Horlicks is a malted milk powder that you mix with warm milk to make a drink.

It is wheatier,
and less malty-tasting than other such drinks.
The basic ingredients Horlicks is malted barley, wheat flour and evaporated milk. It is now
available in many flavours including original, chocolate, banana, strawberry, light, etc.
Horlicks is served in some Chinese restaurants as a snack, usually sweetened with sugar. They
serve it hot or cold -- to serve it cold, they make it first with the warm milk, then add ice to chill
it.
It is very popular in India, where special flavours and formulas have been developed for the
market there.
It is also very popular in Malaysia, where it is present in 70% of Malaysian kitchens where it is
used as a drink for children.
Horlicks is owned by GlaxoSmithKline (current as of 2007.) The largest markets for Horlicks
are, in order, the UK, India and Malaysia. It is GlaxoSmithKline's top selling product in
Malaysia.
Cooking Tips
To use Horlicks as a drink: 2 or 3 tablespoons in a mug, add warm milk or water, and stir.
Nutrition
Horlicks is currently (2007) marketed in the West as helping to promote sleep at night.
History Notes
Horlicks was invented by two British men who immigrated to America, William Horlick (18461936) and his brother James Horlick (1844-1921).
Despite their immigrating to America and inventing Horlicks there, it actually became more
popular back home in Britain. They had intended it to be an infant food, but it became more
popular among adults (though in India, it became popular for children.)
James Horlick and William Horlick were from Gloucestershire, England. James was a chemist,
working for a company that made dried baby food. He invented some food formulas for the
company, and got the hankering to set out on his own. William, his younger brother, had
previously emigrated to America in 1869. In 1873, James decided to join him in Chicago. That
same year, they started their own company (J&W Horlicks) to make a malted milk drink for
infants. They called their product "Diastoid."

By 1875, they needed to move to a place that was larger, so they moved to Racine, Wisconsin.
Their new factory was a small, one storey wood building, with seven windows in each side.
Their slogan was that they made " Horlick's Infant & Invalids Food."

1875 -- The brothers obtained their first US patent on 18 May 1875;

1883 -- On 5th June 1883, the brothers obtained US patent 278,967 for their drink's
ability to mix up in water. Thus, they became the first malted milk to be patented;

1890 -- James went back to London to set up an office there to manage importing their
product from the States;

1906 -- UK demand was large enough to justify Horlicks establishing its own plant there;

1908 -- Construction of the first UK factory, in Slough, Berkshire is completed;

1914 -- James was made a Baron;

1921 -- James died. The company was divided into two. James's sons get responsibility
for all of the world except America; William continues to manage America;

1930s -- Horlicks dropped from the product description the phrase "malted milk";

1935 -- Horlicks opened a factory in Australia to supply Australia and New Zealand;

1936 -- William died, age 90;

1945 -- British Horlicks company buys the American Horlicks out;

1955 -- Up till now, powdered Horlicks had been exported to India for bottling and
labelling there. In 1955, government protectionist policies in India stopped the import of
Horlicks.

30 October 1958 -- Horlicks opened a factory in Nabha, Punjab, India to make Horlicks
there. The subsidiary company was called "Hindustan Milkfood Manufacturers Pvt. Ltd."

1968 -- A factory was built in Pakistan;

1969 -- Horlicks was sold to Beecham [1];

1988 -- Calcium and protein added to the Horlicks mix;

1990s -- In the UK, over 70% of Horlicks was being sold to people over 45 in the early
1990s. Horlicks needed to tap into a younger market so that its customers didn't just die
off. The company launched ads showing younger, working people drinking it;

1993 -- Horlicks added Vitamin C, Vitamin B12, Folic Acid, and Iron to its mix;

1999 -- Horlicks added yet more calcium, so that they could market the product as having
twice the calcium of fresh milk;

At various points, Horlicks biscuits and Horlicks ice cream have been made.
The first Horlicks bottles had the product information imprinted right on the glass.
Promotional mixing sets used to be sold consisting of a box that contained a jar of Horlicks, a
tall, relatively slender plastic mixing pitcher, and a whisk-like thing made of a relatively flat disk
with holes on it, attached to a long handle, that you used to stir and churn the Horlicks in the
mixing pitcher before you poured it into your mug. Called the "Horlicks Easy Mixing Set", it
sold in England for 3 shillings. The plastic pitchers said on them, "HORLICKS MIXER: See
mixing instructions on Horlicks Containers. The graduations are for seven and fourteen ounces
respectively -- one or two drinks. DO NOT USE BOILING LIQUIDS" Horlicks was sold for 20
million in 1969 by the founders' sons to the Beecham Group; the Beecham group merged in 1989
with SmithKline to become SmithKline Beecham; on 27 December 2000, SmithKline Beecham
merged with Glaxo Wellcome to become GlaxoSmithKline.
Language Notes
"Bollocks" is a term in the UK which is roughly equivalent to the North American slang word
"bullshit."
The word "Horlicks" has entered popular vocabulary in the UK as a polite replacement for the
word "bollocks." No one is quite sure how it started, but in the 1990s, the company decided to
make it look like a parade and get in front of it with a TV commercial in which a housewife says
"Horlicks"
instead
of
something
like
"bollocks."
In 2003, Jack Straw, the then British Foreign Secretary, used the phrase "a complete Horlicks" to
mean a "complete cock-up." But at the time he used it, the phrase was already so well known that
it was out of fashion.
Nevertheless, in October of 2004, the new management of Horlicks, GlaxoSmithKline, not
sharing the sense of humour that the earlier management of the product did, hired a public
relations consultant, Mark Borkowsk, to advise on how to discourage the slang usage of the word
Horlicks.
The Horlick Mountains in Antarctica were named by Admiral Richard Evelyn Byrd (25 October

