Every March, along with basketball tournaments and the opportunity to misquote Julius Caesar, another seasonal tradition returns: the Shamrock Shake from McDonald's. Despite not being the fast-food chain's best-known (or best) limited-time product, the green-tinted beverage has garnered a cult following over the years — and has a surprisingly interesting backstory. Here are a few things you might not know about the frozen treat.
What is a Shamrock Shake?
A Shamrock Shake is a special type of milkshake from McDonald's. It's a pale neon green, served with whipped cream and a cherry on top (a relatively recent addition), and comes in three sizes ranging from small (530 calories and 15 grams of fat) to large (820 calories and 23 grams of fat). (If you're curious, it would take approximately a 5-mile run or a 90-minute bike ride to burn off the calories from a small shake, according to the Delaware News Journal.)
The Shamrock Shake is only available seasonally, typically arriving on the McDonald's menu sometime in February and remaining there at least through St. Patrick's Day, generally disappearing again in mid- to late March. After debuting in 1970 and returning annually for the next two decades, it was briefly discontinued in the 1990s but brought back in the 2000s due to customer demand. In 2012 it was made available at every McDonald's nationwide, but it's currently a regional offering.
In 1980 the fast-food chain introduced the Shamrock Sundae, a vanilla sundae drizzled with disconcertingly green syrup, but due to low sales it was discontinued after a year. Now it's mostly relegated to awesomely '80s commercials like this one:
What flavor is the Shamrock Shake?
This might seem obvious — it's mint-flavored — but Googling that query turns up quite a few debates on the matter. Some claim it has a hint of lime, others say it's as minty as toothpaste, and still others think it's just a vanilla shake dyed green. Turns out these have all been correct at various points in history: At least one account says the original recipe contained lemon-lime sherbet; the formula was changed in 1973 to be just vanilla with food coloring. Not until 1983 did the shake become the mildly minty confection we know today.
The nutritional information listed on the McDonald's website reveals that it's a vanilla shake flavored with "shamrock syrup," which itself gets its signature taste from the somewhat ominous-sounding "Natural Flavor (Plant Source)"; one assumes said plant source is mint.
If you want to get really wild, you can ask for what the website #HackTheMenu calls "the McLeprechaun," off the McDonald's "secret menu": a 50-50 mix of the chain's chocolate and Shamrock shakes.
What's the history behind the Shamrock Shake?
It's more detailed than you'd expect for a novelty beverage from a fast-food chain. When McDonald's introduced the shake in 1970, it was called the St. Patrick's Day Shake; it got its new, catchier name a few years later. The Shamrock Shake is also partially responsible for creating the network of Ronald McDonald House Charities, which provide housing and other services to sick children and their families.
In early 1974, the daughter of Philadelphia Eagles tight end Fred Hill was undergoing treatment for leukemia, and Hill and his wife, Fran, were spending most of their time in the hospital. They wanted to find a housing solution for other families like them, so Hill turned to his teammates to help fundraise for alternate accommodations.
Eagles general manager Jim Murray had the idea to harness the power of McDonald's advertising; through a friend at the company's ad agency, Don Tuckerman, he learned that the next McD's promotion would be to add the Shamrock Shake to the menu for St. Patrick's Day. Murray worked with McDonald's founder Ray Kroc and regional manager Ed Rensi to organize a week-long promotion wherein all proceeds from Shamrock Shake sales would be donated to the Eagles' fundraising efforts.
They raised enough money to buy a seven-bedroom house near the hospital, which in 1974 became the first Ronald McDonald House. The nonprofit network has since expanded to include 357 houses in multiple countries.
Though Shamrock Shake sales no longer benefit the nonprofit network, the two have been linked in recent publicity stunts — like this one from 2010, in which a 24-foot shake was dumped into the Chicago River in honor of a McDonald's donation to build a new Ronald McDonald house in the city.
Why is the shake so popular?
More than 60 million Shamrock Shakes have been sold since 1970, according to CNN. David Zlotnick, senior director of global public relations for McDonald's, told me in an email that it's "one of McDonald’s most popular seasonal menu items and has gained a cult-like following over the years," though he declined to provide any hard numbers. He also says the Shamrock Shake is most popular in Philadelphia, the birthplace of its "origin story," so to speak.
The primary driver of the shake's popularity is its "seasonality" — a.k.a. limited availability. Not only is it only available for a short time each year, it's also not offered at every McDonald's, which has led to more than one journalist chronicling an ill-fated search for the green drink and an entire website dedicated to sightings of the white — er, green whale.
The shake has even been the subject of a shocking scandal: In 2010, Jimmy Fallon caused a Shamrock Shortage at the McDonald's in New York's Union Station when he bought 100 of the shakes to hand out to members of his Late Night audience after that evening's show.
Still, the shake's cult fandom pales in comparison to that of the McRib, which is arguably the most well-known limited-time offering ever to grace a McDonald's menu. Many news outlets (including Vox) have tried to explain its meaty mystery. But this fascinatingly in-depth piece from the Awl's Willy Staley, though focused on determining whether the unpredictable emergence of the McRib is tied to the price of pork, sums up the psychology behind the sandwich as well as its fellow limited-time menu items, Shamrock Shakes included:
We’re marks, novelty-seeking marks, and McDonald’s knows it. Every conspiracy theorist only helps their bottom line. They know the sandwich’s elusiveness makes it interesting in a way that the rest of the fast food industry simply isn’t. It inspires brand engagement, even by those who do everything they can to not engage with the brand. I’m likely playing a part in a flowchart on a PowerPoint slide on McDonald’s Chief Digital Officer’s hard drive.
In other words, the Shamrock Shake is a classic example of the "art of artificial scarcity": By limiting the Shamrock Shake and McRib to certain times of the year, McDonald's ensures added interest and higher sales. (Plus, it gives us great Onion articles like this one.)
Didn't the Shamrock Shake once have a weird green mascot?
You're thinking of Uncle O'Grimacey. Blobby and bright green with an Irish accent, O'Grimacey was the uncle of Grimace, the big purple ... creature ... who frequently appeared in the McDonaldland series of TV commercials that McDonald's began airing in the early 1970s.
The web series Irate the 80's explains how O'Grimacey was introduced in the '70s and became the star of several McDonald's TV commercials and merchandise items before being phased out in the '80s. (If you fear clowns, beware: Ronald McDonald appears in this video.)
The actor who voiced Uncle O'Grimacey, Lennie Weinrib, also lent his voice to numerous cartoon characters including Scooby-Doo's nephew Scrappy-Doo, Bigmouth from The Smurfs, and Gomez Addams from the animated Addams Family series.
So how do I get my hands on a Shamrock Shake?
You can try the searchable Shamrock Shake finder, though the results are based on user-generated reports and not necessarily verified. There's also a finder app available on Google Play. Non-purists could also hit Burger King for that chain's new Oreo Irish Mint Shake. Or you could just make your own — the internet is replete with recipes available in every variation you can think of.
Of course, the true advantage of whipping up a homemade version is that it eliminates that pesky "artificial scarcity" situation l mentioned above (emphasis on "artificial"). Not only can you have one any damn time of the year you please, but making it yourself essentially guarantees its minty taste will come from something less disconcerting than "Natural Flavor (Plant Source)."
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