A Milkshake is a sweet, cold beverage which is made from milk, ice cream or iced milk, and sweet flavorings such as fruit syrup or chocolate sauce in Canada, most regions of the United States, Australia, and the United Kingdom. Milkshakes are usually served in a tall glass with a straw, and whipped cream may be added as a topping. Three popular milkshake flavors are vanilla, chocolate, and strawberry.

Full-service restaurants, soda fountains, and diners usually prepare and mix the shake "by hand" from scoops of actual ice cream and milk in a blender or drink mixer using a stainless steel cup. Fast food outlets do not use actual ice cream, but manufacture their shakes in milkshake machines which freeze and serve a premade milkshake mixture. Throughout the United States, especially in fast food and casual dining restaurants, a milkshake may be referred to as a shake.

Types

Hand-blended
Hand-blended milkshakes can be made from any available flavor of ice cream and additional flavorings, such as chocolate syrup and malt, can be added prior to mixing. This allows for considerably greater variety than is available in machine-made shakes that are generally available in only three flavors at most.

Several decades ago, milkshakes were made without ice cream, a practice which is still continued in some parts of the UK, Australia and New England. Milkshake-like recipes which use yogurt, crushed ice, and fresh fruit and which are made without ice cream are usually called smoothies. When malted milk is added, a milkshake is called a malted milkshake. They are also called thick milkshakes in the United Kingdom, a frappe (pronounced "f - rap") in parts of New England and Canada, and a cabinet in Rhode Island. In Rhode Island and Southeastern Massachusetts, coffee syrup or coffee flavored ice cream is used to make the local "coffee frappe" or "coffee doorknob" shake. Milkshakes with added fruit called batido are popular in Latin America and in Miami's Cuban expatriate community. In Nicaragua, milkshakes are called leche malteada.

Some US restaurants serve milkshakes with broken cookie or candy bar pieces or alcoholic beverages. The grasshopper milkshake, which includes broken chocolate cookies, creme de menthe liqueur, and chocolate mint ice cream, includes both of these additional ingredient types. BLT Burger in New York sells a $5 Twinkie Boy shake, which is made with a Hostess Twinkie, vanilla ice cream and caramel syrup. The BLT restaurant sells $10 spiked shakes, which contain liquor such as whisky or Kahlua. The Purple Cow restaurant also serves milkshakes with alcohol, as well as making unusual shakes such as the "Peanut Butter and Jelly milkshake." Baskin-Robbins sells milkshakes that contain chunks of candy bars or small pieces of candy, such as its Reese's Peanut Butter Cup Shake and the Heath Bar Crunch Shake.

The UK chain Shakeaway offers over 100 different ingredients to which can be added to milk and ice cream-based milkshakes, including oreos, strawberry trifle, peanut butter, Tic tacs and even cucumber.

Fast-food and pre-made

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To increase the speed of production, most fast-food restaurants serve milkshakes made in automatic milkshake machines, which are stainless steel cylinders with beaters that use refrigeration coils to freeze pre-made milkshake mixtures into a drinkable texture. The smallest automatic milkshake machines are counter-mounted appliances that can make a single milkshake flavor using a five liter stainless steel tank. Large restaurants that want to offer multiple flavors can either use a big floor-mounted multi-flavor machines which has multiple five liter stainless steel barrels or use carbon dioxide-based machines that mixes the flavors while the milkshake product is dispensed. Some fast-food restaurants use "thick milkshake" machines, which are single-flavor machines that have a larger (12 liter) stainless steel tank.

Pre-made milkshakes made from milk mixed with sweetened flavored powder or concentrate, which is usually called "flavoured milk" are available in grocery stores in North America and the UK. Common brands include Nesquik, Crusha and Dinkum for the mobile vendor market in the UK. Bottled milkshake is also common, commonly being sold in 330ml, 500ml or 1 litre bottles. Milk Chug, Gulp!, FRijj, Yazoo, Big M, and Mars are well known brands of bottled milkshake. Ben & Jerry's has taken three ice cream flavors — Cherry Garcia, Chunky Monkey and Chocolate Fudge Brownie and used them to make $1.99 US bottled shakes.

Utah shakes
In Utah, numerous locally-based diners sell "milkshakes" (or often just as "shakes") that are made from ice cream without adding any additional milk whatsoever, with textures often thicker even than Wendy's shakes. The ice cream is whipped and served in a large tall cup with a spoon as a beverage. Because the ice cream is still mostly solid, it is often filled significantly above the top of the cup in what is called an "above-the-rim" or "over-the-rim" shake. The above-the-rim section is intended to be eaten first before it melts and overflows the cup. Above-the-rim shakes have notably been sold by Arctic Circle Restaurants.