Frosty (frozen dairy dessert)

The Frosty is a frozen dairy dessert of the American fast-food restaurant chain Wendy's. The Frosty was among the first five items introduced on the Wendy's menu.

Wendy's founder Dave Thomas created the original "light chocolate" Frosty according to a recipe from Fred Kappus by combining chocolate and vanilla flavors, as he thought that a pure chocolate flavor would overwhelm the taste of the restaurant's hamburgers. Thomas based the Frosty on the milkshakes he drank in Detroit as a youth, and created the Frosty to be thick enough to require a spoon to eat. The consistency has been described as between that of a milkshake and soft-serve ice cream.

Specialty flavors

Over the years, Wendy's has occasionally introduced new Frosty flavor variations.

In August 2006, a vanilla Frosty flavor was introduced after repeated customer requests.

For both summer 2022 and summer 2023, the vanilla Frosty was temporarily replaced with a strawberry Frosty.

In November 2022, Wendy's released the new peppermint Frosty for the holidays; this was the third new Frosty flavor released and temporarily replaced the vanilla Frosty.

In September 2023, a pumpkin spice Frosty was introduced.

For winter 2024, the vanilla Frosty was reintroduced after having been continuously supplanted by other flavors for a two-year period. Wendy's generally swaps out the vanilla Frosty flavor whenever a specialty Frosty flavor is launched, while always keeping the original signature chocolate Frosty flavor available.

For spring 2024, an orange dreamsicle Frosty was introduced.

For summer 2024, a triple berry Frosty was introduced.

In fall 2024, a "pineapple under the sea" Frosty was released in honor of the 25th anniversary of SpongeBob SquarePants. This was followed by a "salted caramel" frosty in November.