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Malt Extract "Tonic"
in the pre-Prohibition Era
"Malt Extract" was a "patent medicine" type of product, a creation of brewers in the late 1800's-early 1900's in response to the Temperance Movement.
Some were thick syrups, taken by the spoonful. Others were beverages of varying alcoholic content, such as "Ballantine's Ideal Malt Extract", which had 3.25% alcohol (a bit less than today's average "light" beers).
As Prohibition approached, and brewers looked to other products to manufacture, Ballantine apparently re-named it's Malt Extract beverage a "Tonic" and began using the term "Malt Extract" for its powdered and syrup form of condensed malts that were marketed to the baking industry, and, often with hop flavoring, to the "home brewing" market after the enactment of the 18th Amendment.
(Below) 1917 entry in an Export guide, which notes the new name for the "IDEAL" beverage.
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