Whenever we go to Starbucks, Bryan, Niccolo and Jonathan order the frapuccinos. Invariably, I wish they hadn’t become so fond of these expensive concoctions that are little more than glorified milkshakes. Particularly when I can whip them up at home at less cost and with fresh ingredients.
Smoothie, frappe, velvet, frosted shake, malt, cabinet and batido are all one and the same—a milkshake going by another name depending on region or country and what goes into the recipe. But basically, a milkshake is a cold beverage made from milk, ice cream or other similar dairy products and flavorings ranging from fruit syrups to chocolate sauce. It’s generally meant to be drank but there are recipes where the shake is so thick a spoon is more useful than a straw. In the 1950s in the United States, such a shake was aptly called a concrete and was handed to the customer upside down to demonstrate its drip-proof consistency. So does that make the Dairy Queen Blizzard a concrete treat?
Interestingly enough, the milkshake originated in the U.S. as an alcoholic whiskey drink. The name first appeared in print in 1885 and was similar to eggnog. And just like its soda fountain compatriot Coca Cola, it was positioned as a health tonic. By 1900, however, the name referred to dairy-based drinks made with chocolate, strawberry or vanilla syrup. It was solely made with milk and shaken or whipped until foamy. Hence the term milkshake. (Talk about taking names literally.) Anyway, within a few years, people wanted ice cream in the new drink as well and the basic shake in its current incarnation appeared.
What differentiates a milkshake from a frappe or smoothie? Well, in the first place, even milkshakes are not born equal. While the most common version consists of milk, ice cream and a flavoring, in the New England states and some Commonwealth nations, they adhere a bit more to tradition and there is no ice cream in the shake, only iced milk.
By and large, the variations in name have to do with its region of origin or with the changes or additions in the basic recipe. For example, a frosted shake is a milkshake to which ice cream has been added. In the 1930s, the newspapers used the term ‘frosted’ for any beverage that had ice cream added to it. Even hot coffee with ice cream added to it was called a frosted coffee.
Now take away the ice cream and substitute yogurt, crushed ice and fresh fruit and you have the health buff’s favorite treat, the smoothie. Add malted milk to the basic shake and you’ll wind up with a classic malted milkshake or simply a malt. An extra thick milkshake came to be called a velvet or frappe (pronounced ‘frap’) in northern New England and Canada. The term frappe comes from French frapper, meaning ‘to ice’. In Rhode Island and southeastern Massachusetts, locals are fond of their coffee frappe shake. (When I read this, the frapuccino began to make sense.) By the way, once you add ice cream to a milkshake in this particular region it becomes peculiarly enough, a cabinet, probably named after the square wooden cabinet in which the mixer used to be encased.
The concept of milkshakes also migrated south of the border. Add fruit to a milkshake and you have the batido, which is very popular in Latin America and among Miami’s extensive Cuban expatriate community. Nicaraguans even coined their own name—they call their milkshake leche malteada.
In the 1940s and 50s, soda fountains were favorite hangouts in the U.S. and milkshakes often formed the base of their ice cream menus. Soda fountain staff, or jerks as they were called, had their own jargon for these milky concoctions, some nicely descriptive, others quite bizzare and incomprehensible. A “White Cow” was a vanilla milkshake while a “Burn One All the Way” was a chocolate malted with chocolate ice cream. The whimsically named “Shake One in the Hay” was a simple strawberry shake. But the “Twist It, Choke It and Make It Cackle” needs a bit of circular reasoning to connect it to what the shake was: a chocolate malted with an egg.
In the Philippines, milkshakes are often bought as a dessert or a cold treat to sip while strolling around on a warm day. But in North America, it was discovered that nearly half of all milkshakes are bought in the early morning and are usually the only items purchased per customer. The reason? It makes an ideal breakfast product for the commute from home to work or school because it can be consumed with just one hand and there is little risk of spillage on clothes or soiling the hands, as is the case with sandwiches or pastries.
Nowadays, the plethora of milkshake variations can be bewildering. Everything from the basic milk and ice cream version to fruit- or candy-studded, spiked and gourmet concoctions are on hand. Anything from M&Ms, peanut butter and jelly, Hostess Twinkies, melted caramels and crushed Oreos to crème de menthe and Kahlúa liqueur, whiskey and vodka to macerated strawberries, Valrhona chocolate, saffron-rose water and taro root have found their way into today’s shakes. Going by this, I suppose even the once ubiquitous pearl drinks can pass as milkshakes.
I once used leftover ice cream to make milkshakes for my three sons. I followed the most popular recipe—cold milk, ice cream and a flavoring, chocolate syrup in this case. I got the thumbs up from all three with Bryan claiming there’s nothing like homemade, Jonathan stating that it was the best milkshake he’d ever tasted and Niccolo simply and enthusiastically saying “Delicious!” and asking for a second serving.
Hmmm, maybe if I do this often enough, their clamor for costly commercial shakes will go the way of the dodo. Well, I can dream, can’t I?
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