The Frosty is a frozen dairy dessert of the American fast-food restaurant chain Wendy's. The Frosty was among the first five items introduced on the Wendy's menu. Wendy's founder Dave Thomas created the original "light chocolate" Frosty himself by combining chocolate and vanilla flavors, as he thought that a pure chocolate flavor would overwhelm the taste of the restaurant's hamburgers. Thomas based the Frosty on the milkshakes he drank in Detroit as a youth, and created the Frosty to be thick enough to require a spoon to eat. The consistency has been described as between that of a milkshake and soft-serve ice cream.

Specialty flavors

Over the years Wendy's has occasionally introduced new Frosty flavor variations. In August 2006, a vanilla Frosty flavor was introduced after repeated customer requests. For both Summer 2022 and Summer 2023, the vanilla Frosty was temporarily replaced with a strawberry Frosty. In November 2022, Wendy's released the new peppermint Frosty for the holidays; this was the third new Frosty flavor released and temporarily replaced the vanilla Frosty. In September 2023, a pumpkin spice Frosty was introduced. For Winter 2024, the vanilla Frosty was reintroduced after having been continuously supplanted by other flavors for a two-year period. Wendy's generally swaps out the vanilla Frosty flavor whenever a specialty Frosty flavor is launched, while always keeping the original signature chocolate Frosty flavor available. For Spring 2024, an orange dreamsicle Frosty was introduced. For Summer 2024, a triple berry Frosty was introduced. In fall 2024, a "pineapple under the sea" Frosty was released in honor of the 25th anniversary of SpongeBob SquarePants. This was followed by a "salted caramel" frosty in November.