The Grimace Shake: McDonald’s Tik-tok trend explained - can you get it in the UK, ingredients & who is Grimace

A bizarre new TikTok trend which sees McDonald’s fans try the fast-food chain’s new Grimace Shake before pretending to die has taken the world by storm. The viral trend emerged when McDonald’s announced the return of the Grimace Birthday meal in the US on June 12 to celebrate the purple character's 52nd anniversary. 

Since then, teens and other TikTok fans have been seen uploading videos of themselves trying the purple berry drink, wishing Grimace a happy birthday before the video takes a turn and abruptly cuts to the subjects pretending to be dead with the shake spilt or splattered nearby. At the time of writing, the #grimaceshake hashtag has gathered more than 145 million views.

Although the drink is not available in the UK, British McDonald’s fans who want to get in on the action have been creating their own version of the drink at home. According to delicious.com, the homemade version is made up of milk, vanilla ice cream, frozen blueberries, strawberry jam and whipped cream.

McDonald’s acknowledged the trend in a video posted to Twitter which featured the purple Grimace creature. In a Tweet, McDonald’s said: “meee pretending i don't see the grimace shake trend.”

We have rounded up everything you need to know about the viral trend.

McDonald’s Grimace Shake Tok-tok trend - what it is & where it started

Tik-tokers have taken to the social media platform to post bizarre videos of themselves drinking the purple shake, before cutting to themselves appearing to look dead on the floor, with the drink spilt near them. According to KnowYourMeme, the trend emerged when Austin Frazier uploaded a video on June 13 of himself tasting the shake and then lying on the floor with the drink spilt around his head and mouth.

That video received more than 2.6 million views on TikTok and prompted others to follow suit — with varying levels of production value. 

Frazier said this week that he took inspiration from a similar video in which someone tried Burger King's Spider-Verse burger and then the video smash cuts to a view from the back of an ambulance with the caption "Do not eat the Spider-Verse burger"

Frazier said: "I said ok, then let's do something similar. Let's be super excited. Take a drink and the next scene immediately would be me on the ground with all the stuff next to me and some funny music, and that was literally it. It's just supposed to be a meme about its really weird colour, which means it's not good for you, Grimace is collecting victims... It's just funny." 

McDonald’s Grimace Shake - Where can you get it

The shake is currently available to buy from McDonald’s in the US. However, people in the UK have been making their versions at home.

How to make your own Grimace Shake & ingredients

Delicious.com has released a recipe to make your own Grimace Shake at home.

Ingredients

300ml milk

600g vanilla ice cream

1/2 cup frozen blueberries

4 tablespoons strawberry jam

Whipped cream, to serve

Method

1. Let vanilla ice cream soften slightly before adding to the blender.
2. Add milk, ice cream, blueberries and jam to a blender and mix on high until smooth.
3. Transfer the milkshake to a tall glass and top it with a swirl of whipped cream

Who is McDonald’s Grimace

According to the McDonald’s Fandom website, Grimace is Ronald McDonald’s best friend. He is a large, purple, rotund creature of indeterminate species with short arms and legs and has featured in multiple McDonald’s commercials.

Grimace originally debuted as a large purple being with four arms and two legs who loved milkshakes. After that first campaign, Grimace was reintroduced in his modern form, with his number of arms reduced by two.

He has appeared in Happy Meal adverts and McDonaldland commercials. However, following an appearance at Dodger Stadium on July 18 2012, vs. the Philadelphia Phillies, dancing to Ram Jam's Black Betty (1977), Grimace seemingly disappeared.

Grimace vanished from public life, appearing only in Malaysian Happy Meal toys. His first public appearance after his 2012 disappearance was at the 2020 Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade alongside Ronald McDonald. Grimace also appeared in a parody cryptocurrency tweet on Twitter by McDonald's known as "Grimace-Coin", and in a 2022 Super Bowl commercial.

However, on June 6, 2023, Grimace took over McDonald's Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok accounts to announce a birthday celebration beginning on June 12. The birthday celebration includes a limited-edition Grimace inspired purple shake and merch, a browser game[5] and a charity campaign for the Ronald McDonald House.