I’m a big fan of malt. In shakes. Vinegar. Breads and dough and beer batters. In whiskey and chocolates.
But as I was making a milkshake and adding some malted powder, it struck me that I couldn’t really buy a malted milk anywhere close by. And malted breads popular in England are not common in Canada. Even buying malt powder is hard. It strikes me as being an antiquated flavour from back when drug stores served breakfast. Can you buy a prepared malted milk where you live? Is it uncommon?
I don’t think I’ve ever seen prepared malted milk in the supermarket or anywhere else. Malted milk powder, yes, but not a ready-to-drink product. You can get malteds at some/many places that sell milk shakes, but that’s about as close to “prepared” as I could think of.
Try homebrewing shops for malt powder and syrup.
Yep, it’s the same where I live.
I get chocolate malt powder at an Asian grocery store, here.
Can’t you get Milo or Ovaltine, both in powder and pre-mixed?
It’s an option at several fast-food restaurants in the Chicago area that sell milkshakes, but I don’t remember ever seeing a “malted milk” packaged at a grocery store.
I’m only familiar with Ovaltine as a powder, and it doesn’t look like Nestle (its current manufacturer in the U.S.) sells it in any other form here these days.
I had to look Milo up, as I’d not ever heard of it. It sounds similar to Ovaltine, but it doesn’t look like it’s sold in the U.S. (other than as an import).
Milo is what I get at the Asian grocery. I couldn’t remember the name offhand. It’s much less sweet that Ovaltine.
Interestingly both Milo and Ovaltine are produced by Nestle.
My favorite breakfast place has malts. Mickie’s Dairy Bar (Madison, WI) has griddle cakes that cover a large plate, and omelettes with a dozen ingredients that overhang the plate, and… “A hot fudge malt with extra extra malt, please!”
Here are some Mickie’s malts on abc news…
In fact, the review page on TripAdvisor is titled “Great Malts, Terrific Breakfasts”: a review of Mickies Dairy Bar!
With all that, breakfast is still half the price of anywhere else…
I can get Ovalmatine (original name) and the local knock-off at almost every store. I have seen barley malt powder (Malzextrakt) at the natural foods store. I think I would have to add the malt to the milk myself.
But the nearest place to me to get a malted shake is at the nearest Five Guys. Which is in Lausanne.
In the UK the most common forms are such as Ovaltine for a drink, Malt Loaf for a snack (my wife makes one at home that really kicks ass and takes names) and of course Maltesers.
Malted milkshakes aren’t really a thing but I confess I do sometimes like to tip a bag of maltesers into ice cold milk. They don’t melt of course, just the opposite but there is something about a mouthful of cold milk and crunchy malty chocolate that works so I can see the attraction of the malted milkshake
I learned to love malt from a young age. My mom would make chocolate malts using the jar of Carnation brand malt powder we always had on hand, never just shakes, which were far inferior to malts in my opinion.
Maybe it was a Brit thing, because my mom was originally from Great Britain, where they put malt vinegar on ‘chips’ (delicious), but it seemed like the use of malt in the U.S. wasn’t that widespread. If we went to a restaurant and I wanted to get a malt, sometimes they only had shakes on the menu. One of my favorite things to do as a kid was to ride my bike up to the local Dairy Queen and buy a chocolate malt with my allowance money. I learned from bitter experience which no-brand ice cream shops in the neighborhood used some sort of fake malt extract that tasted nothing like real malt and avoided them; but the local Dairy Queen used real malt powder- I’d see them using it to make my malt.
So I guess a love of real beer when I got older was predestined. I liked beers like Dortmunder Union, because the malty flavor notes were prevalent. When I was in my mid to late 20s and started making my own beer, I was pleasantly surprised to find out that the malt sugar I used to make the beer was pretty much the same stuff as the old Carnation brand malt powder. I made myself a chocolate malt or two out of the leftover malt sugar from the beer making.
When I was a boy, I went to a boarding school. Any new boys that looked a bit weedy, were given malt extract to build them up.
Malt extract is a viscous liquid about the same consistency as treacle and it came in a large jar. We were sat in a line on benches and given a spoonful of the malt - We could ot leave until we could hand in a clean spoon.
Some boys really hated the stuff so I and a couple of others who actually liked it would charge them a penny to lick their spoons clean.
Yes, I can (in South Africa), and no, it’s very common. This would be Milo, in tetrapaks.
I can also order Milo or Horlicks in some restaurants.
If by a “prepared malted milk” you mean going to a non-chain restaurant and getting a malted milk shake, then yes, lots of places do that here. Here in America’s Dairyland (motto: Smell our dairy air!) malts are pretty ubiquitous, I grew up on them (as my waistline shows). You can also order “dusty road” ice cream sundaes, where malt powder is sprinkled all over ice cream or custard.
We always have a container of Carnation Malted Milk powder on hand in our pantry. It’s available in any local grocery store.
I can (and do) buy malted milk powder at the grocery store, which is malt and flour mixed with sugar and flavourings. This is different from pure malt powder for baking, which I have not seen here in consumer quantities and which I can’t buy from American or British websites. Canada has no equivalent to “granary breads”, which is unfortunate.
But I have never seen malt as an add-on at a Canadian ice cream store. Restaurants that sell Ovaltine or malted milk or similar drinks are similarly vanishingly rare in Canada. I can’t think of any. I’m sure there must be some places in Toronto, though. It’s odd since you’d think Canada might grow a lot of crops used to make malt. Perhaps they all end up in beer? Maybe a local brewery would sell me some.
I did do a medical elective in India. Since I never got used to eating a super spicy breakfast, I would sometimes buy Horlicks from street carts instead of braving the dosa.
I just did a quick search near me. Udder Delights in Cranston Rhode Island (an hour’s drive from here) still has malted milk shakes on its menu
https://www.udderdelightsri.com/
So does Dairy Twist in Pembroke MA, which is closer
And Jimmy’s Classic Eats in Woods Hole MA
There are others, but you really have to look for them.
Used to keep the Carnation powder around. I’m surprised how few of the ice cream shops and creameries around offer a malted milk shake. OTOH, here in RI you can get Coffee Milk just about anywhere. People love it around here because they used to get it in school.
The Swings N Things recreation park near me has their own ice cream including malted vanilla. Man, is it good!