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Here Is Shake Shack’s Master List of Special Custard Flavors

So many flavors. Photo: Shake Shack

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Many traits set Shake Shack apart from its fast-food competition: Surprisingly warm service, a pretty great hamburger, a possibly even greater chicken sandwich, those little buzzers, and the fabled Custard Calendar, a rotating menu of specialty high-low frozen custards in flavors far more interesting than you’d ever find in, say, McDonald’s. From Fromage Blanc Raspberry Swirl (très sophistiqué) all the way down to Beer Nuts, Shake Shack’s limited-time flavors seem to cover the entire flavor gamut: There are custards inspired by salads! (Heirloom Tomato.) Custards inspired by British people! (Figgy Pudding.) Even custards that never quite caught on, (Heirloom Tomato again). So we wanted to know: Who keeps track of all these flavors? And how do you even come up with some of them?

The best custards, philosophizes Mark Rosati, Shake Shack’s culinary director, are “usually a balance of comfort, craveability, and refinement.” He and his team try to introduce at least three of those a year. They also like to do riffs on old fan favorites, which Rosati considers to be more like variations — Chocolate Chip Cookie in the key of E minor — than full-on original tastes. Given that approach, the actual number of different custards is a bit murky — there have been something like 300 flavors in Shake Shack’s 13-year history, but if you exclude the riffs, the list shrinks down to a more manageable 87 different flavors — a Shack Shack Master Calendar, if you will. (Though, note that it doesn’t include one-off collaborations, like Cronut-Hole Concretes, or contest winners like a Miso Caramel flavor that was evidently featured as part of a Create Your Own Custard contest in 2015.) Still, this list — organized alphabetically — comes direct from Shack HQ, and should at the very least make you nostalgic for the custards of years past, while giving a small glimpse into the Shack team’s creative process:

Banana Bread
Basil
Beer Nuts
Biscuits & Jam
Blackberry Buttermilk
Blueberry Coffeecake
Blueberry Sweet Corn Swirl
Boston Cream Pie
Buttery Caramel Cocoa Nib
Candy Cane
Caramel Popcorn
Caramel Pretzel
Caramel Walnut Cake
Caramelized Peach
Cherry Chip
Chocolate Chip Cookie
Chocolate Toffee Coffee Crunch
Cinnamon Cream Cheese
Cinnamon Pear Cobbler
Cinnamon, Spice & Everything Nice
Citrus Rhubarb Meringue
Coconut Almond Snowball
Coconut Cake
Coconut Caramel
Coconut Caramel Pecan
Coconut Tres Leches
Coffee & Donut
Cranberry Almond Marzipan
Cranberry Cashew
Derby Walnut Pie
Eggnog
Figgy Pudding
Figs & Honey
Flan
Fluffernutter
Fromage Blanc Raspberry Swirl
Gianduja
Gingerbread
Golden Sponge Cake
Gray Matter
Heirloom Tomato
Honey Almond Cake
Honey Roasted Peanut
Jelly Donut
Key Lime Pie
Lemon Meringue
Lemon Poppy Seed Creme Fraiche
Lemon Ricotta Cheesecake
Mango
Malted Marshmallow Milk Chocolate
Maple Brown Butter
Maple Cheesecake
Milk & Honey
Mint Chocolate Chip
Mud Pie
Oatmeal Creme Pie
Olive Oil Cake
Orange Fennel
Pancakes & Bacon
Panettone
Passion-Pineapple
Peaches N’ Cream
Peanut Butter Banana
Peanut Butter & Jelly
Peppermint Patty
Pineapple Brown Sugar
Pineapple Nut Brittle
Pineapple Upside Down
Plum Crumb
Pumpkin Pie
Raspberry Verbena
Red Velvet
Root Beer Freeze
Salted Caramel
Salted Peanut Coca Cola
Salty Chocolate Peanut Butter
Shackenstein
Shack Shiraz Poached Pear
S’mores
Spiced Apple Cider
Strawberry Blonde
Strawberry Lime
Strawberry Pistachio
Sweet Corn
Sweet Potato Marshmallow
Thin Mint
Toffee Pear

Here Is Shake Shack’s Master List of Special Custard Flavors