Wendy’s Is Replacing Vanilla Frosties With Strawberry Ones This Summer

In November 1969, the first Wendy’s opened its doors in Columbus, Ohio, with just five menu items: hamburgers, chili, French fries, beverages, and a 35-cent extra-thick milkshake known as the Frosty. Though the flavor was ostensibly chocolate, it was actually a blend of vanilla and chocolate—founder Dave Thomas thought an all-chocolate version would be too rich to complement a burger. The all-vanilla Frosty didn’t join the menu until 2006.

But Wendy’s is currently giving vanilla Frosties a rest in favor of a summery new flavor that debuted in Canada last year: strawberry. It was enough of a smashing success that the company already soft-launched it in select locations across the U.S., too.

“The net of it was that we ran out of product halfway through the program because people loved it so much,” Wendy’s chief marketing officer Carl Loredo told CNN Business.

Finally, all U.S. Frosty fans can discover what all the fuss is about for themselves. Wendy’s is selling strawberry Frosties nationwide—for this summer only. Next season, vanilla will be back on the menu. As Thrillist reports, there’s a simple reason why vanilla, strawberry, and chocolate Frosties can’t all peacefully coexist: Frosty machines can only produce two separate flavors at a time.

The two-flavor cap can’t hold a candle to the impressive variety of, say, Dairy Queen Blizzards. But when it comes to functionality, the Wendy’s Frosty machine has a much better track record than its seemingly always broken rival, the McDonald’s McFlurry machine.

“While some of our competitors are still trying to get their ice cream machines to work, fans can dip into this new strawberry treat all summer long at Wendy’s,” Loredo said in a press release.