The First Milkshake Was Blended At A Walgreens Pharmacy

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Rumor has it that Walgreens "invented" the milkshake everyone loves today, but reality is a bit more nuanced than that. As with most origin stories, plenty of layers and history exist prior to the aha! moment that cinched the deal. A version of milkshakes has existed since at least 1855 when the term was first recorded, describing an eggnog-style alcoholic drink laden with whiskey. That's a far cry from the now-popular, thick, family-friendly sweet treat, which was in fact blended at a Chicago Walgreens soda-fountain in 1922. 

That was the year a Walgreens soda-jerk named Ivar "Pop" Coulson famously dropped two scoops of the store's house‑made vanilla ice cream into a glass of milk. He then added chocolate syrup and the ingredient that forever changed the dairy dessert world: malted-milk powder. It's notable that Pop didn't invent malted-milk powder, instead using the existing Horlick's brand used for plain malted-milk drinks. However, he's the one who blended it all into ice-cream nirvana. Malt powder is still what defines an authentic, traditional milkshake, infusing the mixture with creamy, toasty, sweetness, full-bodied texture, and a huge heap of nostalgia. 

There we have it: Walgreens didn't invent the milkshake, per se, but it did indeed invent the "malted" milkshake, for which we're deeply grateful. If only Walgreens and other drugstores still doled them out at charming soda-fountain counters with twirling vinyl stools and be-bop music spinning from LP records. Sign us up!

If malted milk had the power to launch a worldwide ice cream phenomenon — which it did — perhaps it's worth a deeper look. A few years before Pop Coulson stirred malted milk into infamy, it had already made a name for itself. An invention of two brothers, William and James Horlick, its intended purpose wasn't for pleasure eating — far from it. Malted milk started in Chicago as a nutritional supplement for babies and ill adults, entering the marketplace in 1873. 

The concoction included malted barley, wheat flour, and dried milk, blended in powder form for easy mixing with water. It was — and still is — shelf-stable and portable, an ingenuous idea that soon became popular with explorers, athletes, and soldiers. In short, anyone seeking a natural, dependable, nutritional source that happens to taste good can turn to this drink. It was also an obvious ready-to-drink beverage for drugstore soda-fountain counters, which were, after all, located in pharmacies where people came for healing products.  

Though beginning as a health food, we know how that trajectory swung once the Walgreens soda-jerk wrapped his hands and creative mind around that powder. Within a few years, his malted milkshake invention launched a cultural phenomenon, especially among teens. Drugstore soda fountains were unofficially rebranded as "malt shops," and the marriage of malt and chocolate morphed into some still-existing and well-loved treats like Whopper candies. You can also buy malted milk powder for incorporating into baked goods, crepes, pancakes, coffee drinks, chocolate martinis, or whatever you can imagine. Pop did it, and so can you.