This Fast Food Chain’s Milkshakes Are So Thick They Defy Physics
Cook Out runs hundreds of locations across the Southeast and has built a reputation around its made-to-order milkshakes. They are blended with real ice cream and served in simple cups, but the appeal is in the details. The menu features more than 40 permanent flavors, allowing customers to mix and match them freely, which transforms a basic shake into something truly personal.
What people remember most is the texture. Food writers, regular customers, and menu breakdowns all point to the same conclusion: these shakes are so dense that a straw barely works at first. Right after they are poured, a spoon makes far more sense.
That texture has become one of Cook Out’s most recognizable traits and a major driver of its popularity. Based on reported texture, ingredient composition, and repeated evaluations across credible food coverage, we’ve gathered the ten Cook Out milkshakes that stand out as the thickest.
Banana Pudding
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Banana Pudding combines vanilla ice cream with banana flavoring and crushed vanilla wafer cookies. The crushed wafer pieces soak up the liquid as the shake sits, puffing up slightly and giving it a thicker, heavier texture. Food writers consistently rate the texture as closer to soft ice cream than a drink.
Oreo
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The Oreo shake uses a vanilla ice cream base blended with large amounts of crushed Oreo cookies. The cookie solids remain intact rather than dissolving, which thickens the mixture and adds more texture and resistance. This shake is widely cited as requiring a spoon due to the volume of cookie pieces.
Oreo Mint
The Oreo Mint has an added mint flavoring. The mint does not alter the consistency, and the shake retains the same thickness as the standard Oreo version. Reports note that the texture remains dense even after several minutes at room temperature.
Peanut Butter
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The Peanut Butter shake blends peanut butter directly into vanilla ice cream. Peanut butter contains natural fats that increase viscosity when cold. This shake is frequently described as especially slow-moving and difficult to drink through a straw.
Peanut Butter Fudge
Peanut Butter Fudge combines chocolate fudge with a peanut butter base. The fudge contributes additional sugar and fat, which further stiffens the mixture. It’s also difficult to drink through a straw, so using a spoon might be a better option with this one.
Reese’s
The Reese’s shake blends chopped peanut butter cups into vanilla ice cream, with the candy holding its shape as it freezes. That gives the shake a denser feel and small pockets of chew that make each sip more interesting.
Hot Fudge
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Hot Fudge uses a chocolate ice cream base with heavy ribbons of fudge blended throughout. Multiple reports mention visible pools of fudge remaining in the cup. The added chocolate syrup thickens the ice cream rather than thinning it.
Chocolate Cherry
Chocolate Cherry blends chocolate ice cream with cherry syrup. While simpler than candy-based shakes, the chocolate base remains dense, and the syrup adds an insane amount of flavor and texture. Writers often note that it eats more like a frozen dessert than a beverage.
Walnut
The Walnut shake combines vanilla ice cream with chopped walnuts. Nuts add mass and crunch to this shake. Because the nuts do not dissolve or break down, they increase density without changing flavor balance.
Cappuccino
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The Cappuccino shake relies on a coffee-flavored ice cream base without heavy add-ins, which in itself is pretty rich in thickness. Opinions differ when it comes to this, with some people comparing it to other coffee or mocha-style shakes, and others pointing out that it behaves more like soft ice cream than a drink.