The Bushwacker: How the Classic Frozen Milkshake Made it to Music City
If you've spent time roaming lower Broadway, you've no doubt come across more than pint of pours and sweat-slick cans of Budweiser for $11 a literal pop -- it's likely you've also crossed paths with a frozen drink machine with a slapped sticker over one of the nozzles that reads "Bushwacker." What, you might think, is that? Glad you asked! Whenever I have friends in town I advise them to grab this drink, and they usually ask me the same.
We'll talk about what it is, why it is, and how it migrated from the U.S. Virgin Islands to Florida, up the Gulf Coast and beyond, and into the heart of music city.
Chocolate, Coffee, Rum & Cream
The recipe for the Bushwacker was, for some time, something of a closely guarded secret. But its main components are used with ubiquity along the Gulf states: Kahlua, chocolate, and milk. There are some that include triple sec (the original did), others that line the glasses with chocolate sauce, some that -- in my experience -- have an odd after note of peanut butter (has anyone added Screwball to a recipe?) and many more variations beyond.
In some Nashville bars, such as Honky Tonk Central and Loser's, these drinks are dispensed through a machine, much like Frosty's or slushies would be at a baseball game. Other bars don't have them pre-batched but do them to-order, so they're allowed a little more room for individuality with the recipe. I'm sure you could request they add more shots (RIP), or chocolate, or perhaps even a dash of coconut rum.
Because these drinks are so popular on Broadway, and Nashville is a nightlife destination for many, it's the way a lot of visitors get their introduction to the drink. I know it was mine. I'd never heard of a Bushwacker before sipping from my first in a plastic little cup at the Loser's Bar over near Vandy, but I am an easy sell on dessert-drinks, and it's been a staple in my rare outings to Broadway ever since.
The base of coffee, chocolate, and cream is in the general public's repertoire already; boozy milkshakes have been a thing for a long time. But the Bushwacker has been around, to some degree, since 1975, where it was first invented by a bartender in St. Thomas, on the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Paradise in a Shake
To call the Bushwacker a milkshake isn't wrong, but it feels wrong in the way calling a frozen margarita a slushie feels wrong. Sure, you can order a 'margarita slushie' but you will be side-eyed by patrons sharing the bar with you. Same goes for the Bushwacker. Its name does the heavy lifting of insinuating what, exactly, the format is.
In 1975, though, the Bushwacker was something of a simply boozy milkshake. Angie Congliaro, of Ship's Store in St. Thomas concocted it at the recommendation of one of her bar managers, Tom Brokamp at, he's quoted as saying by Punch Magazine, "...my suggestion as a tropical variation to the White Russian."
From there, it would evolve as visiting bartenders and restaurant workers tried to copy what would become the Ship Store's beachside staple. In Pensacola, FL, the Sandshaker Bar would do this very thing -- try to replicate the drink after a bartender and manager visited Ship's Store -- and would go on to develop its own variation of the drink, which would ultimately launch it stateside.
Eventually, Flora-Bama -- an iconic bar down in Perdido Key, FL -- would go on to further popularize the mixture with their own take. From there, it would catch on like wildfire.
A New Nashville Classic
Nashville's proximity to the Gulf has allowed the drink to easily flow upward and inland, and its (at the time) newly emergent premiere bar scene was likely happy to capitalize on an old favorite. Now, of course, you can find them in most bars along the lower Broadway strip.
Neighborhood burger join M. L. Rose has its own variation, as does the Tailgate Brewery Headquarters, but the original, tried-and-true can be found over at Broadway Brewhouse, the first bar to bring the drink into Nashville.
I can't speak for every Nashville bar and its take on the cocktail, but I will say that I haven't met a Bushwacker yet that I didn't like. It's not the healthiest of options for a night out on the town, but if your bar-hopping days are far and few between like mine, it's a fine compromise of a splurge and perfect for a warm summer day (which, judging by recent temperatures, is a season we're still apparently in).
If you're wanting to try your own version of the cocktail, you're sure to find a surplus of recipes for it online, but the original version calls for what's arguably a more complicated combination. Over at Punch -- which, you should read the article they have on the Bushwacker, it's a great one I pulled a lot of info for this piece from -- they list that OG version as "vodka with Kahlúa, crème de cacao, Coco Lopez, whole milk and a splash of triple sec, blended the whole mixture with ice, and topped it with a hit of freshly grated nutmeg."
If you're curious about Nashville's ever-evolving bar scene, you can join us on one of our Pub or Bar Crawls, but even during the day, after one of our Coffee Morning Walks or History, Highlights, and Hacks Tours, you can pop in to a joint serving up this tropical cocktail that made its way, through a series of homages, to our own beloved bars.
