McDonald's always seems to be on top of its game. However, when looking at more Bizarre
McDonald's Menu Items That Disappeared, maybe that’s not always the case.
Orange Hi-C
McDonald's has said goodbye to a lot of menu items over the years either because of poor
sales or the sudden realization that an idea was bad. However, when it comes to Orange
Hi-C Lavaburst, it left the menu to make room for another drink, and its departure left
a sudden void that needed to be filled. It's still considered one of the biggest fast-food
heartbreaks of all time. Hi-C Orange had a fruity flavor and was extremely popular,
but the only downside was the scary amount of sugar it contained. In only one small 6.75
ounce cup, there's a whopping six teaspoons of sugar - which is more sugar than in a regular
Coke. Orange Hi-C was the drink of choice for every kid - and adult - pulling up to
a McDonald's. That was until it got suddenly discontinued in 2017 to supposedly make room
for TropicBerry Sprite. For years, people have been longing for this nostalgia-fuelled
beverage to come back despite its obvious problematic health properties, even starting
online petitions. Well, as of February 2021, prayers have been answered as McDonald's announced
the return of the beloved drink in participating locations.
Superhero Burger
Have you ever felt like one single burger from McDonald's could save your entire day?
Like, if you simply had a giant sized burger, you could turn your whole day around? Well,
in 1995, McD's released a burger that was rightfully named; the Superhero Burger. It's
a bird! It's a plane! No, it's the Superhero Burger! The burger had many aliases, depending
on where you lived, like the Michael Dean Perry burger if you were in Cleveland or the Rory
Sparrow burger in Sacramento. It was also known as the "Triple-Double Burger" because
it contained all the regular burger fixings, like lettuce, tomato, onions, and mayonnaise
along with three patties and two slices of cheese - yellow and white - served on a long
"superhero bun," whatever that means. This beast received a lot of hype prior to its
release, mostly because it was coordinated with the release of Batman Forever. However,
despite the promising sales expectations, it wasn't as successful as McDonald's had
hoped. Sure, the burger gathered a small fanbase, but it wasn't big enough to support its permanent
place on the menu. Not a lot of people remember this movie tie-in item, but those who do mostly
have strong feelings about the Superhero burger. So much so that many people online have tried
to recreate the triple-double burger, but nothing could ever beat the real thing. Who
knows, maybe when the new Batman movie is released, McD's will listen to its fans and
bring it back?
Take a quick second to show us some love and hit that like button. Thanks so much.
Spanish Omelette Bagel
Not too long after it started, McDonald's stopped offering the all-day breakfast because
- well, you know…2020. People had waited so long to be able to eat an egg McMuffin
at any hour of the day, and alas, that privilege was taken away. But, even before this whole
cancellation shenanigans happened, McDonald's had already begun its heartless slashing of
breakfast items from its menu - and the Spanish Omelette Bagel was one of the unfortunate
victims. McDonald's has always been a go-to destination for fast-food breakfast, and in
the early 2000s, McD's put their spin on a classic Spanish Omelette Bagel. With very
simple ingredients; a bagel, ham, cheese, egg, and spices, it looked like it could've
had a lot of success. Who doesn't like Spanish omelettes, anyway? Well, it turns out, people
didn't want to go to McDonald's to get an omelet of any kind, and the item eventually
faded due to its lack of popularity after a very short run. This news saddened many
Spanish omelette bagel enthusiasts, and the true fans of this not-so-well-known menu item
have tried to spread their love for it by sharing copycat recipes online, which you
can easily find today. Since McD's has discontinued the bagels because of the pandemic, the return
of the Spanish Omelette Bagel is very unlikely, at least for now, but you never know what
the future holds.
