The chocolate malt is an American classic, with its distinctive malted milk flavor, sweet vanilla ice cream, and chocolate syrup. It was the preferred summer treat of mid-century Americans, available at every drugstore and soda fountain shop.

Our Classic Chocolate Malt is a sophisticated update of this old-fashioned favorite. Like classic recipes, this one uses vanilla ice cream and chocolate syrup instead of chocolate ice cream. The vanilla in the vanilla ice cream adds an important element to the flavor profile — one that’s missed if you just use chocolate ice cream.

We used Hershey’s dark chocolate syrup to mellow out the sweetness of the ice cream, then we added cocoa powder and espresso to enhance the chocolate flavor. You won’t taste the espresso powder in the finished malt; we added just enough to deepen the chocolate flavor and give it a memorable richness, without it tasting like a frozen coffee drink.

As a final step, we spent a lot of time getting the ratio of milk to malted milk powder just right. A malt without enough malted milk powder is dull and disappointing. One with too much milk is thin and liquid-y. We tinkered with this one until it was perfectly thick, deliciously rich and truly irresistible.