13 McDonald's McFlurrys From Around The World

McDonald's long reputation as an emblem of American fast-food culture began with its establishment as a chain in 1954. Its high-profile presence globally — McDonald's now boasts restaurants in 118 countries — symbolizes American power and influence to some and overreach to others. And some worldly travelers cringe at the sight of a McDonald's in a far-flung location, wondering why anyone would choose a fast-food burger over a handcrafted local specialty.

But while McDonald's boasts a proudly American menu of burgers and fries everywhere it appears, the actual picture is a bit more nuanced. Americans who wander into an overseas McDonald's are likely to see some unfamiliar items, such as a meatless McAloo Tikki Burger in India and a teriyaki chicken sandwich in Japan. And McDonald's openness to global influences goes even further: the iconic McFlurry, an irresistible mix of soft-serve ice cream and flavorful add-ins, was actually an invention of a Canadian franchisee, who in 1995 decided to toss some candy into the restaurant's vanilla soft serve. His invention was a hit with McDonald's customers around the world — and McDonald's international outposts have made McFlurrys into showcases for favorite local and regional flavors. Here are some fun and surprising McFlurry flavors that have been spotted abroad.

Pretty, jade-green matcha-flavored treats are a trendy novelty in the U.S., but for Japanese diners, they've long been a familiar and beloved part of the culinary landscape. But matcha is far more than just a flavoring or a tea in Japan — it's an important cultural touchstone. The traditional Japanese tea ceremony, in which participants observe the making of matcha and enjoy it with special sweets, evolved as an expression of appreciation for the once-rare drink.

Today, matcha is an everyday pleasure in Japan, and has made appearances at McDonald's as part of its rotating menu of McFlurry flavors. In 2013, McDonald's introduced a Matcha Oreo McFlurry as a seasonal special, which returned by popular demand in 2014. But matcha-loving McFlurry fans in Japan had to wait until 2016 to get their fix again. This time, however, the Oreos were gone. Instead, McDonald's went all in with favorite Japanese flavors — the Uji Matcha Adzuki McFlurry featured not just matcha-swirled ice cream, but a topping of sweetened adzuki beans, a traditional flavor partner for matcha.

If you've wandered through the cookie assortment at a high-end grocery — or even through a regular supermarket around the holidays — you may have encountered stroopwafels, round, super-thin waffle-like wafers sandwiched around a layer of stretchy caramel. Crispy and chewy all at once, these unique treats are a specialty of the Netherlands, where street vendors make and serve them hot off the griddle to awaiting sweet tooths. Store-bought versions are also easy to find, and make a great snack with a big cup of coffee.

These traditional favorites have also found their way into McFlurrys in the Netherlands, where they're crushed into tiny bits and folded into vanilla soft-serve with a swirl of caramel sauce. The tasty mix of crunchy cookie bits, chewy caramel, and ice cream — a bit like a caramel-topped sundae with buttery cookie crumbs — had enough global appeal to make a brief Stateside appearance. In 2019, McDonald's offered it and a small variety of its other overseas offerings on its limited-edition Worldwide Favorites menu.

A beloved delicacy throughout much of southeast Asia, durian is one of the world's most polarizing foods. Cut through the hard, spiky rind of the football-sized fruit and you'll be greeted by lobes of tender orange flesh with a creamy, custardy consistency and a sweet flavor fans say reminds them of vanilla and nuts. Its smell, however, is another matter — even fans concede it's seriously funky, with a smell reminiscent of sulfur, strong blue cheese, and even dirty socks. And it's not a mild odor either. It's so pungent (and to many, repulsive) that durian-loving cities and countries including Hong Kong and Thailand have banned fresh durians on public transport and in hotel rooms.

None of this has stopped durian from becoming a favorite flavoring for savory and sweet dishes in Southeast Asia. It appears in everything from traditional fish curries and shaved ice desserts to adaptations of Western sweets such as cheesecake. Among these adaptations is the McFlurry, which made appearances at McDonald's outlets in Singapore in 2013 and 2018, and in Hong Kong in 2018. The unique treat featured real durian puree and small chunks of durian folded into the vanilla soft serve base. And according to durian-loving tasters, it was the real deal: It actually tasted like real durian (a good thing if you like durian, not so much if you don't), but thankfully, didn't give off much of a smell — unless you held the open cup right up to your nose.

Americans don't usually give much thought to Australian cuisine. Apart from a handful of distinctive products such as Vegemite (which some Australians even add to their coffee), Tim-Tams, and its respected wines, Australia hasn't made the same impact on the food world as, say, China or France. Instead, Australian cooks and eaters have put their own local twists on familiar foods from other cultures — such as the McFlurry.

