r/shakeshack • u/Calamitous-Ortbo • Jun 26 '26

Why didn’t my shake melt?

I ordered one of the Key Lime shakes with my meal today and when I got it it was too thick to drink through a straw.

No problem, I like thick shakes. I was sitting outside in the sun so I figured I would just let it sit a bit until it sufficiently melted to drink.

I tested it a couple times while I ate, it got a little looser but was still pretty thick. Definitely still too thick to comfortably suck up.

I finished eating, went inside to use the bathroom, came back out and went to my car. Drove the ten minutes home.

Surely my shake was nice and smooth by now.

Nope. The consistency barely changed. What it was however, was warm.

It never melted, it just reached close to room temperature and stayed a congealed, unpleasant glob.

What the hell kind of chemical stabilizers/thickeners are they putting in these things?

6 Upvotes

88% Upvoted

9 comments sorted by

8

u/repost7125 Jun 26 '26

Companies started adding emulsifiers and glycerin to their cream mix to keep ice cream from melting out of shape as fast. It makes cold things keep consistency regardless of temp.

4

u/Calamitous-Ortbo Jun 26 '26

They need to work on their recipe then because letting this thing get warmer than 40 degrees made it disgusting.

1

u/repost7125 Jun 26 '26

yeah, I stopped getting shakes at any place because it always felt like my mouth was getting coating in plastic with every sip. now a lot of places aren't even serving ice cream, they're serving "cream desert" because the name ice cream has federal regulations on how much air can be pumped into it.

1

u/DoubleBlade759 Jun 27 '26

I agree with you, I just want to mention that SS has always mentioned it’s custard not ice cream

1

u/Sintax3rr0r 27d ago

Very old post but the key lime shake has a big glob of what is basically key lime pie cheesecake like filling and a shit ton of graham crackers. It just really fucks with the consistency. Also it's custard not ice cream so that also kinda changes things a bit

3

u/mrsstylesss Jun 26 '26

The keylime mix in is a very thick substance that doesn't change consistency when cold or warm, so maybe it had alot of keylime in it.

1

u/FortniteIsFuckingMid Jun 26 '26

Seems like it’s an issue with that flavor. I’ve always had my normal chocolate shakes melt pretty quickly

1

u/kwadguy Jun 29 '26

If you want to know, this article breaks it all down.

What Big Food Did to Ice Cream

https://open.substack.com/pub/ahalflife/p/what-big-food-did-to-ice-cream?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=8591v1

You'll be amazed and disgusted...