Origin Of Popular Products: The Interesting History Of The Milkshake
In honor or Chocolate Milkshake Day (September 12th every year), I thought we should take a look at the surprising history of the milkshake.
Wikipedia gives this definition and background on the milkshake:
A milkshake is a sweet, cold beverage which is usually made from milk, ice cream or iced milk, and flavorings or sweeteners such as fruit syrup or chocolate sauce.
Outside the United States, the drink is sometimes called a thickshake or a thick milkshake or in New England, a frappe, to differentiate it from other less-viscous forms of flavored milk.
Now onto some of the interesting history behind the milkshake:
- The term milkshake was first used in print in 1885.
- But the term didn’t describe milkshakes as we know them today. Milkshakes n 1885 were an alcoholic whiskey drink. They were described as a “…sturdy, healthful eggnog type of drink, with eggs, whiskey, etc., served as a tonic as well as a treat”.
- By 1900, the term started to be used for the type of drink we know of today.
- But it wasn’t until 1922 that the milkshake became mainstream.
- It happened when a Walgreens employee in Chicago, Ivar “Pop” Coulson, took an old-fashioned malted milk (milk, chocolate, and malt) and added two scoops of ice cream. The result was a drink which quickly became popular with young people around the country.
- In the 1930’s they became a popular drink sold in malt shops.
- In the 1950’s a milkshake machine salesman named Ray Kroc bought the exclusive rights to a milkshake maker from inventor Earl Prince. Kroc went on to use automated milkshake machines to speed up production in a major fast-food chain he purchased from the McDonalds brothers. (Yes, McDonalds.)
Source:Mshake.com
Photo by rachelkramerbussel.com
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- Origin Of Popular Products: The Interesting History Of The Milkshake (baybusinesshelp.com)
Read your article with interest and can confirm Pop Coulson’s contribution. But I can recall my grandfather, Richmond Dixon Turner, telling his story about the day he walked into a Walgreens when visiting Chicago on business (oil business). He went to the counter and ordered a chocolate milkshake. Mr. Coulson was aware of a chocolate malt but had no knowledge as to what a milkshake was. My grandfather then offered a $1 if Mr. Coulson would allow him to go behind the counter and make it himself. He agreed and thus was the true story about how Pop Coulson “invented” the chocolate milkshake as we know it today.