Not content with simple Oreo crumbs, Australian McDonald's operators created the Bubblegum Squash McFlurry, a blingy, colorful mix of pink-and-white marshmallows and bright blue bubblegum-flavored syrup. (No, there are no gourds or zucchinis involved — squash simply refers to the concoction's squishy texture.) It became a favorite among Aussies looking for a sugar rush, so much so that outraged fans circulated a petition demanding its return when McDonald's discontinued it. But because nature abhors a vacuum, Hungry Jack's (the Australian division of Burger King) filled the void with a near clone, the Bubblegum Storm. But it seems to be a seasonal offering, so if you're in Australia and looking to try it, check before you go.

McFlurry fans may have noticed that a common — and highly effective — strategy for generating new flavors is to find tasty cookies or candy bars, grind them up, and swirl them in. This was how the first McFlurrys came to be. The original lineup, when the dessert was introduced in the U.S. in 1997 featured Oreos, Butterfingers, Heath bars, M&M's, and Nestle Crunch bars. What all these had in common, besides being well-loved sweets in their own right, was they were pleasantly crunchy, and apart from the already bite-sized M&M's, easy to break up into tiny pieces.

And depending on where you are in the world, you may find different confections folded into your McFlurry. In the UK, one of the rotating flavors features Twix bars, and it's easy to see how well this could work — the combo of chocolate, shortbread-like cookie, and caramel seems designed to go with vanilla ice cream. And the combo seems to have international appeal: Twix McFlurrys have made appearances in locales including Cyprus and the United Arab Emirates. It's also made a few brief Stateside appearances — so if you're an American McFlurry connoisseur, keep your eyes open.

Some of the most treasured treats at McDonald's are its seasonal offerings. For many of us in the U.S., for instance, March means Shamrock Shake season. McDonald's fans around the world also look forward to limited-time favorites that honor not only seasons and holidays but also local ways of celebrating them. In Great Britain, McDonald's rings in the Easter season with Cadbury Crème Egg McFlurrys, in which the iconic milk chocolate eggs filled with gooey yellow-and-white fondant are pulverized and folded into the ice cream base.

While Cadbury Crème Eggs are just as beloved in the U.S. as in Great Britain, they have their roots in England, where they first appeared in their current form in 1963. Thus, it makes sense that it was there that the Crème Egg McFlurry first emerged and became a fan favorite. Since its introduction, it has also become a seasonal favorite in Canada and Australia, but to the disappointment of many Americans, has yet to make it to the U.S. But even in the locales where it is on offer, fans need to hustle to get one — they're strictly seasonal, and available for only a couple of weeks before and after Easter.

McDonald's has released a multitude of McFlurry flavors in its outlets around the world, so it's absolutely no surprise that some would be better received than others. A case in point was a limited-time offering from McDonald's in Canada — the Caramel Popcorn McFlurry. It featured vanilla ice cream swirled with caramel sauce and studded with kernels of sweet-salty caramel corn.

And while few people object to vanilla ice cream or caramel corn, not everyone agrees that they belong together. Some tasters loved it. "The butteriness of the popcorn goes nice with the ice cream," one Redditor said. Another praised how well the popcorn kept its crunch, saying, "I was worried the popcorn would get soft in the ice cream, but the caramel coating keeps it the right texture." But others seriously hated the whole concept. "Ummm...McDonald's...Caramel Popcorn Mcflurry should not be a thing," a doubter commented on Twitter (via SheFinds). And as yet another Redditor said, "Canada can keep this one."

In the minds of many diners around the world, tiramisu — a fluffy dessert of sweetened mascarpone cheese layered with coffee and liqueur-dipped sponge and topped with cocoa — is as representative of Italian cuisine as spaghetti and pizza. And while some have argued that it has deep roots in Italian culinary tradition, other sources consider it a modern innovation — it became a nearly mandatory addition to Italian-American menus in the 1980s.

So when McDonald's decided to introduce the Tiramisu McFlurry in 2022, it came as part of the restaurant's Italian Summer Menu, which also included an Italian Stack burger and breaded mozzarella sticks. Interestingly, however, it did not launch in Italy, but in Ireland and England. The Tiramisu McFlurry made appearances elsewhere as well, attracting curious fans in the Philippines, among other locales. But if you happen to encounter one during your travels, don't expect actual tiramisu bits in your soft serve. Instead, you'll get chocolate cookie bits and a swirl of coffee-flavored sauce.

