Wendy’s introduced its Frosty dessert in 1969, when the first Wendy’s restaurant opened.
Dave Thomas opened the first Wendy’s Old Fashioned Hamburgers on November 15, 1969, in Columbus, Ohio. The original menu included hamburgers, chili, French fries, soft drinks, and the Frosty Dairy Dessert, making the frozen treat one of the chain’s original five menu items.
The first Frosty was described as a light chocolate flavor, though its taste blended chocolate and vanilla. Thomas wanted a dessert thick enough to eat with a spoon and believed an intensely chocolate dessert might overpower the flavor of a hamburger. Its texture falls between a milkshake and soft-serve ice cream.
A frequent source of confusion is the vanilla Frosty. Vanilla was not introduced until August 2006, after repeated customer requests; the original chocolate-style Frosty had been available since Wendy’s launch. Seasonal flavors and newer blended products do not change the dessert’s original debut year.