The Origin of Milkshakes

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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.

The milkshake as we know it today did not come into being until the 1920s. And the story of origin is actually quite interesting. Why? Well, for starters, you probably didn't know that the first milkshake was made at Walgreens.

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.

The milkshake took on a life of its own. Walgreens grew into a massive nationwide chain of stores, each one selling milkshakes; naturally, its popularity grew. Let's the decade ended, you could find a milkshake anywhere there was a Walgreens.

America developed a massive appetite for this new drink. And competitors nationwide cashed in on this appetite by developing and selling their own milkshakes.

So that is how the milkshake became such a commonplace and popular drink in the United States. Every restaurant you walk into nowadays offers a milkshake of some kind; some people try to change the name but we all know it's still a milkshake. No matter what flavor it is or what kind of ice cream you use, the formula stays the same.

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.

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