# McDonald's Shakes **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 20, 2020, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mcdonalds-shakes/846708 "2020-01-20T17:02:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2020, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mcdonalds-shakes/846708/41 "2020-01-22T20:35:23Z")
Yeahs but that would pretty much any milkshake. You don’t even want to look at the nutritional info for a Five Guys Shake, for instance. ---
**Author:** ![AlsoNamedBort](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alsonamedbort/32/3213_2.png) [@AlsoNamedBort](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AlsoNamedBort)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2020, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mcdonalds-shakes/846708/42 "2020-01-22T20:43:37Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > Yeahs but that would pretty much any milkshake. You don’t even want to look at the nutritional info for a Five Guys Shake, for instance. It always makes me laugh when people say “You know, the shakes are worse for you than the Big Mac/Whopper/etc.” Of course it is. It’s a _pound_ of liquefied ice cream. ---
**Author:** ![Wheelz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wheelz/32/5718_2.png) [@Wheelz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wheelz)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2020, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mcdonalds-shakes/846708/43 "2020-01-22T22:17:39Z")
In my teens I worked at a Burger King for a while. I don’t know how it’s done now, but we used to pour an actual milk-based liquid into the machines - one side vanilla and one side chocolate. Upon dispensing, the liquid was quick-frozen into a shake-like consistency. And as I recall, they weren’t bad. Except the strawberry. The strawberry shakes were vanilla shakes with a couple pumps of strawberry syrup added, then blended. But the blending process completely broke down the consistency of the shake, and you’d basically end up with runny strawberry-flavored milk. They were _not_ good. ---
**Author:** ![mixdenny](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mixdenny/32/2962_2.png) [@mixdenny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mixdenny)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2020, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mcdonalds-shakes/846708/44 "2020-01-23T00:36:11Z")
> [@AlsoNamedBort](#): > > It always makes me laugh when people say “You know, the shakes are worse for you than the Big Mac/Whopper/etc.” Of course it is. It’s a _pound_ of liquefied ice cream. What, you never eat a whole tub of Häagen-Dazs? Dennis ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2020, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mcdonalds-shakes/846708/45 "2020-01-23T01:00:40Z")
I’m SO old-fashioned. A shake is icecream, some milk, some cream, maybe some nutmeg or ginger, maybe a little honey, maybe some other flavoring, maybe some food coloring if you wanna get _real_ funky, all mixed in a blender, and eaten with a spoon assist. Is this what you get at McDonald’s? ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2020, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mcdonalds-shakes/846708/46 "2020-01-23T01:29:24Z")
> [@mixdenny](#): > > What, you never eat a whole tub of Häagen-Dazs? > > Dennis Well, that ain’t the question. It’s more like being surprised that eating a whole tub of Haagen-Dazs is a calorie and sugar bomb. Like, no shit. ---
**Author:** ![Balthisar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/balthisar/32/2825_2.png) [@Balthisar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balthisar)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2020, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mcdonalds-shakes/846708/47 "2020-01-23T19:20:30Z")
> [@Musicat](#): > > I’m SO old-fashioned. A shake is icecream, some milk, some cream, maybe some nutmeg or ginger, maybe a little honey, maybe some other flavoring, maybe some food coloring if you wanna get _real_ funky, all mixed in a blender, and eaten with a spoon assist. Is this what you get at McDonald’s? I’d not say old-fashioned, but short-sighted with a strange sense of taste (I never see nutmeg-ginger-honey flavored shakes at any proper ice cream shop, and certainly not food colors). To me a shake is a certain amount of milk-fat, certain amount of sugar, at a certain temperature, having a certain rheology, and how it gets there isn’t all that important to me. ---
**Author:** ![TRC4941](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trc4941/32/6792_2.png) [@TRC4941](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TRC4941)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2020, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mcdonalds-shakes/846708/48 "2020-01-24T15:23:47Z")
> [@Balthisar](#): > > I’d not say old-fashioned, but short-sighted with a strange sense of taste (I never see nutmeg-ginger-honey flavored shakes at any proper ice cream shop, and certainly not food colors). > > To me a shake is a certain amount of milk-fat, certain amount of sugar, at a certain temperature, having a certain rheology, and how it gets there isn’t all that important to me. I have to agree with this!! I’ve never heard of a shake with anything other than ice cream, milk and a simple flavor like chocolate or strawberry. Add some malt powder and you have a delicious malt (or malted as I’ve heard some people call it). I’ll take a malt over a shake any day. ---
**Author:** ![rock\_party](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e19b73/32.png) [@rock\_party](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rock_party)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2020, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mcdonalds-shakes/846708/49 "2020-01-31T19:29:05Z")
Years ago some McD’s shakes were decent. The chocolate shakes varied depending on the location, and sometimes they were quite chocolatey and tasty. Now they’re cloyingly sweet and there’s no chocolate flavor at all. It almost tastes like it’s got a bit of coffee in it. just “brown” tasting and super sweet and terrible. Store bought chocolate milk has evolved the same way. Awful. ---
**Author:** ![Doug\_K](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b5ac83/32.png) [@Doug\_K](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doug_K)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2020, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mcdonalds-shakes/846708/50 "2020-01-31T22:56:54Z")
> [@AHunter3](#): > > Soft serve isn’t ice cream; it’s scarcely even food. And it most certainly _does not belong_ in a milk shake. > > I get mine from Tastee-Freez, Baskin-Robbins, or Carvel. And I specify to make it from real (hard) ice cream if they have a soft “ice cream” dispenser. [Another myth:](https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/science-soft-serve-180964516/) > [@](#): > > In its purest form soft serve is basically just regular ice cream at a different point in its process, according to the University of Guelph. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mcdonalds-shakes/846708.md?page=2)