This week I reached out for a new hand-spun Cookies & Cream Milkshake at America's top chicken sandwich chain, Chick-fil-A (1,250 restaurants in 38 states plus Washington, D.C.).
Chick-fil-A offers four flavors of shake-shake-shake ... shake your booties: cookies and cream, vanilla, chocolate and strawberry. They're as close to an old-fashioned ice-cream-parlor shake as you're going to find in Fast Food World.
Here's the blueprint for Chick-fil-A's Cookies & Cream Milkshake: 20 ounces of "home-style Icedream dairy treat," bolstered with milk and crumbled Oreo cookies.
Total calories: 770 (for a 20-ounce shake). Fat grams: 31. Dietary fiber: 1. Carbs: 109. Manufacturer's suggested retail price: $2.79.
Chick-fil-A shakes come in only one big size and one big price.
But you're getting your money's worth. Unlike fast-food shakes that come pouring premade and "as is" from a machine the size of the Pentagon's air-conditioning unit, Chick-fil-A's shakes are prepared individually with top name-brand ingredients.
The cookies in Cookies & Cream are Oreos. The chocolate syrup is Hershey's. Each shake is hand-spun so everything is more mixed up than Tom Cruise.
Chick-fil-A's shakes start with a huge glop of Icedream, which is very similar to Dairy Queen's iconic soft-serve. They're careful not to say ice cream, because it doesn't have the required percentage of butterfat and other government silliness.
The first five ingredients in Icedream are whole milk, sugar, nonfat milk, eggs and cream, so it's a legit dairy deal — with all the calories and carbs to prove it — just an itty-bitty less fattening than ice cream.
With 109 carbs per shake, Dr. Atkins is hand-spinning in his grave, too.
Chick-fil-A shakes are smooth as silk, with none of the gritty ice particles and grainy texture of typical fast-food shakes. If you ask pretty please, like I do, they'll shoot an extra jolt of Hershey's syrup into your Cookies & Cream Shake. Now that's a milkshake worth an extra hour of jogging.
Chick-fil-A shakes are heavier-duty than typical fast-food shakes, too. Try this: Buy a fast-food shake and let it sit an hour in the refrigerator. Half the shake will vanish into thin air — because that's what you're paying for — thin air whipped into the shake to froth it up.
And you thought you had to pay for air only at a gas station.
Here's a nice touch: Chick-fil-A shakes are topped with light whipped cream and a maraschino cherry. I keep forgetting to say, "No whipped cream, but can you throw the cherry on, anyway?"
I eat the cherry last.
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| Category | Dessert |
| Calories | 590 (small) 750 (large) |
| On the official website |
The Cookies & Cream Milkshake is a menu item available at Chick-Fil-A.
Product Description
"Our creamy Milkshakes are hand-spun the old-fashioned way each time and feature delicious Chick-fil-A Icedream® topped off with whipped cream and one crucial cherry."
Nutrition
| 590 | 750 |
| 25g | 31g |
| 14g | 14g |
| 0g | 0g |
| 70mg | 85mg |
| 440mg | 580mg |
| 81g | 107g |
| 1g | 1g |
| 74g | 97g |
| 12g | 16g |
| 15% | 20% |
| 4% | 6% |
| 40% | 50% |
| 6% | 10% |
External links
- On the official website
| Milkshakes: | Cookies & Cream • Chocolate • Vanilla • Strawberry • Peach • Peppermint Chocolate Chip |
| Other: | Frosted Lemonade • Frosted Coffee • Chocolate Chunk Cookie • Icedream Cone • Apple Fried Pie |
| Truett's Grill: | Fried Apple Pie • Fried Peach Pie • Fried Sweet Potato Pie • Lemon Pie • Icedream Sundae |