It’s your lucky day. The Shamrock Shake and Oreo Shamrock McFlurry are back.

When I launched Snackology, my goal was to bring you news and thoughts on fun and oftentimes gimmicky new snacks, flavors of soda and fast food offerings. But what about the classics? The favorites that pop up every year for a holiday or season?

What about the Shamrock Shake?

With St. Patrick’s Day just over a month away, McDonald’s is rolling out the one-two punch of the Shamrock Shake and the Oreo Shamrock McFlurry — which makes this the perfect time for the first ever Snackology Classics.

The Shamrock Shake has been available nationwide since 1970, with the Oreo Shamrock McFlurry joining it in 2020. Both desserts began their 2025 availability today, so I stopped by McDonald’s on my way home from work to get my annual fill.

Where I found it

You’re never going to believe this, but I got both the Shamrock Shake and Oreo Shamrock McFlurry at McDonald’s.

What I paid

I bought this duo on a Monday, so I figured I’d show some moderation and go with the smallest sizes for both desserts. A small Shamrock Shake was $3.19 and the mini Oreo Shamrock McFlurry was $2.39.

My thoughts

Let’s jump into the Shamrock Shake first. This one is a classic, a hall-of-fame entry among the pantheon of fast food desserts. I luckily checked McDonald’s app before heading over to the location right by my office, since the app warned me that this location wasn’t offering any shakes or McFlurrys at the moment. I’m guessing their ice cream machines were down. Also a hall-of-fame McDonald’s move.

The Shamrock Shake that I got, though, was perfect. Mixed correctly with just the right among of mintiness. (Am I crazy or did Shamrock Shakes used to not be mint? Maybe it’s a false memory of mine, but I remember them just being green vanilla ice cream at one point.)

My one complaint about the current version of the Shamrock Shake is that they top it with whip cream. I think this started as McDonald’s launched the whole McCafe sub brand, which took a simple thing like a McDonald’s milkshake and dolled it up with whip cream and sometimes a cherry. Had I remembered, I would’ve asked for no whip cream.

While the Shamrock Shake remains a can’t-miss dessert, I have some serious questions about the Oreo Shamrock Shake ...

McDonald’s switched up its McFlurry protocol last year, abandoning the iconic cups and plastic spoons that had been a part of the McFlurry experience since the dessert’s introduction in 1997, replacing them with a flimsy cardboard cup and a normal spoon.

Despite knowing that McDonald’s had made this change, I was still shocked when I was handed an open cup of vanilla ice cream topped with crushed Oreos and a drizzling of mint syrup through the drive-through window.

Seriously. I drove home cautiously, afraid of spilling this slop all over my car.

Was my location’s McFlurry mixer down? Or is this just the standard protocol for a McFlurry now?

I dug into this abomination and tasted mint. With the mint syrup not mixed in, it was absolutely too minty.

I mixed it some more. Getting closer.

After turning myself into a human McFlurry machine, I finally reached the proper McFlurry status. Look at how evenly the Oreo crumbles and mint syrup have been mixed into the vanilla ice soft serve. That’s what an Oreo Shamrock McFlurry — advertised by McDonald’s as “blended with our legendary Shamrock Shake syrup and Oreo cookie pieces mixed throughout” — should look like.

The funny thing about getting an unmixed Oreo Shamrock McFlurry is that I’ve seen this kind of disaster before. Years before McDonald’s started selling this item, I tried to order an M&Ms McFlurry with the Shamrock Shake syrup mixed into it. The cashier was a bit more confused than I expected and wound up serving me an M&Ms McFlurry with the mint syrup mixed in at the bare minimum level of effort.

Final verdict: BUY and (cross your fingers and) BUY

As I said, you can’t go wrong with a Shamrock Shake. Just remember to tell them to skip the whip cream if you want the version of the dessert that you grew up with. When it comes to the Oreo Shamrock McFlurry, be prepared to do some of the work yourself. It’s a worthy seasonal dessert to be served alongside the Shamrock Shake — if you can get one made right.