10 Little-Known Facts About McDonald's McFlurries

After going through several menu and name changes throughout the 1940s, the first modern iteration of McDonald's hit the fast food scene in 1955. Ice cream was on the menu pretty much from the beginning of the burger giant's history. However, while the fluffy white stuff was on the menu since the chain's inception, the frozen soft-serve ice cream dessert known as the McFlurry didn't arrive in McDonald's stores until the 1990s. 

After proving that it could hold its own in the fast food dessert market, the McFlurry became a regular part of the chain's lineup, joining the likes of other ice cream desserts such as sundaes, milkshakes, and ice cream cones. The McFlurry's flavors can vary, though certain ones, such as Oreo cookie, stay perpetually on the menu. But this only scratches the surface of the proverbial iceberg, or ice cream cone as the case may be; there is far more to the McDonald's McFlurry than meets the eye. Here's a closer look at the Mickey D's dessert that helped bring cookies-and-cream ice cream into the mainstream fast food menu.

There's a business adage that claims there is an advantage to pulling resources from within a company's ranks. Among other things, there is usually less cost involved for research and development because the basic resource is already paid for, if not yet untapped. As it turns out, this is basically how the McFlurry got introduced to McDonald's' lineup. It first came to the fast food market in Bathurst, New Brunswick, Canada, after being rolled out by McDonald's franchise owner, Ron McLellan. Because of him, McDonald's soft-serve ice cream is now a dessert that's filling enough to be lunch on days when you just need a little more of the sweet stuff.

At a time where new restaurant menu items come courtesy of some test kitchen someplace far away, the McFlurry represents a common trend among many of McDonald's menu items: A good number of them were introduced to the chain's menu by franchise owners, not a corporate test kitchen. The Filet-O-Fish was introduced to customers in 1965 by Lou Groen, a franchise owner from Cincinnati, so that Catholics in his community would have something to eat for lunch during Lent. Herb Peterson, another McDonald's franchise owner from Santa Barbara, is responsible for the McDonald's' freshly cracked Egg McMuffin sandwich, which came to the market in 1975. And Jim Delligatti, a franchisee from Pittsburgh, rolled out the fast food giant's most popular item, the Big Mac, in 1968. Indeed, as a fast food item that rose up within the ranks of the McDonald's franchise system, the McFlurry is in very good company.

Franchise owner Ron McLellan introduced the McFlurry to his local customers in 1995. Eventually, the popularity of the frozen dessert grew past its local roots in Canada and was subsequently introduced to test markets in Pennsylvania, Texas, and North Carolina around 1996. By the time mid-march of 1997 rolled around, it was in broad distribution in thousands of Mickey D's restaurants. 

That the McFlurry did so well as a new product says something. During the same time frame, McDonald's also introduced items such as the McLean Deluxe and the Arch Deluxe, both of which vied for the love of McDonald's fans everywhere but failed. Other products that came up short during that era were pasta dishes, fajitas, and fried chicken; only the McFlurry remained in the end. 

Its expanded popularity probably had as much to do with the weather as it did the dessert's taste. When it finally got wide distribution, spring was in full swing and the heat of summer was not far behind. Everyone knows there's no better cure for summer's heat than a couple of scoops of ice cream filled with chunks of candy, cookies, and all manner of sweet things, so it's no wonder that the McFlurry made it when other menu items didn't.

In late 2024, the McDonald's McFlurry got its very own Mini Me, aptly called the Mini McFlurry. Like all chips off the old block, this one resembles its larger counterpart in everything but size: The regular McFlurry comes in at 12 ounces while the mini version of the ice cream treat is about 4 ounces. It's just the dessert you need when you need to top off lunch with a few bites of sweet but don't have enough room for the full 12-ounce deal. Naturally, because the Mini McFlurry is so little and cute, it appeals to your little tykes, too.

Like its bigger counterpart, the Mini McFlurry came in Oreo and M&M flavors when it first hit the market. Many new flavors were rolled out after that, including the Kit Kat Banana Split McFlurry. It mimicked a banana split by combining chunks of real banana, strawberries, and a dollop of crumbled Kit Kat bars and was added to the menu for a limited time.

When the Mini McFlurry rolled out in September 2024, it introduced more than just a smaller size of the famous dessert: It brought new McFlurry packaging along with it. The new design is sans plastic lid and features four flaps that fold over the McFlurry's center without completely closing (the spoon's gotta fit in the box somewhere). 

It's such a departure from the famous hole-in-the-middle plastic McFlurry lid that some fans have compared the ice cream's new container to Chinese takeout boxes. Given the push back, one may wonder why McDonald's would make such a drastic shift in its packaging. The decision to make the switch boils down to the fast food company's commitment to creating more sustainable business practices, including implementing new, more eco-friendly serving containers. By the end of 2025, the burger giant hopes to use 100% certified, renewable, or recycled materials in its packaging. The new McFlurry cups represent one more step toward that goal.

As tasty as the original cookies and cream McFlurry is, it can start to be the same ol', same ol' after a while. Fortunately for those who have grown tired of the Oreo McFlurry, other flavors have been introduced in the past and will assuredly continue to roll out in the future. Sometimes, these new flavors are served at the most interesting McDonald's locations around the world. Take the Stroopwafel McFlurry, which is usually served in the Netherlands, that appeared in the McDonald's Global Menu Restaurant in Chicago in 2019. Given that this McDonald's embraces an international menu, it's likely that other international McFlurry flavors show up. These could include McFlurries from around the world, such as the Canadian S'Mores McFlurry and the South Korean Strawberry Oreo McFlurry.

