Wendy's New Strawberry Frosty Doesn't Taste New At All

If you're the one person in your Neapolitan-ice-cream-eating household who actually likes strawberry—not even prefers, just likes—then you've learned to make sacrifices. Everyone else seems to favor the chocolate and vanilla, mysteriously meeting some unseen resistance once their scoop hits the pink strip of ice cream. Toward the end of the carton's life, the rubble of chocolate and vanilla give way to the upward slope of abundant strawberry, which you charitably accept as your lot.

But now, it's someone else's turn to make a sacrifice. With the introduction of the new strawberry flavor of Wendy's signature Frosty, the fast food chain's Frosty machines have booted out the vanilla variant to make way for this limited-time variety. And like its classic chocolate sibling (which remains available), this Strawberry Frosty makes the wise decision not to beat you over the head with its flavor.

The Strawberry Frosty—Wendy's first new Frosty flavor in almost three years—debuted in Canada last year and is now available in U.S. locations nationwide for the summer. Wendy's Chief Marketing Officer, Carl Loredo, told CNN Business that U.S. locations testing the Strawberry Frosty before its official launch actually ran out of the product halfway through the pilot program.

The classic chocolate Frosty we know and love is actually a blend of chocolate and vanilla, making its flavor less rich and pronounced so it won't overpower the rest of your meal. (This subtlety could be why we love dipping our fries in our Frostys, yet don't always think to do the same thing with, say, a McFlurry.) The Strawberry Frosty is striking the same subdued note as the original.

The new flavor has the same creamy texture of the classic, and the strawberry notes are medium-subtle—a bit more pronounced as it starts to melt—without any of the chemical taste that's so common in other restaurants' milkshakes. I enjoyed my Strawberry Frosty on its own (with a spoon, of course; the employee's hand didn't even motion toward the stack of straws), but I could see it slapping alongside a Spicy Chicken Sandwich too.

It's not overly sweet, but it's also a flavor for the young. There's a big difference between eating fresh fruit in a dessert (or even chunks of frozen fruit) and tossing back something with a strawberry flavoring. I'm not saying the Strawberry Frosty is something I've aged out of, it was just a taste I haven't had in probably 20 years. Last night, in a fit of sweets-craving, I actually prepared a solo bowl of whipped cream and dipped strawberries in it like some sort of Marie Antoinette/Ina Garten cosplay.

Eating this Frosty was just as satisfying, but felt like the teenage version of what I'd done the night before. (Riding my bike to and from Wendy's to pick up my order might have played a role there, too.) But for just a couple of bucks, it tastes like a nice blast from the past. Instead of Wendy's trying to introduce a new, weird flavor for the sake of buzzy virality, it instead comes across as nostalgic. To that end, it would be nice to see Wendy's offering the chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry Frosty all at the same time, separating them so Neapolitan families can stay together and no one has to make a sacrifice.

(And if you are an actual adult child, I can also report that if you drip the Strawberry Frosty on your shirt, the stain will come out with a little dish soap.)