Shake Shack – A year-long shake mission ended with a clear winner: cookies-and-cream. Along the way, strawberry finished last, s’mores landed in the lower half, and several limited-time flavors struggled to match the hype—especially when texture and aftertaste got in the wa
It started with a simple plan: taste every Shake Shack shake. Over the course of the last year. the reporter embarked on a grueling mission to taste and rank every shake on Shake Shack’s menu. Then. just as the appetite for sweets was returning. Shake Shack announced three new summer flavors—so the rankings had to be revisited.
The chain has six main milkshake flavors available all year, plus three or four limited-edition flavors at any one time. The reporter’s ranking of 16 Shake Shack flavors—each made with frozen custard—covers classics such as chocolate and vanilla and limited-edition shakes such as Dubai Chocolate Pistachio. introduced last summer and brought back this month due to popular demand.
The reporter found the last place to be the strawberry shake.
In last place came the strawberry shake. At the reporter’s nearest Shake Shack in New York, a strawberry shake costs $6 and is made with vanilla custard and “real strawberry,” according to the website. The shake has 690 calories in a 16-ounce cup, which is Shake Shack’s standard shake size.
The reporter said it was “doomed from the start,” describing strong strawberry fumes that were hard to get past. After tasting a sip. the reporter found it among the thickest shakes tried. but said it was too sweet and they could only take a couple of sips before feeling like they were rapidly developing a cavity.
In 15th place was the limited-edition Campfire S’mores shake. Available during summer 2025. it was made with vanilla frozen custard. graham crackers. “chocolate and toasted marshmallow fudge chunks. ” and finished off with whipped cream and s’mores crumbles. per Shake Shack’s website description. It cost $6.99 and had 1,090 calories.
The reporter said the ingredients were sitting at the bottom, making it hard to drink. They found there was a lot in the cup but said it tasted like a vanilla shake with graham cracker bits mixed in. which they described as unpleasant texturally. They said they couldn’t taste chocolate or marshmallows—two of the three key s’mores ingredients—and felt it wasn’t worth the extra 50 cents or the extra calories.
This year’s s’mores offering—the Chocolate Toasted Marshmallow S’mores shake—finished a bit higher. This summer. the shake was described as more marshmallow-forward. with the reporter saying they really only got that from the whipped cream. The shake contains vanilla custard with a toasted marshmallow dark chocolate ganache. topped with whipped cream and a s’mores graham cracker crunch. The reporter said the crunch turned out to be crumbled graham crackers and little chocolate crumbles. It costs $7.69 and has 1,110 calories.
The reporter said it was more chocolate-forward than last year’s marshmallow shake, but they still didn’t love it. They said the first sip off the top tasted like a liquified marshmallow with some graham cracker. but once they tasted the actual shake it seemed more like a black-and-white shake than a vanilla one—something they flagged as an issue last year. They still felt it wasn’t for them. saying maybe they “just don’t want to combine s’mores and shakes.”.
At No. 13 was another limited-edition shake: the Dubai Chocolate Pistachio shake. Nobody is immune to Dubai chocolate. not even Shake Shack. the reporter wrote. describing Shake Shack’s version of the viral snack—a chocolate bar filled with green pistachio cream and shredded phyllo pastry. The shake costs $10.99 and has 1,330 calories.
It is made with pistachio custard mixed with “toasted kataifi shredded phyllo” and is topped with mashed-up pistachios and kataifi. The reporter also noted it is encased in a crackable shell made of dark chocolate inside the cup, and that Shake Shack recommends it be best enjoyed cold.
Still, the reporter said they barely tasted any chocolate, and that the shredded phyllo made it hard to drink. They said the shake didn’t taste like chocolate at all because the chocolate was completely frozen and didn’t mix with the pistachio custard. They called the pistachio custard delicious. but said the phyllo mixed in felt strange “almost as if paper had been added” to their shake. Since it was more expensive, they placed it lower. They suggested Shake Shack should add a pistachio flavor to its lineup and said they would drink it plain.
