This fun, green shake is the perfect cold treat to celebrate St. Patricks Day. Make an entire St. Patricks Day meal by serving this shake after cooking up some corned beef and cabbage, this stew, or these stuffed cabbage rolls for a festive dinner!

Three tall glasses of shamrock milkshake with whip cream and a cherry on top of each of them.

Shamrock Shake

These green mint milkshakes radiate happiness and cheer, and they bring a smile to the entire family! They’re such a fun treat: cold, creamy, and bursting with a minty freshness. The combination of mint and vanilla is more pronounced by the bright green coloring. And, of course, these fun treats are topped with some homemade whipped cream and that juicy cherry on top.

My entire family loves these shakes, and since we can make them at home, they can be enjoyed year-round! They only take about 5 minutes. Because you don’t have to spend a lot of time on it and the end result is insanely fun and delicious! With the little prep time, this should definitely be on your list for St. Patrick’s Day. Try it out and then you can try all of my other mint recipes found at the bottom of the post!

Ingredients to Make a Mint Shake

This shamrock shake is simple to make and only needs four ingredients! So round them up and get blending! See the recipe card at the bottom of the post for exact measurements.

Vanilla Cce Cream: Plain vanilla is the perfect base for this shake!
Milk: I used whole milk because it’s a tiny bit thicker and it helps get that true shake consistency.
Mint Extract: This will give you that mint flavor!
Green Food Coloring: Use more or less to get your desired green color.

Optional Toppings/Add-ins

Whipped Cream: My kids like to load this on top.
Maraschino Cherries: You must have a cherry on top to make it look like it came from a restaurant!
Chocolate Cookies: Crush these up and add them to the shake for some texture and flavor.

How to Make a Shamrock Shake

This mint shake tastes so good that you will be making this all year long, not just around St. Patrick’s Day! Plus, it’s so easy that it’s hard to say no to!

Scoop: Scoop the ice cream into the blender.
Pour and Color: Pour in the milk and then add the mint extract and green food coloring.
Blend: Blend until smooth and creamy.
Mix: Add more milk or more ice cream to get desired consistency.
Top: Top with whipped cream and cherries as desired and then serve!

2 pictures showing how to add food coloring to the ice cream.

Fun Variations

This easy-to-make mint shamrock shake is also easy to customize! Add a swirl of chocolate to the cup before pouring to create a colorful swirl and a chocolate mint flavor. Or add some crushed-up chocolate cookies for a textured treat.

Chocolate Syrup: To make the cup look pretty with the chocolate drips, squeeze some chocolate syrup along the rim of the cup on the inside. Gently tilt the cup slightly to help drips run down. Then, place the cup in the refrigerator to chill while you prepare and make the shakes.
Cookie Crumbs: To add cookie crumbs to the shake, add several cookies to a plastic bag and crush with a rolling pin. After blending the milkshake then stir the cookie crumbs into the shake. If you add the cookie to the blender before blending, then the cookie crumbs become too fine and blend in with the shake instead of giving you the appearance of cookie crumbs.

Three tall shamrock shakes with whipped cream and a cherry on top.

Important Tips!

I’ve come up with a few tips that will help your shamrock shake turn out perfectly!

Mint Extract vs. Peppermint Extract: Keep in mind these are different flavors. Using peppermint extract would result in a shake that has more of a candy cane flavoring than a minty Shamrock shake taste.
Whole milk: Using whole milk in this recipe will result in a creamier shake. Of course, you can always sub with your milk of choice.
Start with less milk: It’s easier to pour in extra milk once you blend the shake. Too much milk will make the shake runny. You can always add more ice cream or milk as needed to get the desired consistency.
Green Food Coloring: This is an optional ingredient. It’s not required so then if you don’t want to add it, it can easily be left out.

Shamrock shake with chocolate syrup dripping down the sides with whip cream topping and a cherry on top.

Shamrock Shakes

This shamrock shake is a mint ice cream shake is such a fun treat for all ages! Skip the line at the drive-thru and make your own at home!

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Keyword mint milkshake, shamrock shake

Prep Time 5 minutes

Total Time 5 minutes

Servings cups

Calories 261kcal

Author Alyssa Rivers

Equipment

Blendtec Blender

Ingredients

3 cups vanilla ice cream
1 cup milk whole
1/4 teaspoon mint extract
6 drops green food coloring

Toppings/Add-ins

whipped cream
maraschino cherries
chocolate cookies crushed

Instructions

Scoop the ice cream into the blender.
Pour in the milk, add the mint extract and green food coloring.
Blend until smooth and creamy.
Add more milk or more ice cream to get desired consistency.
Top with whipped cream and cherries as desired.

Notes

To make it a cookie shamrock shake: after blending add in the crumbled cookies and stir. Use 8 cookies for the full amount of milkshake in the recipe. Additional if you want to sprinkle some on top.

Originally Posted on February 14, 2020

Updated on March 5, 2022