It's a new year, so we considered compiling a list of the ten best juice cleanses or healthful smoothies, but what fun is that?
Forget your "no dairy" and "no sugar" resolutions and make your friends and family up North jealous that you can slurp milkshakes in the wintertime. Miami milkshakes bring all the foodies to the fruit stand, and your life is better than theirs!
10. Cookies and Shake at Top Burger
Two years ago, Top Burger showed it was at the top of its customer-service game by posting this message: "Customers, get ready, your request for milkshakes has come true, the machine will be in next week, real ice cream, old fashion style, with scoops of ice cream, not boxes with so-called ice cream, so there will be all types, from cookies and cream, dulce de leche, and the standard vanilla, so on." The cookies and cream ($3.69) is a favorite with the last drop from your straw getting bits of sweet cookie cream filling.
9. Spiked Frrrozen Hot Chocolate at Serendipity 3
We weren't all city kids who grew up in NYC and have beautiful memories of the famous Frrrozen Hot Chocolate. This means we have no problem adding booze and sipping on a sunny day in South Beach. The booze-spiked Frrrozen Hot Chocolate ($14) comes in three flavors. Try the Black Nijinsky, which features Frrrozen Hot Chocolate mixed with vodka and Kahlúa and accompanied by a shot of rum crème in a chocolate cup.
8. Mylk Shake at Jugofresh
For some of us with lactose problems, a milkshake is out of the question. However, Jugofresh has a fun and healthful alternative. The "mylk shake" ($11) uses almonds, dates, agave, cinnamon, vanilla extract, and gray sea salt for an horchata-like beverage that supports muscle and bone growth.
7. Coffee Fair Shake at Shake Shack
Miami loves coffee, though the weather rarely allows for a hot version beyond cortadito size. So you can go big and go home with this cold and creamy version. Unlike other milkshake flavors, the coffee ($5.25) is not too sweet, and because the Shack uses hand-spun frozen custard, this version has an even creamier texture that puts up a fight being sucked up your straw.
6. Oreo Shake at Sweet Dogs
Sweet Dogs already serves one of our favorite food items -- the hot dog with mac 'n' cheese -- but the milkshakes are not to be overlooked. The flavors offered are vanilla, Oreo cookie, pineapple, and strawberry. We recommend the Oreo shake, which comes gussied up with whipped cream, chocolate sprinkles, and strawberries.
5. Strawberry Shake at Knaus Berry Farm
Perhaps it's because it's seasonal or that it normally involves a trek and a wait in a long line, but the strawberry shake at Knaus is simply magical. It is the stuff that Dade dreams are made of. You can pick some fresh seasonal strawberries or just go straight to the straw. Plus, the shake will help wash down that box of cinnamon rolls on the drive home.
4. O Face at Burger & Beer Joint
We're all consenting adults here, right? So let's put on our grown-up panties and suck on an adult shake at Burger & Beer Joint. The O Face devirginizes the idea of a creamsicle in the best way possible, with Svedka Orange Cream Pop Vodka, Svedka Vanilla Vodka, orange juice, and vanilla ice cream. You won't worry about an funny faces you make while downing one of these babies.
3. Mamey Batido at Los Pinareños Frutería
A batido may walk the thick and creamy line between smoothie and milkshake, but it uses whole milk, so that pushes it over the edge. The mix of milk, clumps of white sugar, and fresh tropical fruit is heavenly and far beyond the stuff that was ever served in some '50s diner before the sock hop. We actually know exactly what makes this concoction so delicious: The secret is in the local fruit. Beyond the mamey, try the sapodilla shake, and you may feel the earth move beneath you.
2. Strawberry Shake at Pinecrest Wayside Market
"Wayside Market, Home of the Famous Strawberry Shake, Since 1948," the signs reads out front. These old-school shakes are not too sweet and not too thick. There are also more healthful smoothie options, but what you really come here for is the throwback to simpler times and hoping that maybe one day you can be a regular with your preferred shake written on an index card in the Rolodex, as opposed to the kind of person who has to Instagram your shake before a sip.
1. Strawberry Key Lime Shake at Robert Is Here
Robert Moehling staked his claim in Florida City in 1960, and he and his family have been running the fruit stand ever since. They are produce-whisperers whose milkshakes are a sweet, fruity nectar of the gods. Get in line and choose from dozens of fruit flavors and combinations. Try the strawberry key lime ($5.50). Not too sour or too sweet, it's an ideal treat before or after visiting the Keys. These shakes are made with ice milk -- a mix of low-fat ice cream and yogurt -- and are so thick they can be eaten with a spoon. You need some powerful suction to get these thick concoctions up a straw, but once you do, you'll know why they're number one.
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