Tag: McDonald’s

McDonald’s in the US is dipping its toes again in the pulling from the international product pool with the release of its Special Grade Garlic Sauce, inspired by the Black Garlic Sauce offered by McDonald’s Japan. Or, perhaps I should say dipping its fingers? If you’ve watched the anime Jujutsu Kaisen (or read the manga), which is the tie-in with this sauce, you’ll understand why fingers might’ve made more sense.

The only way to obtain it is through the McDonald’s app. Why? To encourage you to download the app. But, if you do order it, you’ll get a free 30-day trial of the anime streaming service Crunchyroll, which has Jujutsu Kaisen in its library.

McDonald’s says the limited time offering is a savory and tangy black garlic sauce with hints of black pepper. Another description says it contains notes of garlic and soy sauce, balanced with a slight tangy sweetness. With its combination of black garlic, black pepper, and soy sauce, I thought its color would be tar black or Black Flash black, but it has a clear reddish hue.

As expected, the sauce has a strong garlic smell, and the garlic and soy sauce flavors are the most prominent. I can’t say I’ve ever had black garlic, so I can’t compare. The ingredient list includes black garlic puree and regular garlic, but I didn’t taste anything about the garlic notes that made me think something was different. However, the whole thing tastes a bit too umami-y to me. (Try to say umami-y 10 times really fast.) Even the sauce’s slight sweetness was not enough to cut through that. There was also a peppery warmth that built up, but it stayed quite mellow.

McDonald’s Special Grade Garlic Sauce is okay enough that if I had to eat one of Sukuna’s fingers (or anyone’s), and if it was my only option, I’d be fine with using it. But I won’t be getting it again with my McNuggets.

Purchased Price: FREE (comes with order of McNuggets)
Rating: 5 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: 45 calories. No other nutritional information is available on McDonald’s website.

If you want a fast food crispy chicken sandwich with Cajun flavors, you can, of course, get one at Popeyes. But you can now get one at McDonald’s for a limited time because it has rolled out a new Bacon Cajun Ranch McCrispy.

McDonald’s newest chicken sandwich features a crispy chicken fillet, crinkle cut pickles, three half strips of applewood-smoked bacon, and a Cajun ranch sauce on a potato roll. There’s also a deluxe version that includes lettuce and tomatoes. It’s a slight variation of last year’s limited time only McCrispy offering: the Bacon Ranch McCrispy.

The headlining ingredient, the creamy Cajun ranch sauce, is more spicy than flavorful, but that heat ain’t ragin’. I’d put it at a three on my personal 10-point spicy scale, which is below the Spicy McCrispy. Though the sauce is applied to both buns, I wish the spices used had a bit more punch because the Cajun flavors aren’t too noticeable when eating the sandwich as a whole, especially when I get a bite of the crinkle cut pickles. After trying the sauce on its own, I thought it might’ve been better as a fry or McNuggets dipping sauce instead of a sandwich condiment.

As for the other ingredients, if you’ve had a McCrispy, you know what to expect. The chicken fillet has a pleasant thickness, and most of the chicken’s crispiness is at the edges. The crinkle cut pickles have a tasty tang, and the potato roll adds some sweetness. I’m also glad this sandwich includes bacon, not only because of its salty and meaty flavor but also because its addition allows some rhyming in the menu item’s name. We need more rhyming in product names.

McDonald’s Bacon Cajun Ranch McCrispy is a somewhat satisfying twist on the original premium chicken sandwich, although now that I think about it, more specifically, the Spicy McCrispy. While it may not outshine Popeyes’ chicken sandwich, the addition of bacon and the new sauce does help elevate it to a tastier option than the original McCrispy.

Purchased Price: $7.59*
Rating: 7 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: 630 calories, 33 grams of fat, 7 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat, 85 milligrams of cholesterol, 1650 milligrams of sodium, 49 grams of carbohydrates, 2 grams of fiber, 11 grams of sugar, and 33 grams of protein.

*Because I live on a rock in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, things are a bit pricier here. You’ll probably pay less than I did.

What is WcDonald’s?

Well, in Japan, it’s Wakudonarudo, and it’s been a part of anime and manga culture for many years to, I imagine, skirt trademark laws. But McDonald’s decided to transport all of us to the WcDonald’s universe by offering the Savory Chili WcDonald’s Sauce.