Shake Shack did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider regarding its Dubai chocolate recipe or pricing.
The reporter’s least favorite of the holiday shakes was the Christmas Cookie shake. They visited Shake Shack’s Innovation Kitchen in December 2025 to try out the new holiday flavors. so they did not pay for this one. But per the chain’s website, it retailed at $6.99 and had 840 calories. The shake was made with sugar-cookie custard and topped with whipped cream and red and green sprinkles.
Apparently, the reporter wrote, it’s a fan favorite—but they said it was too sweet. They also captured a detail from the chain: Nick Wuest. Shake Shack’s senior manager of culinary innovation. said the Christmas Cookie shake has stayed on the menu year after year due to demand. and that when Shake Shack tinkered with the recipe. fans let them know they wanted it left untouched.
The reporter agreed it tasted like a sugar cookie in shake form and was impressed by the accuracy, but said it was too sweet for their taste as a mild lover of sugar cookies.
In 11th place was the vanilla-and-chocolate shake. It has vanilla and chocolate custard mixed together, costs $6, and has 770 calories.
The reporter said it tasted like chocolate with a hint of vanilla, but “not in a good way.” They suggested the chocolate was overpowering compared to the vanilla, which can be more subtle, and said it tasted like a watered-down chocolate shake.
The chocolate shake sat just slightly above that at No. 10. This is described as just frozen chocolate custard, costing $6 and having 750 calories.
The reporter said it was a flavorful chocolate shake but that they weren’t overly impressed. As a chocolate ice cream lover. they had expected it to place higher. but they described it as “somewhat middling. ” adding that they noticed an artificial aftertaste and couldn’t take more than a couple of sips—something they said never happens with chocolate ice cream. Still. they said some chocolate is better than no chocolate. which they pointed to as the reason it landed at No. 9.
Next up was the limited-edition Banana Pudding shake. Another limited-time shake on the menu until the end of summer 2025. it used banana custard made with “real banana. ” per Shake Shack. It was mixed with vanilla wafer cookies and topped with “vanilla wafer cookie crumble.” It was priced at $6.99 and had 1. 010 calories.
The reporter called it delicious, but said the smell knocked it down a few spots in the ranking. They also described banana-flavored products as divisive and wrote about that in general terms. They said it tasted like real bananas. that the cookie crumble on top was good. and that the cookies added flavor rather than a crumb-like texture in the shake.
A ranking somewhere in the middle for vanilla made sense to the reporter. They placed the vanilla shake at 9th. Shake Shack’s site writes that its vanilla shakes are made with “real vanilla” in the vanilla custard. One shake contains 680 calories and costs $6.
The reporter said it was the creamiest shake they tried and described it as easily the creamiest and thickest. They said it was sweet. didn’t have a strong aftertaste. and was the only shake that actually felt like it was quenching thirst. Even so. they said it was kind of bland—something they said is common with vanilla—and they couldn’t put it any higher.
This summer’s best new flavor was the Key Lime Pie shake, which the reporter ranked at 8th. The third new shake for this summer. it is made with vanilla custard spun with Key-lime pie curd and graham cracker crunch. then topped with whipped cream and more graham crackers. It costs $7.69 and has 1,020 calories.
The reporter said it would have been a perfect shake if not for the aftertaste. They said even taking off the lid and sniffing it gave them confidence that Shake Shack had “done a good job. ” smelling like summer. A sip made it feel like a liquified Key-lime pie, which they said was delicious. But after a couple of sips. they couldn’t ignore what they described as an artificial aftertaste. which kept it from going higher.
The reporter liked the crackable Peppermint Bark Chocolate shake better than the Dubai Chocolate one, placing it above at 7th. Another holiday offering. it contained chocolate custard infused with mint chocolate fudge and was encased in a crackable peppermint white chocolate shell. The shake is topped with whipped cream and little pieces of peppermint candy. It costs $9.99 and has 1,320 calories.
