Milk shakes and malts
The first milk shakes made in America featured whiskey, mixed with milk and egg yolk, considered a healthful drink. Later the mixture of milk and egg was adjusted with flavored syrups in the same manner as carbonated water, and was a featured item at the soda fountains of drug stores. The Chicago based Walgreen’s added malted milk powder, invented by a Walgreen’s chemist as a readily digestible source of protein for children and invalids.
Exactly when ice cream entered the mix is uncertain, but prior to the invention of the electric blender ice cream was being added to the drink, presenting a beverage in which the ice cream floated, similar to the ice cream soda. Once the blender was introduced in the early twentieth century the aerated milk shake and malted milk shake grew in popularity, spurred by Walgreen’s soda fountains marketing them as healthful drinks.
The stemmed electric milk shake blending machine was introduced in 1922, and malts and shakes of all flavors and varieties became popular. In the parlance of the day a milk shake was a beverage sans ice cream, and a frosted milk shake was a beverage in which one or two scoops of ice cream had been added. Soda fountains became equipped with machines which could blend several beverages at a time in the 1930s. The term malt shop entered the American lexicon during that decade.
Soda fountains, drugstores, dime stores, and ice cream parlors displayed their milk shake blending machines prominently. The blenders were usually made of shimmering chrome or stainless steel, and the duties of the soda jerks of the day included keeping the blenders spotless. Shakes were served to the customer with the blending vessel alongside, containing a bit extra which the glass holding the shake was too small to accommodate.
In the 1960s the fast food industry introduced powdered shake mixes which were prepared inside a mixing machine and delivered to a paper cup through a spigot in a manner similar to soft serve ice cream. By that time ice cream milk shakes and malts – a distinctly American invention – had become popular all over the world. By the end of the twentieth century the ice cream milk shake had returned to the bar, with high end drinks containing brandy, whiskey, and even vodka, becoming fashionable.