The Shamrock Shake has been a fan favorite returning tradition at Mcdonald’s since the late 1960’s/early 1970’s, many fans look forward to Shamrock season which spans from mid February to late March.
The Shamrock Shake, a fan favorite yearly tradition at Mcdonald’s since 1967, returned on February 17th, marking the beginning of Shamrock Season.
The first Shamrock Shake was lemon lime flavored and debuted in Connecticut. It was created by a local Mcdonald’s owner Hal Rosen.
After 1973, the lemon lime flavored shake was changed to be plain vanilla with a green food dye, it wasn’t until a decade later, 1983 when the iconic mint flavor was permanently added.
In 1974, the sales of the Shamrock shake helped fund the first Ronald Mcdonald House in Philadelphia, which helped support families of children with Leukemia.
In the 1970’s & 80’s, the shake was promoted by a character named Uncle O’Grimacey, who was the green Irish uncle of Mcdonald’s popular mascot Grimace.
Although it has had history spanning back to 1967, the Shamrock Shake wasn’t available in every location nationwide in the United States until 2012.
There have been different variations of the Shamrock Shake, including a Chocolate Shamrock flavor introduced during a limited time in 2017. It was a layered shake, chocolate on the bottom and shamrock on the top.
The layered shake came up with a new “issue”, you couldn’t really get both flavors at once unless you mixed it, and that defeated the purpose, so Mcdonald’s brought in aerospace and robotic engineers to create the S.T.R.A.W. STRAW stands for Suction Tube for Reverse Axel Withdrawal. These engineers came up with a J-shaped straw with holes at specific locations, designed to pull exactly 50 % chocolate and 50% shamrock in every sip.
More recently, in 2020 Mcdonald’s introduced a new recurring menu item which is still available to this day, the Oreo Shamrock Mcflurry. It is their popular ice cream delicacy, the Oreo Mcflurry, mixed with shamrock syrup to combine in their popular mint flavor.
Make sure to go out and get your Shamrock Shake and/or Oreo Mcflurry while you still can, it often ends on St. Patrick’s Day or while supplies last.
