McDonald's Grimace Milkshake Might Have 2 Flavors (The Secret Is In The Fries)

Though McDonald's shakes are nothing new, the purple Grimace-themed shake is — and in more ways than one. Not only is the Grimace shake meant to celebrate the character's birthday, but it has also raised a flavor debate. Some customers insist that despite the purple coloring, it's simply a vanilla milkshake, while others are certain they taste a berry flavor.

That being said, McDonald's itself has confirmed that the shake uses vanilla soft serve and berry flavoring. As Jordan Howlett explains on TikTok, some sneaky food science is to blame. If you eat McDonald's fries with your shake, the salt on the fries brings out the berry flavors. Conversely, if you give your Grimace shake a taste before eating any fries, you're going to pick up more of a vanilla flavor.

So sure, the controversy could simply be explained by each person having different perceptions of taste, but in reality, McDonald's is using a bit of tastebud trickery. And as a result, the internet is chock-full of interesting descriptions of the Grimace shake's flavor.

The Grimace shake evokes all kinds of flavors

Without a doubt, fans' guesses about the new McDonald's Grimace shake are pretty amusing to read. In fact, if you've reviewed the Grimace shake yourself, you might find the internet's descriptions of it even more entertaining and relatable than Jordan Howlett's more scientific TikTok explanation.

@jordan_the_stallion8

#fyp

♬ original sound – Jordan_The_Stallion8

One Reddit thread suggested all sorts of possible flavors, like "the milk at the bottom of a bowl of Fruity Pebbles," "the blueberry filling in a Nutrigrain bar," and "berry yogurt mixed with grape-flavored children's cough medicine." One person even suggested that the shake was made with a blended wild berry Poptart.

Twitter users, on the other hand, joked that the shake must be made by milking Grimace like a cow. Makes sense, given the childhood thought that strawberry milk comes from pink cows, but we're going to go with Howlett's version of events, as that seems less traumatic for Grimace.