DUBLIN, Ohio - Wendy's is testing a Frosty milkshake as the chain looks to continue expansion of the chocolate ice cream-like dessert that was one of five original items on its menu.
     
Wendy's International Inc., the nation's third-largest hamburger chain behind McDonald's and Burger King, is testing the milkshakes in three Columbus stores in vanilla, strawberry and chocolate, Ian Rowden, Wendy's chief marketing officer, said Thursday.
     
Wendy's founder Dave Thomas came up with the idea for the original Frosty, a cross between a milkshake and soft-serve ice cream, that he wanted to be so thick that it had to be eaten with a spoon.
     
The original light chocolate flavor remained the same from the time the chain opened its first store in 1969 until July 2006 when Wendy's came out with a vanilla version of the Frosty. That has been followed by Frosty floats - a chocolate or vanilla Frosty combined with soda - and the twisted Frosty, a Frosty mixed with candy.
     
Rowden said other ideas include Frosty frozen desserts and an iced-coffee Frosty that could become part of a breakfast menu that Wendy's is rolling out across the country.
     
Rowden said that, since the introduction of the vanilla Frosty, Frosty sales are up 60 percent and now top 300 million a year.
     
"I see enormous upside of what is already a rapidly growing piece of our business," he said.
    
Wendy's, based in this Columbus suburb, operates about 6,600 restaurants in the United States and abroad. It formed a committee in April to determine ways to boost its stock price, including a possible sale.
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