This isn't to say all specialty McFlurry flavors are only available at the internationally leaning McDonald's store. Most of the new McFlurry flavors, such as the ice cream version of a strawberry shortcake in 2023, are introduced to the U.S. market for a limited time. For example, in the summer of 2024, ice cream fans were treated to the Kit Kat Banana Split McFlurry. Its flavor, right down to the bananas, strawberry chunks, and sprinkles of crushed Kit Kats, was supposed to evoke a sundae. That wasn't the only new McFlurry flavor that 2024 saw – the Grandma's McFlurry's butterscotch flavor was supposed to remind you of those hard candies your nana always had in her purse.

The McFlurry spoon, with its long, hollow square handle, represented a rite of passage for most Mickey D's fans — particularly those who tried to use it as a straw. Anyone who's ever tried to use it as a straw knows you get nothing but a whole lotta air when you do that. The hollow spot in the spoon served an entirely different purpose: Before the company started phasing the specialty spoon out in 2023, it facilitated the mixing of ingredients. That is, the presence of that spoon guaranteed that the ice cream with Oreos, M&Ms, and other sweet treats got all blended together real nice-like.

Once all of the McFlurry ingredients were put into the cup, McDonald's staff would insert the end of the spoon onto a short piece that was attached to the ice cream machine. While the staff member gripped the bottom of the cup tightly, the machine would get to work, twisting and turning and whirling all of those ingredients together. On the other side of this ordeal, you'd find a nicely mixed McFlurry, with bits of what-have-you dispersed throughout the ice cream thanks to the spoony spindle buried deep in the ice cream's depths. Once the utensil was replaced with a black, more sustainably made spoon, the company's specialty mixers were outfitted with a new spindle that could mix the ice cream and cookie crumbles once done by the funky-looking square spoon.

Like all foodie cultural icons, the McFlurry has spent some time on TV. We don't mean commercials; rather, we're talking about that one time when the McDonald's McFlurry starred on "30 Rock" next to the likes of Tina Fey, Salma Hayek, and Alec Baldwin. The sweet treat figured into the storyline so prominently that most people thought that the McDonald's made a product-placement deal with the producers of "30 Rock."

It wasn't a deal at all. The McFlurry was a bonafide character, so to speak, and an organic part of the show. Jack, played by Baldwin, and Elisa, brought to life by Hayek, had a fight in a McDonald's and spent a good portion of their time making references to the McFlurry and its many iterations. While McDonald's didn't pay to get a mention on the show, Mickey D's execs looked at the script in question to ensure that it didn't portray the burger chain in a bad light. The company also gave the show permission to film in a local McDonald's, which appeared as one of the sets of "30 Rock" for the multi-episode storyline between Jack and Elisa.

Can you imagine a restaurant changing an ingredient in a recipe that you love, one that you might eat practically every week, and not telling you about it for about six months or so? And more importantly, you didn't even notice? This scenario isn't as far-fetched as it seems: In 2016, McDonald's swapped out its original soft-serve ice cream and replaced it with one that had fewer artificial ingredients. However, Mickey D's patrons went merrily along with the switcheroo. It wasn't until 2017 -– a full six months later –- that the burger giant admitted to changing the ingredients in the ice cream it used in the McFlurry and other desserts. Around 14,000 McDonald's restaurants made the switch before it was all said and done. 

It was a clever and well-researched change. The powers-that-be worked with the chain's culinary team to ensure that the taste of the company's desserts weren't impact by the swap. McDonald's had been moving toward serving foods that possessed no preservatives or artificial colors. While the McFlurry's ingredients were impacted by the change, it wasn't the only item that came under scrutiny and had ingredients that went on the chopping block because of it. The Chicken McNuggets used to be made with artificial preservatives — not anymore. And those sweet and yummy buns? They had the high fructose corn syrup removed from them. The Quarter Pounder probably got the biggest change of all, however: It went from being made with frozen hamburger patties to fresh ones.

Every good thing has a first. For the McFlurry, that included a first flavor: Oreo. That first flavor kicked off a product that is beloved in nearly 100 countries, and even though myriad McFlurries are available now, this tried-and-true flavor continues to be among the chain's most popular flavors. 

Aside from the taste, the popularity of the Oreo McFlurry probably gets a boost from the textural juxtaposition between the smooth and creamy ice cream and the crunchy cookies. It's also a flavor combo that responds well to the many DIY flavor hacks that roll around TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube. For example, while it tastes yummy on its own, it probably tastes even better with a shot of cold brew coffee or a generous topping of hot fudge and whipped cream — with a few more crushed Oreos on top for good measure.

The old McFlurry lid was part of the dessert's iconic look, with a hole in the top that allowed the specialty spoon to poke out. Unfortunately, the hole in the top of the lid also had other things poking out of it — such as hedgehogs and skunks. This isn't a joke; the opening of the lid was large enough that those small animals could fit their head through the hole, but they couldn't back out from it. This predicament likely happened when they came across an empty McFlurry cup and stuck their heads down deep in the lid's hole to get at leftover ice cream. 

Unfortunately, the animals that got caught in the lids weren't just stuck. Many of them suffered injuries as a result of attempts to free themselves of the ice-cream-laden booby trap. Soft-serve ice cream became a nightmare instead of the sweet treat those little animals wanted it to be. When this fact was brought to the attention of the powers-that-be at the burger chain, it prompted a lid redesign. It was also partly responsible for the later introduction of the new McFlurry cup with flaps: No hole-containing lids meant no trapped animals.