1888 to 11 March 1957) in honour of William Horlick. William Horlick helped to sponsor Byrd's
1933 to 1935 expedition to Antarctica, both with money and supplies of Horlick's.
Acknowlegements
Reynolds, Nigel. Steaming Horlicks fed up with slang use of its name. London: Daily Telegraph.
18 October 2004.
'The Great Family Nourisher'
Horlicks is the leading Health Food Drink in India and as the 'Most Trusted Drinks Brand'
(Economics Times Survey, 2004) in India, enjoys more than half of the Health Food Drink
market.
Although it has been a popular brand in the Indian market since the 1930s, Horlicks underwent a
revamp in 2003 to further increase its relevance. The modern & contemporary Horlicks offers
'pleasurable nourishment' with a delicious range of flavours including Vanilla, Toffee, Elaichi and
Chocolate.
With revitalized packaging synergistic with the new brand personality, it is a favourite with both
mothers for its nourishment and kids for its great taste and variety.
Horlicks is sold in a number of countries across the world. In different countries, the product has
different formulations in order to cater to varying consumer segments and serve different
consumer needs.
In India, the Horlicks available has been scientifically developed and specifically caters to the
nutritional needs of the Indian diet. It helps meet the requirements of essential nutrients in
children, such as iron and vitamins that aid iron absorption. From the available data, it has been
seen that children in India are not getting enough of these vitamins and minerals from their daily
diet. Research shows that these nutrients are very important for school age children for their
attention, concentration and memory as well as their physical performance and growth. Thus,
Horlicks is a beneficial supplement for children to aid not only their growth, but also enhanced
attention and concentration. In fact, we have established this through a large clinical trial among
school going children.
'The Great Family Nourisher'
Horlicks is the leading Health Food Drink in India and enjoys more than 50% share of the Health
Food Drink Market. (Source: A.C Neilson report on market shares)
Horlicks has been a popular brand in the country since the 1930s. Today, the modern Horlicks
stands for trust and its promise of Pleasurable Nourishment with a delicious range of flavours
including Chocolate, Vanilla and Elaichi.

Horlicks is the only health drink, clinically proven* in India, to make kids taller, stronger and
sharper.
A premier research institute of India conducted a 14 month research on Horlicks in a reputed
boarding school in Hyderabad. In the research, one group of children was given an ordinary
health food drink without the Horlicks micronutrients (or vitamins and minerals) while the other
group was given Horlicks. Many tests and 14 months later, it was concluded that the children
who consumed Horlicks showed significant improvements in height, muscle mass, bone health
and attention/concentration scores as compared to the children who consumed the ordinary
health food drink without the Horlicks micronutrients (or vitamins and minerals)#.
Horlicks is also available in a delicious chocolate flavor. When the temperatures soar and your
throat feels like the Thar Desert, chilled chocolate Horlicks is the tastiest way to beat the heat.
The nutrition of Horlicks packed with the lip-smacking chocolate flavor has won the hearts of
children and adults alike so you hear them sing merrily jaise bhi kaise bhi doodh le ao,
Chocolate Horlicks shake banao.'jaise bhi kaise bhi doodh le ao, Chocolate Horlicks shake
banao..jaise bhi kaise bhi!'
Fun facts about Horlicks
Horlicks was first invented to substitute milk as baby food
The brand has been endorsed by Amitabh Bachchan on the radio(1960-70), Moon Moon Sen and
her daughters Raima and Riya (1980s) and Vishwanathan Anand
Horlicks, in India, has tied up with popular kids movies like Ice Age II and Superman Returns
In India, over 2 billion cups of Horlicks are drunk every year!
All Horlicks bottles sold in India in a year placed end to end would form a chain 6 times the
length of the great wall of China
Total Horlicks sold in a year weighs as much as 325 blue whales!!
*Study conducted by NIN, Hyderabad on micronutrient enriched beverage, on 869 school
children
**More muscles
#Nutrition, Volume 22, Issue 1, Supplement 1, Pages S1-S40 (January 2006)