How milkshakes made their way to world domination

McDonald’s means hamburgers. But maybe it should mean milkshakes. Because milkshake mixers are what Ray Kroc was selling in 1954, not very successfully, when he suddenly got a big order from a California-based operation run by Richard and Maurice McDonald.

Kroc visited and was so impressed by their clean, wholesome outlet and streamlined system to deliver burgers and shakes fast that he persuaded the brothers to let him invest and grow the operation. Soon he had kicked them out and McDonald’s was billions of burgers and multitudes of milkshakes on its way to world domination.

Milkshakes are now flooding India. On a small stretch in Bandra in Mumbai I counted five outlets advertising milkshakes and more with them on the menu. This includes Keventers, an old Delhi brand which had declined ever since the government, putting diplomacy over dairy, acquired its old farm to build the embassy enclave of Chanakyapuri. It had now reinvented itself, with attractively retro bottles.

Lassi is, of course, the original milkshake, in the sense of a drink made by beating a dairy product to make it both smooth and airy. Similar concoctions in the West were known by names like syllabub, posset, flips, nogs and milk punches. They often included eggs and alcohol and were served warm.

Cold creamy shakes became popular in 19th century USA, partly due to wider availability of ice, sawn from frozen ponds in winter and kept through the year. This was also used to make ice cream, which made ‘frozen milkshakes’. The rapid growth of the Temperance movement created a demand for non-alcoholic beverages, and places where they could be enjoyed.

The other boost came from malted milk powders like Horlicks. These combinations of dried milk, barley malt and sugar were among the first branded nutritional supplements and competition to sell them was fierce. Milkshakes were a delicious way to consume them and malted milk companies helped milk bars buy mixing machines.

The first were hand cranked, but an electric one was invented in 1922.

Indian milkshakes also got outside help. In 1963, The Times of India reported on two milk bars being set up in Bombay with funds from Australia; milkshakes were specifically mentioned among the products they would sell.

Their popularity spread and one type even became part of the city’s underground lore. A ToI article on dance bars explained how dancers toyed with infatuated admirers by taking them to Haji Ali Juice Centre and making them buy the girls the most expensive Dry Fruit Milkshake. The drivers would get one too and “then they pack a glass or two for their mothers and friends”.

Less delicious milkshakes also exist. There’s the barium ‘milkshake’ given to patients receiving gastrointestinal X-rays. Bodybuilders have protein shakes, health faddists have cleansing smoothies and Soylent, the product meant to be a replacement for all other food, is consumed as a milkshake. Is the essential unpalatability of all these options helped by making them mimic a product as palatable as a milkshake?