Wednesday, August 6, 2008

OT: Are malts regional or am I just old?

Okay, I'll admit it. This isn't a post about science. This is a post about malt powder.

I had a hankering (do people get those any more either?) for a malt the other day. I have fond memories of making malts with my father: three scoops of vanilla ice cream, a few squirts of chocolate syrup, milk, and a couple of spoonfuls of malt powder combined in a blender then poured into a chilled glass. Mmmm.

Anyway, I went to the grocery store ... and then another grocery store ... and there was no malt powder to be found. In fact, no one knew what I was talking about. One clerk even said to me, "I guess I'm too young."

Too young for malts? What's going to happen to future generations if they lose the joys of a good malt?

So, to make this vaguely scientific, I have a couple of questions for you. Have you ever heard of malts? Are you a child, tween, young adult, adult? Where do you live? I'm wondering if malts are a regional taste -- my family originally comes from the Midwestern US -- or if this is (eek!) a generational gap.

Which reminds me ... if you've never had a malt, do yourself a favor. Make a shake and throw in a few spoonfuls of malt powder and see what you think!

4 comments:

CricketB said...

Look for Ovaltine. It's still in the local store. Grandpa would stir the powder up with milk. I suspect Wendy's Frosties are also malt -- there's something other than chocolate in there.

jublke said...

You know, I found a chocolate malt flavor of Ovaltine, but not a vanilla malt or just plain malt. I'll have to keep looking.

Thanks for the tip! :)

SM said...

Yes I've heard of them. I love them! When I was in high school 20 years ago, I used to work in local fast food restaurant that was a regional favorite in Eastern Washington. We had 40+ milkshake flavors and each of them could be made into a malt.

We started out with malt powder but it was messy. However, the restaurant food service place we ordered most of our ingredients through started offering a liquid malt which was a lot easier to mix into the milkshakes.

You might try a local URM, Cash and Carry, or other local restaurant supplier that has a storefront and sells in small-ish quantities.

jublke said...

Mmm, Captain Mom! 40+ different kinds of malts sounds great! :)

I haven't heard of liquid malt before. Interesting. I'll have to keep my eye out for that, too.

Thanks for sharing!