301552 Sun Feb 19 19:58:59 -0800 2006 19 27 General Chowhounding Topics 0 1682193 Why does Dairy Queen make their chocolate shakes with vanilla ice cream and chocolate syrup instead of chocolate ice cream and chocolate syrup? To me, this is a black and white shake and not a chocolate shake. I'm wondering if it costs more money to make chocolate ice cream than vanilla ice cream and if it's a cost cutting factor. Sun Feb 19 19:58:59 -0800 2006 0 Louie 1 1682194 Just about every fast food joint in existence adds chocolate to a vanilla base. I think it would be less about cost than keeping things simple on the staff; it's a LOT easier to use the neutral vanilla base for every flavor, instead of needing to remember "Oh yeah, the chocolate shake gets chocolate ice cream". Sun Feb 19 20:40:13 -0800 2006 1682193 0 JK Grence (the Cosmic Jester) 2 1682213 Why would someone want to taste any vanilla in a choclate shake? What if someone is allergic to vanilla, does that mean they cant enjoy a choclate shake? Mon Feb 20 06:51:53 -0800 2006 1682194 0 Stace 3 1682214 I'm not sure there's any real vanilla in there though. The chocolate shake would still require the chocolate flavoring. I'm guessing that the chocolate milk formula they get to make the ice cream may be more expensive. That tied with the earlier post about flavor consistency probably contains the full answer somewhere. Mon Feb 20 07:45:19 -0800 2006 1682213 0 Dennis S 3 1682230 > Why would someone want to taste any vanilla in a choclate (sic) shake? Perhaps because vanilla goes quite well with chocolate. Mon Feb 20 12:59:45 -0800 2006 1682213 0 Hal Laurent 3 1682239 Vanilla is, very often, an ingredient in chocolate. Read the label. Your hypothetical allergic person is going to have troubles enjoying lots of things, but not DQ ice cream. DQ vanilla ice cream does not contain vanilla. Link: http://www.dairyqueen.com/en-US/Menus+and+Nutrition/DQ+Soft+Serve+and+DQ+Frozen+Cakes/DQ®+Soft+Serve.htm Mon Feb 20 14:19:13 -0800 2006 1682213 0 Antwerp 3 1682250 Vanilla is very much like salt in the dessert world. It acts as a background flavor, boosting the other primary flavors to something much better than before. And like Antwerp said, one of the primary ingredients in chocolate is vanilla. Mon Feb 20 19:34:44 -0800 2006 1682213 0 JK Grence (the Cosmic Jester) 3 1687661 Actually Im alergic to vanila and I enjoy choclate shakes all them time. Well what it is vanilla will make me really sick but if its dilluted to an extent with choclate im just fine. Sun May 07 19:08:19 -0700 2006 1682213 0 AdamJ 2 1682338 The old-fashioned churned (using a 4-gallon capacity White Mountain freezer)ice cream at Apple Farm, SLO, CA is made with a plain cream base from a major California dairy company. I haven't read the label to know exact ingredients, but #1 is cream. This is the base that the Miller uses(the ice cream is churned using the power of a water-driven mill wheel via many belts, gears and driveshafts) to make the main flavor, vanilla. He adds vanilla extract to make vanilla ice cream, then adds other flavorings to the vanilla to make Boysenberry, Apple, Death by Chocolate, Mint, Toffee Cookie Dough, Pumpkin, and other seasonal flavors. He makes each batch vanilla to start and additionally flavors it batch by batch. Each flavor is enhanced by the vanilla, perhaps this is why soft-serve places all use vanilla as a base for shakes and malts. Storage space issues aside! Like Will, I start with a flavored ice cream for shakes where I can get it at palces like Swenson's or Doc Berstein's or Cold Stone: Coffee with chocolate to make Mocha! I do the same with sundaes, too. I'm not a big fan of chocolate syrup--too sweet! Tue Feb 21 17:56:14 -0800 2006 1682194 0 toodie jane 1 1682199 I guess I've never seen a chocolate shake made with chocolate ice cream, at least in Texas they never made them that way and there's a DQ in every little town. Sun Feb 19 22:48:05 -0800 2006 1682193 0 Monty 1 1682224 What you refer to as a chocolate shake may be referred to by others as a double