Up there with McChicken Nuggets and the Big Tasty, it's hard to believe that the McFlurry has been on the McDonald's menu since Richard and Maurice McDonald first flipped a burger back in 1940.
As much as those Golden Arches have become known for their savory dishes and putting the Big Mac on the map, McDonald's has plenty of sweet treats. From scalding your mouth on the baked apple pie to dunking your fries in a chocolate milkshake (don't judge us), McDonald's always has something to satisfy our sweet tooth.
Among its greatest inventions is the McFlurry, which first arrived on the scene in 1997.
There have been plenty of variants, with everything from the Oreo McFlurry to the McMuffin McFlurry, the Snickerdoodle McFlurry to the Shrek the Third-themed Ogre-Load McFlurry in 2007.
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While we're sure most of you have tucked into a McFlurry at some point in the last 28 years, you might not have thought about the unique shape of its plastic spoon. Invented by franchisee Ron McLellan in 1995, the McFlurry was soon added to the main menu and rolled out in 1997.
If the ice cream machine is working, you can enjoy tucking into whipped soft serve vanilla ice cream topped with a variety of different candies. The original flavors were Oreo, Heath, Nestle Crunch, M&M’s, and Butterfinger, but while that lineup has changed, we remember munching into an OG McFlurry that was blitzed together.
Over on YouTube, Zack D. Films is back with another fascinating insight into things we never needed to know. The unique shape of the McFlurry's plastic spoon was so that it could fit onto a mechanical arm that would mix your ice cream and toppings together.
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As well as solving the problem of workers having to clean their beaters after every new McFlurry is made, it also ensured that every bite is that delicious combo of ice cream and candy.
Responding to the clip, there were plenty of jokes about the ice cream machine not working, but remembering the heyday of the McFlurry, one person wrote: "That moment when McDonald's got some super smart solutions for marketing but still couldn't fix the ice cream machines."
Another added: "As an actual McDonald’s employee, I can confirm this is 100% true information."
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A third joked: "Never in my life has my McDonald's actually mixed my McFlurry."
Due to saving the turtles, things have changed. Since October 2023, McDonald's in the USA has been phasing out the plastic spoon and gone with a changeable spindle on the mixer. Reminding us of this, someone else in the comments grumbled: "They don’t use them anymore in Australia, in fact they don’t even stir up your McFlurry they just dump it on top and give you a wooden spoon because of the environment."
While we're sure McDonald's would argue that McFlurries are still mixed to perfection without their iconic spoons, the comments would seem to suggest otherwise.