science

McFlurry

McFlurry is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand McFlurry rather than just read about it. In short: The McFlurry is a brand name of frozen soft serve dessert produced and sold by American-based multinational fast food chain McDonald's. It is served in a cup, with additional mixed-in ingredients such as candy and cookie fragments and sweet topping sauces.

Key takeaways

McFlurry belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect McFlurry to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of McFlurry from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The McFlurry is a brand name of frozen soft serve dessert produced and sold by American-based multinational fast food chain McDonald's. It is served in a cup, with additional mixed-in ingredients such as candy and cookie fragments and sweet topping sauces. It was created in 1995 by Ron McLellan, a Canadian McDonald's franchise owner in Bathurst, New Brunswick, and later introduced to the United States in 1997.

History

The McFlurry was created by Canadian McDonald's franchisee Ron McLellan in Bathurst, New Brunswick, in 1995. The first McFlurry, which was Oreo-flavored, was sold on June 7, 1995. After proving successful in Bathurst, McDonald's began offering the McFlurry at a number of Toronto locations. In the U.S., the McFlurry was test-marketed in select regions in 1997. By March 1998, the product was available to all American and Canadian locations and has been gradually introduced in various other countries since then. Until September 2006, the McFlurry was served with a container lid having an opening that was of a size that caused some animals to become trapped with their head stuck inside the discarded containers. An outcry in the UK, particularly to protect European hedgehogs, caused a redesign in the container shape. After "significant research and design testing", the company addressed the problem in 2006 by reducing the size of the opening to prevent entry of an animal's head. In June 2019, McDonald's announced it planned to stop using lids on McFlurrys in the United Kingdom by September 2019, as part of a move to reduce the use of single-use plastics by the chain. However, lids with circular openings are still being used in some other markets as of September 2023. 30 Rock prominently featured the McFlurry in the plot of its season 3 episode 11, "St. Valentine's Day". Although some commenters interpreted the prominence of the product in the episode as heavy-handed product placement, it was later reported that McDonald's had not paid to have it featured, and the show's producers were even worried that McDonald's might sue them for featuring it without authorization.

Preparation The McFlurry consists of whipped, soft serve McDonald's vanilla-flavored ice cream in a cup. The McFlurry has a specially designed spoon with a hole in the handle which is attached to a blender. Various types of candy or cookies are added to the cup, which are then blended into the ice cream using the spoon. In some markets where local regulations require reducing the use of single-use plastics (including Canada), the plastic spoon has been replaced with a disposable wooden one, and the McFlurry is blended using a reusable metal attachment prior to being served to the customer. McFlurry flavors vary from market to market, and new flavors are introduced regularly. The ice cream in a McFlurry is the same that McDonald's uses for its cones and sundaes. The ice cream is made from ultra-high-temperature (UHT) pasteurized milk, extended with methylcellulose. CNBC reported that, from late 2016, McDonald's started phasing out artificial flavors from its vanilla ice cream. The change was part of an effort to recover the more than 500 million customer visits it had lost since 2012.

Reviews Despite referring to the McFlurry as "a quick-serve medley of gelatinous, innocuous ice cream that some reviewers might consider closer to caulk than dairy", Wil Fulton and Kat Thompson of Thrillist described the M&M McFlurry as "the epitome of low stakes, drive-thru fun", placing it at the end of their list of the 13 Best Fast Food Desserts. Dan Myers of The Daily Meal included the Oreo McFlurry in its (unranked) list of 10 Best Fast Food Desserts, saying "You'd be hard-pressed to encounter anyone who isn't a fan of this sweet treat."

See also List of McDonald's products McDonald's ice cream machine

Works cited Gillan, Jennifer (2010). Television and New Media: Must-Click TV. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-135-96567-9. Retrieved August 27, 2018.

References

External links Nutritional information for a sample McFlurry

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with McFlurry

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what McFlurry claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to McFlurry before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about McFlurry ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of McFlurry

In research: McFlurry appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses McFlurry in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: McFlurry is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1995 establishments in New Brunswick, Canadian desserts, Canadian inventions, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for McFlurry outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

Ask Teacher Smith questions about this articleOpens your AI tutor with a question about “McFlurry” →

Affiliate

Preply — study more efficiently by working with a personal tutor. 50% off.

How to study McFlurry in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what McFlurry means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain McFlurry out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is McFlurry in simple terms?

Why does McFlurry matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study McFlurry?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on McFlurry.