chocolate shake. Mon Feb 20 10:31:01 -0800 2006 1682193 0 Karl S 1 1682226 I would guess it is an ease of use issue rather than cost. One icecream then add flavorings. I can't say that this bothers me at all, I mean, we are talking about DQ. I had a friend who worked at an ice cream factory. They made the chocolate out of the leftover bases of most of the other flavors. The chocolate "flavor" covered the other tastes and colors. Chocolate is usually one of the cheapest bulk flavors, at least in icecreams in the same quality range as DQ's icecreams. Mon Feb 20 12:03:53 -0800 2006 1682193 0 Seamus Mitwurst 2 1682234 I've done a lot of work for one of the larger US ice cream makers. On a tour some years ago of one of their plants, I was shown the huge batch freezers where the ice cream is made. When I asked what flavor they were making, I was told they always start with a vanilla base. As the guy explained, "Today's choclate is yesterday's vanilla." Mon Feb 20 13:32:51 -0800 2006 1682226 0 PeteEats 3 1682238 I remember over 30 years ago hearing that it was Carvel that pioneered that practice of using vanilla (rather than what is sometimes called "sweet cream" nowadays) as the base for all flavors, and that you could then tell the difference between makers who did or did not follow that practice. The upshot of the difference was that it enhanced some flavors, and muddied others. Mon Feb 20 14:14:25 -0800 2006 1682234 0 Karl S 3 1682244 I knew a guy that used to work in an ice cream factory, and he suggested that I never eat chocolate or banana ice cream. Those flavors are strong enough to cover any impurities, so all the leftovers and spills went into the vat of either chocolate or banana. I am ignoring the advice, by the way. Mon Feb 20 15:15:41 -0800 2006 1682234 0 nja 1 1682236 Back before I learned that one could actually custom-order something at a soda fountain, every shake or malt of any flavor I had began with scoops of vanilla ice cream. (Back then, also, DQ and other soft-serve brands didn't even come in any flavor but vanilla anyway.) It wasn't until I asked one day that I was told Yes, they would make any ice-cream concoction with any flavor they had...and then I kinda went nuts for a while, but that's another story! Mon Feb 20 13:58:38 -0800 2006 1682193 0 Will Owen 1 1682240 DQ chocolate malts are one of my sinful road trip indulgences (along with corn nuts, but that's another post thread). Almost every time I have stopped at a DQ, they ask if I want chocolate or vanilla ice cream. An interesting regional side note. DQ is a Minnesota company (despite that they are every street corner and one-stoplight town in Texas), and in the DQs up here, you can't get iced tea. Go figure. Mon Feb 20 14:20:55 -0800 2006 1682193 0 Loren3 1 1682260 I worked at a Swensen's ice cream franchise when I was in high school, and I was taken aback to discover that all the standard shake flavors (choc, strawberry, vanilla (obviously), and caramel) were made with vanilla ice cream and flavoring. The management explained, essentially, that that was the way things were done everywhere, the world around. Occasionally people would ask for us to make their shakes with chocolate ice cream (or strawberry), and we did. I never noticed a significant flavor difference. Gabriel Link: http://eatingcheznous.blogspot.com Mon Feb 20 22:28:05 -0800 2006 1682193 0 Gabriel Solis 2 1682273 I had no idea Swensen's was an international chain, since the original is so close by. I've certainly been to many DQs, but my local softserve was tastee-freez. Hmm, must add milkshakes to my diet, as a long illness has left me too skinny. Perhaps a milkshake chowhound run? If I am remembering correctly, when travelling in maritime Canada as a child, the default flavour for sundaes was chocolate rather than vanilla. Mon Feb 20 23:53:55 -0800 2006 1682260 0 semmel 3 1682354 Oh, is Swensen's an international chain? I was in California. Where is the original? Gabriel Link: http://eatingcheznous.blogspot.com Tue Feb 21 22:07:53 -0800 2006 1682273 0 Gabriel Solis