Devotees of "The Great British Bake Off" know that the combination of chocolate and orange is very much a thing in British cookery — in most seasons, at least one competitor incorporates the flavor combo into an ambitious creation. And while chocolate-orange treats are far less common Stateside, they take on a more prominent role during the holiday season, when candied orange peel dipped in chocolate appears on party trays and a classic British sweet, Terry's Chocolate Orange, makes its appearance in U.S. stores.

True to its name, Terry's Chocolate Orange is made from chocolate flavored with orange oil and molded into orange-segment-shaped pieces. These chocolate segments are assembled into an orange-sized ball and wrapped in foil before being tucked into their signature square box. By tradition, eaters tap the foil-wrapped chocolate orange against a hard surface to separate the segments before sharing or eating them. But in Great Britain, McDonald's takes this process a step further, pulverizing the chocolate into bits and swirling them into McFlurrys along with a ribbon of orange sauce. But much like the chocolate orange itself, this McFlurry is a purely seasonal treat, available only during the Christmas season.

McFlurrys are popular with eaters around the world, and even in the middle of winter, hungry fans eagerly seek them out — in Great Britain, McDonald's even offers special McFlurry flavors specifically for its Christmas menu. But in warmer locales, eaters likely look to McFlurrys not just for a sugar fix, but for relief from the heat — which may be why they sometimes favor flavors that offer refreshment, rather than richness and decadence.

In Malaysia, for example, Groovy Lime, a limited-release summer special, seemed specifically engineered for sweltering days. The local treat featured a neon-green topping of tangy lime-flavored sauce, which offered a bright and flavorful contrast to the rich vanilla ice cream. To add to the cooling tropical vibes, the concoction comes topped with little cubes of nata de coco, a chewy, gumdrop-like sweet made from coconut. This is a common dessert ingredient in Malaysia and elsewhere in Southeast Asia, and often shows up in Ice Kacang, a decadent dessert of shaved ice piled high with sweet add-ins such as sweetened condensed milk, sweetened red beans, and more — so the chewy little bits in the Groovy Lime McFlurry are a familiar part of warm-weather dining for Malaysian eaters.

McDonald's sometimes takes the odd strategy of taking flavors from one locale and turning them into McFlurrys offered somewhere else. The Tiramisu McFlurry, for instance, took the flavors of the iconic Italian dessert and served them up to McDonald's guests in the UK. (Meanwhile, it does not appear to be available in Italy.) And while we've enjoyed plenty of McFlurrys made with favorite American sweets such as Oreos and M&Ms, many of our homegrown candies have only made their way into McFlurrys abroad.

For example, Jolly Ranchers — the fruity, puckery hard candy beloved by children — found their way into McFlurrys in El Salvador in 2017 (as well as Honduras), then made their way onto the Canadian menu as a limited-time special in 2018. This McFlurry variant appeared to be short-lived, but it was certainly pretty — it featured a colorful shower of crushed candy pieces in a variety of flavors, and their puckery tang could have made a fun contrast to the sweetness of the ice cream.

Malted milk balls (such as Whoppers) are among those old-school treats we don't give much thought to. But they've been around for a while for good reason — the flavor combo of creamy chocolate and crunchy, toasty malt is seriously tasty. And while malt-flavored sweets have fallen out of fashion in the U.S. (you'll need to hunt hard to find a soda shop or ice-cream stand that still offers the malted milkshakes your grandparents enjoyed), they remain popular in other parts of the world. A glance at the British foods section at a well-stocked supermarket, for instance, will likely yield sweet malted milk mixes such as Horlicks as well as Maltesers, the British version of Whoppers.

And since Brits seem to enjoy both malted milk and malted milk balls, the introduction of the Malteser McFlurry in Great Britain made a lot of sense. This treat features crushed Maltesers folded into the standard vanilla base. It also made an appearance in Australia in 2012, where it came with a swirl of chocolate sauce in addition to the Malteser bits.

If you're looking for a chocolaty but not-too-rich treat, go to the international aisle of your supermarket and check out the British candies. If you spot an Aero bar, grab it. As its name suggests, the Aero bar is indeed airy — the chocolate comes filled with bubbles, giving it the look of hard, airy foam and a light, crispy texture, all with the usual melty creaminess of a good chocolate bar.

All of this makes Aero bars an ideal add-in to McFlurrys — and McDonald's outlets in the UK and Ireland paid homage to a popular Aero variant, the Mint Aero, by incorporating crushed bits of the bars into McFlurrys along with a pretty green ribbon of peppermint sauce. If you've ever thought your McDonald's meal deserved to be topped off with a classic chocolate-covered after-dinner mint, this should be your dessert of choice. The catch is you have to be somewhere in the British Isles to get it — and need to be there during the limited times it's available.