The reporter said it tasted like winter. They said Shake Shack’s second foray into the crackable shake space was an improvement on the first. noting it was much easier to crack and pull out pieces of the shell. They also said their main critique of the Dubai Chocolate shake was not tasting any chocolate. and that this one didn’t have the missing-chocolate problem because it was chocolate custard infused with mint fudge. They added that not everyone likes mint chocolate but suggested that if someone grabs a peppermint mocha every day of December. they should try it next holiday season.
In fifth place came the limited-edition Oreo Cookie Funnel Cake flavor. Another summer 2025 option. it was made with vanilla custard and “Oreo Cookies and funnel cake crunch” spun into the custard. then topped with whipped cream and Oreo crumbles. It had 1,140 calories—the second most of all the shakes the reporter tried—and cost $6.99.
The reporter said it somehow tasted exactly like a funnel cake from a local fair. and even had the sugary aftertaste they said they love. bringing them back to summer nights at a town fair licking powdered sugar off their fingers. They said the shake didn’t taste Oreo in the shake itself. though the crumbles on top somewhat made up for it.
Next up was the coffee shake. The reporter placed it at 4th. After a five-year hiatus, the coffee shake was reintroduced to the permanent menu in September 2025, ahead of National Coffee Day. It costs $6 and has 700 calories. It’s made with vanilla custard mixed with dark roast coffee.
The reporter called it the “platonic ideal of a coffee shake.” They said as a self-proclaimed coffee ice cream aficionado. they were nervous about trying the flavor. since coffee-flavored products can sometimes taste artificial or too sweet. But they said they didn’t have to worry with this one and described the taste as a frozen cup of coffee. recommending it if the taste sounds appealing.
In third place came the limited-edition Sticky Toffee Pudding flavor. Another holiday flavor, it cost $6.99 and had 930 calories. It’s made with a vanilla custard base. a piece of sticky toffee pudding cake. and caramelized brown sugar blended together. topped with whipped cream and a toffee pudding sauce.
The reporter said it was delicious. They said they had the least experience with sticky toffee pudding. which they described as a British dessert. and were worried they wouldn’t enjoy it—but said their fears vanished after the first sip. They described the molasses flavoring as like a gingerbread cookie and said it was the perfect holiday treat. They also said they liked feeling little pieces of cake mixed in. giving a texture they said other shakes didn’t have.
In second place: the black-and-white shake. The reporter placed it at No. 2. It is vanilla custard mixed with chocolate fudge sauce, with 770 calories and a cost of $6.49.
The reporter said it tasted like vanilla with a hint of chocolate in a good way. They included full disclosure: before ranking. they thought a black-and-white shake was just chocolate and vanilla mixed together. but they said it’s actually a vanilla shake mixed with chocolate sauce. They said they preferred it. describing it as having more taste than a plain vanilla shake and avoiding what they called the watered-down quality of the vanilla-and-chocolate shake. They described it as tasting like a hot fudge sundae and said they highly recommend it.
And in first place—the reporter’s top pick, “certainly not to my own surprise”—was the cookies-and-cream shake. It costs $6.49 and has 850 calories. The reporter said it is made with vanilla custard and spun with “chocolate cookie crumbles.”
The reporter called it “so good.” They said in almost any scenario they order cookies-and-cream. and that the Shake Shack shake had to live up to high standards. They said it tasted like drinking a mashed-up Oreo, like they always want from a cookies-and-cream shake. They said it was creamy, not too sweet, and the texture of the cookie crumbles wasn’t off-putting. They said the crumbles had just the right amount of crumbs. and wrote that they’d be fine with getting any of the top eight shakes—but cookies and cream will forever be their No. 1 choice.
Shake Shack did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.
Shake Shack milkshakes frozen custard cookies-and-cream Dubai Chocolate Pistachio Campfire S'mores Key Lime Pie coffee shake Christmas Cookie Sticky Toffee Pudding