Frozen Dreams
Ice creams do come true: Winners announced in the Alamo Drafthouse MilkshakeCreation Challenge
A frozen champion has been chosen, a new milkshake rises above all the others in the land. It's name: "Concessions of a Dangerous Mind."
When the Alamo Drafthouse announced earlier this summer that it was accepting submissions for the next frozen menu item in the First Annual Alamo Drafthouse Milkshake Challenge, over 2,000 applications flooded in from dessert enthusiasts from Texas and beyond.
Each entry had to start with vanilla ice cream as a base and could include up to five additional ingredients from a given list of options that already belong in the typical Drafthouse bar or kitchen.
The champion milkshake mixologist producing the winning milkshake was promised three months of unlimited movies and to have their milkshake on every Drafthouse menu in the country for an entire year. (And with the proliferation of Drafthouses popping up across the country, you know that's quite an honor.)
Drathouse owner Tim League, chef John Bullington and mixologist Bill Norris were joined by Eater Austin's Andrea Grimes and the Austin American-Statesman's Addie Broyles to judge the 12 finalists in the Milkshake Challenge.
Obviously forced against their wills, they pursued a rigorous judging process, sampling the dozen creations with names as creative as "A Chocwork Orange," "Gourd of the Rings: One Shake to Rule Them All," and the Monty Python-inspired "The Knights of Ni Elderberry and Red Herring Shake."
In the end, two milkshakes were neck-and-neck for the Grand Championship title, but Mary Houseman's "Concessions of a Dangerous Mind" (containing caramel syrup, malt, peanut butter, root beer, whipped cream and caramel popcorn) ultimately brought the judges to the yard.
Houseman narrowly beat out runner-up Natalie Thompson's "Lemony Thickness: A Series of Fortunate Ingredients," a concoction made of brown sugar, lemonade, violet syrup, Prosecco and a drizzle of lemon syrup over whipped cream.
Thompson's creation was so close to the winning shake that the judges also awarded the second place winner a spot on the Drafthouse menus for the next three months, in addition to the Alamo gift card that went to the other 12 finalists.
Keep in mind this is the First Annual Milkshake Contest, meaning the judges will be assembling at this time next year for another go-round of creamy lactose-fueled competition. So keep following your ice creams, y'all, and keep reaching for the spoons.
Look for the two top winners on menus soon at all five Alamo Drafthouse locations in Austin and see what a real winner tastes like.