Here’s what McDonald’s had to say about it:

So savory and bold! The new Savory Chili WcDonald’s Sauce is a delicious, sticky sauce straight from the WcDonald’s universe. It gets its unique characteristics from the unmistakable aroma and fiery warmth of ginger, lingering umami from garlic and soy sauce with a little punch of heat from chili flakes. It’s the perfect dipping sauce for a 10 piece Chicken McNuggets and our World Famous Fries.

While I didn’t try it with McDonald’s fries, I dunked six McNuggets into it and it is definitely not wiggity wiggity waku, I mean, wack. While I enjoyed it and would probably get it again, something about it bothered my taste buds.

The ginger and soy sauce stood out the most, with hints of garlic. All those flavors were nice, but by the fourth or fifth McNugget, it started to get too salty, which I imagine was caused by the soy sauce and miso. It’s similar to when I dip my sushi into soy sauce for too long, creating a salty bite that takes away from the flavors that should stand out. Even the sauce’s sweetness didn’t help temper the saltiness enough. As for its heat, it didn’t kick my taste buds as hard as last year’s Sweet & Spicy Jam or Mambo Sauce, but it was significantly hotter than my usual Hot Mustard. Although, it wasn’t even spicy enough to make me forget about the saltiness.

Along with the sauce, McDonald’s also created a manga surrounding this new sauce that you can read by scanning the QR code on specially marked bags or in the photo above.

This Savory Chili WcDonald’s Sauce is good enough that I see myself getting it again while it’s still around. The flavors are there, but I thought its saltiness brought it down. Maybe folks like it salty in the WcDonald’s universe.

Purchased Price: $4.69 for 6-piece McNuggets
Rating: 6 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: (1 container) 50 calories, 0 grams of fat, 0 milligrams of cholesterol, 260 milligrams of sodium, 11 grams of carbohydrates, 9 grams of sugar (including 9 grams of added sugar), and 0 grams of protein.

McDonald’s Hot Mustard is my default sauce. I’ve dipped my Chicken McNuggets in them for the past, um, I can’t remember how long. It’s extremely rare for me to deviate from that, although there was that brief dark moment when McDonald’s discontinued it and brought it back. My sauce swaying also happens when the Golden Arches offers new dips. The latest are Sweet & Spicy Jam and Mambo.

According to McDonald’s, the Sweet & Spicy Jam is a jammy red pepper sauce with a Szechuan peppercorn kick and extra heat from cayenne pepper, and finished with apple cider vinegar. It’s McDonald’s first-ever breakfast-inspired dipping sauce in the US. While the chain recommends trying it with various breakfast menu items, it’s available all day. Mambo is a tomato-based, sweet, spicy, and vinegary. It’s inspired by the popular condiment found at many Washington DC restaurants.

The first thought that came to mind after trying the Sweet & Spicy Jam was Panda Express, probably because of the Szechuan peppercorns. And at the same time, I thought it tasted like a spicier version of something else McDonald’s has offered. It’s sweet, peppery, spicy, and a little something else. It warmed the back of my mouth but didn’t become anything more than mild. After scraping whatever I could from the container with a rigid French fry, proving that I enjoyed it, I thought about it and realized it’s like a spicy sweet & sour sauce.

As for the Mambo Sauce, I should start with a full disclosure: This is my first experience with it (it’s also known as mumbo sauce) since I live on the opposite side of the country from where it’s famous. But Mambo is instantly the most fun Chicken McNuggets sauce name to say. It’s much spicier than the Sweet & Spicy Jam and has a slight fruitiness that I think might be pineapple. But it tastes like a sweet and peppery barbecue sauce that happens to make my head sweat a little.

I wanted to end this review by typing that the Sweet & Spicy Jam is my new jam, but I’d be lying because Hot Mustard is still my jam, er, mustard. Both new sauces are tasty takes on the pairing of sweet and spicy, and I enjoyed them equally. They’re definitely worth a try if you enjoy that flavor combo.

Purchased Price: Comes with 10-piece Chicken McNuggets
Rating: 8 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: Sweet & Spicy Jam – 80 calories. Mambo Sauce – 60 calories. No other information is available on McDonald’s website.