Science Experiment Sunday It's the Limited Orange Cream Shake from Arby's

Hope everyone had a good weekend. 

I know I certainly had a little too much fun with a certain "shake" this weekend.

Maybe the Curiosity Rover has my science juices flowing...
...maybe I'm just crazy... either way, I blame Wil Wheaton.

 Friday 6:17 PM - Now What do we have here?
It's the (new for summer 2012) orange cream shake from Arby's

Well it should look like this

But looks like this

But I'm not complaining. I ordered a fast food orange cream shake, I'm not expecting the world in a cup here. I expected an orange creamsicle flavor and a typical fast food shake thickness and texture and that's exactly what I got. Sure, I would have preferred a bit more vanilla to mellow out my treat, or say maybe a 15-20% reduction in orange flavoring, but overall it's a decent flavor that pairs surprisingly well with my roast beef sandwich and curly fries.

And now time for a little nauseating fun....

Now, who wants to never drink another fast food shake?

You see, I didn't finish the shake, so after a few hours in the fridge, I dropped the cup in the sink.

I figured it would melt and then I could pour it down the drain.

Friday 11:10 PM - I popped the lid and removed my straw... and this happened.

This is not what I would call "melting"

Confused, I started scooping... and made this crater.

I think I might be a little nauseous.

And now I am officially frightened.

Day 2

Saturday 8:29 AM - I wake up and check on my creation

Ummmmm..... this use to be a shake

I scoop down and discover an orange liquid has separated from the solids

At some point during the day, I poured out the orange liquid and dumped the solids onto a plate

Day 3

C is for cookie, that's good enough for me

9:05 AM - It is now the second morning and all is well.

The treat is now tough enough to hold up tooth picks

6:42 PM - We are now officially at 48 hours since I purchased the shake....

It still smells of orange cremesicle. There is no foul odor or signs of mold.

I don't know about you, but I think I realize why it's called a SHAKE and not a MILKSHAKE. Let's check out the ingredients and see what we see.

Orange Cream Shake: Vanilla Shake Mix (whole milk, sugar, high fructose corn syrup, nonfat milk, grade A sweet whey, cream, artificial vanilla flavor, mono and diglycerides, cellulose gum, guar gum, carrageenan, dipotassium phosphate, sodium citrate, sodium chloride, sodium carbonate, annatto, caramel color), Orange Cream Syrup (high fructose corn syrup, corn syrup, water, natural flavor [water, gum acacia, natural flavoring, sucrose acetate isobutyrate, potassium sorbate and sodium benzoate {preservatives}], citric acid, sodium benzoate [preservative], Yellow 6). CONTAINS: MILK

Wow, that's surprisingly tame and contains a fair amount of dairy.... so why in the world hasn't it spoiled? Keep in mind that it's been humid and around 78 in the house all weekend. If this was a plate or a cup of milk, the whole house would reek by now. I'm frightened... so so so frightened. Do you think a B&J or Cold Stone shake would live on like this? I think not!

Verdict?  Taste is as expected.... ability to survive the apocalypse is not
Buy Again?  Uhhhhh, that would be a no

Day 8 Begins....

The first 168 hours of life have come to an end.... yet the shake survives! At this point, my science experiment is boring me and taking up way too much counter space. The good news is that I seem to have figured out how they make cheetos....  The substance is airy, somewhat crumbly, yet somewhat spongy and sticky. I'll never look at Arby's shakes the same way again.

April 2014 Update: The orange cream shake has returned... and I am not buying one.

April 2016 Update: It's back again for a limited time!