Hamilton Beach design, with the motor on top, remains the most common kind of milkshake machine. In 1922,Steven Poplawski invented the bottom-motor blender, which is sometimes used for making milkshakes. With the invention of the blender, milkshakes began to take their modern, whipped, aerated, and frothy form. The use of malted milk powder in milkshakes was popularized in the US by the Chicago drugstore chain Walgreens. Malted milk powder — a mixture of evaporated milk, malted barley, and wheat flour – had been invented by William Horlick in 1897 for use as an easily digested restorative health drink for disabled people and children.

The automation of milkshakes developed in the 1930s, after the invention of freon-cooled refrigerators provided a safe, reliable way of automatically making and dispensing ice cream. In 1936, inventor Earl Prince used the basic concept behind the freon-cooled automated ice cream machine to develop the Multimixer, a “five-spindled mixer that could produce five milkshakes at once.