The Shamrock Shake is Back!

Okay, so, I know that technically the Shamrock Shake has been back for a couple of weeks now but I'm just getting around to writing this up. So sue me.

For those of you not familiar with the Shamrock Shake, let me explain. Every year, McDonald's celebrates St. Patrick's Day as best as they can; with a sugary, bad-for-you dessert item, dyed green for the holiday. The Shamrock Shake is a standard vanilla shake mixed with green, mint-flavored syrup and topped with whipped cream and a cherry. There's probably some magic dust in there as well, which is what makes it so delicious. Or PCP to make it addictive. Either way, I don't really care. All I know is the eleven-month wait until the Shamrock Shake comes back is always hell for me.

The Shake makes its debut right after Valentine's Day when McDonald's puts away all of their red-colored decorations and kicks into more important things. In the two weeks since the Shake has been back, I have already had five of them. Do I feel guilty for gorging myself on a delicious dessert so often in such a short amount of time? A little, but whatever. It's only around for a month so I gotta make it worth it.

What you may not know, however, is that the Shamrock Shake isn't new. It was first introduced in the 1970s as a limited time treat. McDonald's even introduced a new character into McDonaldland in the form of Grimace's Irish uncle, Uncle O'Grimacey. Check out the frightening yet nostalgic commercial! (Yeah, I know the quality is crap.)

Shamrock Shakes went away for a little bit but the fast food chain in all of their wisdom bowed down to popular demand and brought it back, and I couldn't be more grateful.

So if you're a fan of minty, fatty ice cream drinks and don't really care about your health for a month, I recommend swinging by your local McDonald's and grabbing yourself one. And no, McDonald's isn't paying me to write this, though I'm not gonna lie, I wish they were. I just love the Shamrock Shake and felt the need to express that love.

Look at that rippling! I don't think it's intentional but whatever!

No shake is complete without whipped cream and a cherry

UPDATE: If you're the kind of person that can admit to yourself that come Arpil you'll fall into a depression for the next 11 months (like me) then I have good news! Brian over at Going Geek News has managed to reverse engineer the genius of the Shamrock Shake and shared the results. You can now make your own Shamrock Shakes at home! So whether you need a fix and can't get to a McDonald's or your just a cheap jerk, you can take care of yourself with ease!