Holiday Shake Taste #5: Chick-fil-A Peppermint Chocolate Chip Milkshake

This is possibly the shake that started the blog. It doesn't help that I drive by the Sugar House Chick-fil-A pretty much every weekday and see the shake advertisement taunting me. The shake taste shake is actually the second seasonal shake I have consumed, but I didn't have photos of the first, so I was forced to go back and consume another.

Chick-fil-A has "hand-spun" shakes. I assume this means that they use a shake mixer because their "icedream" (has whole mike but also corn syrup) that is used as the foundation of the shake comes out of a soft-serve machine. This particular shake was the only thing I ordered and maybe the guy was making it by hand because it took forever for the shake to arrive. It was worth the wait.

I ordered a small, even though I knew that I would be able to finish a larger size. This is mainly due to the fact that these shakes have a gazillion calories in them. (A small chocolate shake has 550 calories. Nutritional information not available for the holiday shake.) However, it does have 40% of your daily recommended calcium, so possibly a fair trade off. This shake is delicious. It made up for the terrible Arby's shake in so many ways. First of all, the shake is thick. It actually tastes like peppermint and the chocolate chips are a nice added bonus. At times the thickness made it difficult to consume the shake with the straw. Luckily stirring in the massive amount of whipped cream from the top of the shake helped with this. 

Shake color: pink 
Shake consistency: thick with bits of chocolate chip

Final Impression: Totally tasty shake. Despite my misgivings about the company's charitable donations, this shake is a great holiday shake. 

Holiday Shake Taste #4: Arby's Peppermint Stick Swirl Shake

The last time I was at Arby's was when I was doing some rail line fieldwork for NCDOT and, as was usually the case, by 2pm we were all starving and Arby's was pretty much it. I don't remember too much about that dining experience except that I am pretty sure that Paul got the five items for $5 deal. And so I entered this shake taste stop with trepidation.

I knew I was in trouble when I ordered a small shake and the girl asked me, "do you want it to look like the picture?" Not quite understanding I replied that yes I did want a peppermint shake. She then told me that if I wanted it to look like the picture I had to order a large. I decided that there was no way I was ordering a large shake from Arby's so I declined to upsize. Maybe a mistake, but probably not.

When I saw that the girl at the shake machine had to remove a metal container that was being used to catch leaking shake to dispense my shake, my enjoyment potential sank even lower. My first shake taste made me glad that a) I had ordered a small and b) it only set me back $1.79. The shake is a mix and not real ice cream. It was watery and not that cold. Even more disappointing is that it did not really even taste like peppermint. I did not finish this shake. It was not good. The "picture" shake would have contained 690 calories; I assume since I got a smaller size and did not consume the entire thing, that my caloric intake was less.

Shake color: pale pink
Shake consistency: thin and watery

Final Impression: Possibly the worse shake ever. It was totally runny and it didn't taste like peppermint. It was so bad that I didn't even drink all of it. If someone offered me another shake, even if it did look like the picture, I would say no thank you. Or possibly HELL NO!

Holiday Shake Taste #3: Arctic Circle Egg Nog Shake

There has been some crowd noise about the avoidance of egg nog thus far in the shake tasting, so I headed on over to Arctic Circle to taste one of the two holiday shake offerings and I opted for egg nog over candy cane for the sake of this blog. For those of you not familiar with Arctic Circle, it is a regional fast food franchise that started in Salt Lake City sixty years ago.  They have a halfway decent Halibut sandwich which has opened up the options for a quick cheap meal when traveling with (still) vegetarian Gabe. Arctic Circle also lays claim to inventing fry sauce (Google it folks) that is like some sort of Utah crack cocaine sauce that one dips fries into. They also have "Brown Toppers," which is an awfully bad name for a dipped cone.  And on a recent trip I discovered that you can get a courtesy ice cream cone (perfect bite-sized) if you order a meal and eat in the restaurant. Unfortunately the reason for this discovery was that a nursing home was having a lunch outing in the restaurant that day. I had to weave my way around a bunch of parked walkers to place my order. All of the above except the last are great reasons to stop by Arctic Circle.                                                             

Ok, back to the holiday shake.  Arctic Circle has what they call, "above the rim" shakes, meaning that their shakes are thick enough to hang out above the rim of the cup. There are a lot of shake flavors to choose from and an ever rotating seasonal line up, usually involving fruit. They pride themselves on using fresh ingredients but their ice cream comes out of a machine so I'm not sure how real the ice cream is. Shakes are made to order and mixed with a milk shake mixer. A small vanilla shake (10 oz) has 270 calories and I'm sure that the egg nog added at least a few more. The shake definitely tasted like egg nog, but not overwhelmingly so. That is until I got to the bottom and there was a pocket of egg nog that had not been totally mixed in. I'm not sure the small bit of whipped cream really added much to the taste or the presentation of the shake. 

