May brings Memorial Day weekend and the unofficial start of summer, as colleges hold final exams and students begin to decamp for home. The thermometer also begins to creep upward, and what better way to beat the heat than with a frozen, frosty drink?
Fast-food restaurants know that a quick chill on a hot day is a great way to monetize the heat, so they begin rolling out a new assortment of frozen treats for the summer around this time. Here are some particularly noteworthy slushies and shakes you can sample this summer.
Burger King (QSR) has already released its new strawberry slush topped with Nerds. The drink will set you back about $4, but only $1 if you order through the app.
Taste of Home called the drink “nostalgic.” Here is more of what the food and recipe brand said about it:
“To begin, the drink is maddeningly sweet. I’d expect no less from this kind of beverage, though, and I imagine it will be such a sugary relief on hot summer days. The consistency is similar to the Icee I used to slurp at movie theaters as a kid—not so frozen that it won’t suck up through your straw, but just enough to make it thick so you let it melt on your tongue.”
Wendy’s got a jump on summer with Frosty Swirls, which launched April 15. The frozen treat combines the classic vanilla or chocolate Frosty base with one of three new sauces. The Ohio-based chain is then building on the Swirls with Frosty Fusions launching May 12. According to Wendy’s, Frosty Fusions combine a classic Vanilla or Chocolate Frosty base with a sauce and sweet treat mix-ins such as Pop-Tarts “crunch poppers” pieces or Oreo pieces.
Wendy’s says the frosties have a consistency that falls somewhere between a milkshake and soft-serve ice cream, the Frosty was created to be eaten with a spoon.
Of the brownie batter swirl, a Delish reviewer said:
“The Brownie Batter Swirl, was decadent and tasted exactly how it sounds: like brownie batter. It was fudgey and indulgent and went so well with the original chocolate soft-serve.”
Shake Shack’s (SHAK) new frozen drinks are rolling out now. Three new summer shakes are part of the line-up, including, according to a chain press release:
“Oreo Cookie Funnel Cake Shake: Oreo cookies and funnel cake crunch hand-spun with vanilla frozen custard, topped with whipped cream and Oreo cookie crumbles.
“Banana Pudding Shake: Banana pudding frozen custard made with real banana hand-spun with vanilla wafer cookies, topped with whipped cream and vanilla wafer cookie crumble.
“Campfire S’mores Shake: Vanilla frozen custard hand-spun with graham cracker, chocolate and toasted marshmallow fudge chunks, topped with whipped cream and s’more crumbles.”
A Taste of Home reviewer said:
“The Banana Pudding Shake delivers on the banana pudding taste. I was extremely impressed with the cookie-to-frozen custard ratio, and the consistency was absolutely dreamy. It was thick enough to make me work for it, but not so thick that I got annoyed.”
McDonald’s told Food & Wine that this frappe is different from its previous limited-time Chocolate Chip Frappe, as it comes with a revamped recipe. “While we’ve included a Chocolate Chip Frappe regional offering in the past, this is the first year it will be co-branded with Hershey’s and feature whipped cream and chocolate chips on top instead of a chocolate drizzle,” a spokesperson said.
Taco Bell (YUM) was the earliest to push its frozen drinks out. The frozen Baja Blast Dream Freezes dropped in some markets in January and are now going nationwide. The drink is inspired, the chain says, by the “dirty soda” trend, which combines the classic Baja Blast with vanilla cream. They also offer a Strawberry Baja Dream Freeze variation. Additionally, Taco Bell launched a new Baja Midnight drink, a passionfruit-flavored twist on Baja Blast.
The Implusive Buy blog said in a review:
“If you haven’t had Baja Blast, it’s a lime-forward Mountain Dew flavor created for and available at Taco Bell in both standard soda and freeze/slushy versions. The new ‘Dream’ versions incorporate ‘vanilla crème.’
“I actually liked this freezy, cool concoction a lot! The vanilla crème brings out the lime flavor in a really pleasant way, reminiscent of lime sherbet. It mellows out the sharper notes and rounds out the overall citrusy edge of the Dew nicely, and finishes with a nice sweet aftertaste.”
Chick-fil-A is testing two new beverages—the Icedream Spin and Icedream Float—in Chicago, Salt Lake City, Tampa, and San Diego.
The new Icedream Spin allows customers to combine any of Chick-fil-A’s fountain beverages, including Coca-Cola, Diet Coke, Cherry Coke, Sprite, Barq’s Root Beer, Dr Pepper, Diet Dr Pepper, and Hi-C, with its soft serve. The Icedream Float, on the other hand, is Chick-fil-A’s take on a classic soda float, and allows you to mix your choice of fountain beverage with a swirl of soft serve.
A Tastingtable review says this about the float:
“The presentation of the Coke Float was appealing, and it was abundantly clear that this treat was filled to the brim with Icedream. Overall, I found the taste of this Float to be really delicious and very true to what a Coca-Cola float should taste like. While some people enjoy how regular ice cream sort of hardens and crystalizes in a float, I especially appreciated the fact that the Icedream didn’t harden in this one. Instead, it stayed super rich and creamy, while the acidic Coke added a nice contrast.”
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