The milkshake is a wonderful little thing. On a hot summer day, few things can make you feel better than a tall glass of creamy goodness. They’ve been around since 1850, but back then they were just modified alcoholic eggnog drinks.
But those could hardly be called milkshakes. The milkshakes that we drink today, with all the delicious ice cream and foam, didn’t come around until the 1920’s.
Way back when, a soda fountain manager at Walgreens wanted to make a new drink to appeal to his customers. He tried many different concoctions, mixing drinks behind the counter in search of the perfect cold beverage. Then he combined milk with ice cream and blended it together. That’s the story of the milkshake in short.
If I’d been working at Walgreens back then, I probably wouldn’t have wanted to work that day. I imagine he experimented with his employees, testing different variations of the milkshake until he found just the right recipe. All that milkshake tasting in one day? Everybody probably had a stomachache.
As time went on, and the Walgreen store chain grew, his invention grew along with it. By the end of the 1920s, Walgreens could be found nationwide and every store sold milkshakes.
Thus America was introduced to the delectable frothy drink. And as it grew in popularity, other people decided to make their own. To cash in on the latest craze, every competitor offered their own milkshake.
Now, practically every restaurant and fast food chain offers a milkshake on their menu. And it has grown past the simple flavors of chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry that began it back in the day. Now you have exotic flavors at some places with uncommon ingredients.
If you love a good shake when it’s hot outside, then you have that Walgreens soda fountain manager to thank for that particular vice. I’ll bet he had no idea what he’d made when he combined those simple ingredients in the blender that day.