Shake color: pale yellow
Shake consistency: thick, smooth, and also very cold

Final Impression: This shake tasted better than I was thinking it would. I am not sure that I would order another egg nog shake, but I would get another shake from Arctic Circle.

Holiday Shake Taste #2: Hires Big H Peppermint Shake

I decided to step it up a bit in the shake category and headed to Hires Big H off of 700 East to try their peppermint shake. Since it was Saturday, Gabe came along and we had a full grease-laden lunch to go along with my shake. Gabe got house-made root beer which was also quite tasty. 

Hires Big H was founded in 1959 by a local grocer, Don Hale as a hamburger drive-in. You can still get car service, but self-imposed rules required that I consume the shake inside. Besides, it had started to snow and the restaurant became even more inviting.

I ordered the peppermint shake. This is basically a vanilla shake with crushed up pieces of starlight mints mixed in. Only after our waitress left did I see in small print on the table advertisement saying I could add Oreo cookies to make a peppermint cookie shake. I might have to go back.

Unlike Taste #1, this shake contained real hand-scooped ice cream and milk. Peppermint pieces were blended in using a milkshake mixer typically found at diners. It was reassuring to hear the blending sound. When the shake arrived, I knew I would not be disappointed.

Since Hires Big H is not a national chain, nutritional information for this shake was not available but I am quite sure it was not low calorie.

Shake color: pink
Shake consistency: thick, smooth, and creamy with small bits of mint throughout. Some pockets of frozen milk. Whipped cream and peppermint bits on top

Final Impression: This shake was very tasty. The pink coloring was pretty bright, but I'll just consider that to be festive. I would return specifically to get another shake at Hires Big H. And probably the onion rings as well because they also looked fabulous.

Holiday Shake Taste #1: McDonald's Holiday Mint McFlurry

I knew this first shake-esque holiday frozen treat would not be the highlight of the season for me, but I had just run two dogs back to back day and passed right by McDonald's on my way home. I figured it was as good of a time as any to start tasting.

Description from McDonald's website:

Swirls of reduced fat soft serve vanilla ice cream blended with peppermint candy pieces and our signature mint syrup make this the perfect holiday treat. 


I opted for the snack size (6.9 oz) and didn't regret my decision. This size has 380 calories and is made with reduced fat ice cream that contains an awful lot of ingredients. The peppermint candy pieces looked like red and green sprinkles but were hard and crunchy. Apparently the McFlurry comes with a weird spoon/straw utensil to consume it with. The open dome top on my cup seemed a little unnecessary since my holiday treat was not even up to the rim of the cup.

Shake color: white
Shake consistency: thin but smooth with hard chunks 

Final Impression: Overall my Holiday Shake Taste #1 was ok. This will most likely be my first and only McFlurry.

Rules of the taste

This is supposed to just be for fun, so there are only a few simple rules.

1. The shake must be a limited time holiday flavor. In the event that a restaurant has more than one holiday flavor, I will choose the flavor that appeals the most to me. This means that the blog will be peppermint heavy and eggnog light.
2. The shake must be ordered and consumed in the restaurant. Nobody likes a melted shake, so time is of the essence in order to have the optimum shake taste experience. Plus consuming it in my car would most likely cause dog fur to be introduced as an additional topping.
3. Only one shake will be consumed at each sitting. This isn't a Man vs. Food event. If a restaurant has more than one flavor I am interested in, I will have to come back.
4. Holiday ice cream desserts that are "shake-esque" count. I'm thinking Blizzard here.
5. The shake will be photographed and evaluated on this blog. There is no set criteria to evaluate a shake. This will just be my general thoughts and overall impression.

In the beginning

I drive around a lot during the day shuttling dogs back and forth and started to notice holiday shake flavors being advertised at various sites around town. Never one to pass up ice cream, I began to think that I should really be trying some of these seasonal flavors before it's too late. While I do not frequent fast food restaurants, I am willing to make an exception for the next few weeks. I am glad to know that some local places are also featuring special shake flavors.

Posting a photo of my first shake on Facebook didn't really seem to allow me the freedom to fully express my thoughts on the shake so this blog was born. Let the 2012 holiday shake tasting begin...