‘Waited so long’: KFC brings back Original Mashies

It’s the menu item that fans have been begging KFC to reinstate for years. Now, for the first time since 2011, it’s back.

It’s the menu item that fans have been begging KFC to reinstate for years.

Now, after more than a decade, long-suffering customers will be put out of their misery.

From tomorrow, the fast food giant’s Original Mashies – not the fraudulent gravy-filled interlopers we were forced to endure in the mid-2010s – will once again be available nationwide, for a limited time only.

The bite-sized snack consists a deep-fried ball of mashed potato goodness, coated in the Colonel’s signature herbs and spices, and are served in a pack of six or 12 with a side of gravy.

KFC has brought back its beloved Mashies for the first time in 12 years.

Chief marketing officer of KFC Australia Sally Spriggs said the team are “always looking to delight KFC fans by introducing tasty new feeds or bringing back fan favourites”.

“Which is why for the first time in 12 years, Original Mashies will be available on menus nationwide,” Ms Spriggs added in a statement.

“After being reintroduced as a test last year to restaurants in Tasmania for a limited time, fans across the country have been vocal in calling for the Original Mashies’ return, but get in quick as you never know when they’ll be back again.”

You can find them on menus at all participating Aussie KFC restaurants from Tuesday, May 16 until Monday, June 12.

Fans have been begging the fast food giant for the OG Mashies to return for more than a decade.

Newcastle-based TikTok star Russ Eats alerted his following of 124,000 to the news last week, hinting he’d been tipped off by a KFC staffer back in September last year.

Under his clip, dozens of people took to the comments, begging for his intel to be true.

“My toilet is not ready for this,” one declared.

While a second wrote: “You better not be playing with my emotions, I’ve been hoping for this day for so long.”

“Can confirm! Saw a box at work today,” one KFC worker commented.

“Omg can’t wait, the mashies og are the bomb. Is this a limited time? They should have it permanently on the menu,” said another.

‘Can confirm! Saw a box at work today,’ one KFC worker commented on a TikTok teasing the news.

The Original Mashies made their Australian debut back in 2009 and were an instant hit among customers.

But sadly they were only a short-term fling, with KFC fans devastated that the beloved potato balls failed to make the chicken giant’s permanent menu roster.

Over the year fans have tirelessly campaigned for their return but instead Australia became the first country in the world to sample Gravy Mashies back in 2017.

First available in Tasmania, Gravy Mashies proved so popular KFC sold more than 130,000 of the potato-filled balls in the first fortnight they were available, The Daily Telegraph reported at the time.

For a while there we were forced to endure the gravy-filled interlopers.

Gravy Mashies have continued to make all-too-brief cameos at KFC stores over the years. But it hasn’t stopped fans from yearning for Original Mashies, with many claiming the gravy version doesn’t pack quite the same punch.

Customers have long campaigned for the return of Original Mashies, with one going so far as to create a Change.org petition for the “warm balls of mashed potato wrapped in the Colonel’s secret herbs and spices”.

“Thinking about KFC mashies I will forever be in pain that they don’t make them anymore,” one devotee lamented on Twitter.

In a highly scientific news.com.au poll conducted in 2021, 17 per cent of respondents said KFC’s Mashies were the fast food menu item they most wanted to return behind Hungry Jack’s original onion rings and Macca’s hot and spicy chicken.

Originally published as ‘Waited so long’: KFC brings back Original Mashies