The 25 Best Milkshakes in America and Where to Try Them

Lots of places will mix peanut butter into a shake, and many also offer M&Ms as an add-in, but this longtime Iowa City comfort-food purveyor cuts to the chase by making those M&Ms the peanut kind — adding real peanut flavor to the shake’s chocolate richness.

Tart-sweet huckleberries, related to both cranberries and blueberries, are found mostly in the Pacific Northwest (as far east as Montana), and huckleberry ice cream is the signature creation at Big Dipper. It also happens to make a memorable shake.

Sometimes it’s hard to improve on a classic — but LunchBox Lab elevates this basic milkshake, based on Snoqualmie ice cream, by making it with fresh strawberries when they’re in season.

All the shakes at Kaminsky’s begin with three scoops of vanilla bean ice cream from the noted Atlanta ice cream producer Greenwood. It’s made from aged East Coast Madagascar bourbon vanilla beans, and while Kaminsky’s will blend various candy bar or cookie pieces, among other ingredients, into the basic shake, the ice cream is so good that it deserves to be enjoyed in a shake all by itself.

An old-school pharmacy and soda fountain dating from 1946 that became pharmacy-free in 2009, Brent’s shows up on numerous best-milkshake lists, and it has been said that a traditional chocolate malt — topped with whipped cream and a maraschino cherry — is the best way to experience the place.