The McJordan
The Travis Scott meal that was offered at McDonald's for a couple of weeks quickly became
the talk of the town and basically took over the Internet. It got so popular McDonald's
even ran out of ingredients and sold out in some locations. What a lot of people don't
know, however, is that it wasn't the first time the Golden Arches named one of its meals
after someone famous. About 30 years ago, another sandwich was named after a legend,
this time, a legend from the sports world. Legendary basketball player Michael Jordan endorsed
the McJordan in 1992 and it became the first fast-food sandwich to be named after a human
being. Also known as the Big 33, this limited-edition sandwich was a cheeseburger that featured
all of Jordan's favorite ingredients; smoked bacon, cheese, onions, mustard, pickles, and
a tangy barbecue sauce. Only sold regionally, the McJordan was obviously very popular among
Chicago Bulls fans - as Jordan's popularity hit a fever pitch in the early ’90s - but also
among regular folk who fell in love with the tasty barbecue sauce. So in love, in fact,
that in 2012, an expired gallon-sized bottle of the sandwich’s signature barbecue sauce
sold in an eBay auction for over $10,000 dollars. It must be one heck of a delicious sauce if
it went for that high of a price.
Salads
Let's start by clearing something up; everybody knows that when you pull up at a McDonald's,
it's not to order a healthy meal. It's the complete opposite, really. Everybody knows
this, including McDonald's, and yet, they still tried to appeal to the more "health-conscious"
people of this world and started selling salads. In theory, it wouldn't have been such a bad
idea, had it been done correctly. You know, if the salad had actually been healthy. Instead,
they were the complete opposite of healthy. It might be a little hard to believe that
something with such nutritious notoriety could be so far from its reputation, and yet, McDonald's
excelled in that department. Some salads contained more salt, more fat, and more calories than
a Big Mac. Plus, forget the health aspects of salads; in July 2018, more than 500 people
in 15 states got sick with cyclosporiasis, and some were hospitalized when an outbreak
of foodborne illness was linked to the salads sold at McDonalds's. Yikes. Despite this rather
unfortunate incident, the salads stayed on the menu until 2020, when the chain had to
downsize its menu because of the pandemic, wherein the salads got chopped. There's no
telling if they will make a comeback or not. The moral of the story is this; there is no such
thing as "healthy fast-food." There's only "feel less guilty because it's green" fast-food.
Chicken Selects
At McDonald's, aside from the French fries and Big Macs, the Chicken McNuggets are probably
the most iconic and most popular item on the menu. First sold at the chain in the early
1980s, the Chicken McNuggets have come a long way and rightfully earned their place of honor.
When McDonald's saw just how successful these little chicken delights were, they decided
to take things further and try out a new, fancier version, the Chicken Selects. They were
bigger and looked different, kind of like chicken tenders. There was just something
about them that made you feel a little more grown-up when you ordered them. Chicken Selects
were heavily advertised and were said to be made with "premium-quality, 100 percent white
chicken breast meat.” At first, they seemed to do pretty well. After only two years, McD's
had already sold an impressive amount of Chicken Selects and it became a highly celebrated
menu item. However, as years passed and new items entered the game, the popularity of
Chicken Selects started to die down a bit, with countless chicken strips going to waste,
just sitting in the warming trays for hours. So, in 2015, they were taken off the menu. Since
then, they’ve been brought back for limited-time-only runs but never stuck around for the long haul.
The Big ‘N Tasty
The ongoing animosity and competition between McDonald's and Burger King didn't start yesterday.
The two chains have been competing against each other for what feels like ages. From
snarky, dissing commercials to straight-up menu item battles, we have seen it all from
the frenemies. Back in 1997, McDonald's decided it was time to give Burger King a run for
its money and go up against the Whopper with the Big'N Tasty. It featured a seasoned quarter-pound
beef patty with regular burger fixings such as onions, pickles, lettuce, and the like.
However, in this case, regular fixings also meant "boring" and "already-been-seen-before"
and didn't bring any new flavors to the market. It's not that the Big 'N Tasty wasn't, well,
tasty; it just didn't have enough to differentiate it from the chain's other burger offerings,
like the Big Mac, for instance. It was overly ordinary and never really took off. Its release
also coincided with the opening of Disney’s California Adventure, so it didn't have everything
to do with the Whopper, but the resemblance was still pretty hard to ignore. It was pulled
from the Dollar Menu in 2003 before it was finally discontinued in 2011. In a way, the
Whopper was able to reclaim its "title," and the Big'N Tasty fell into oblivion. The world
of fast-food just wasn't big enough for both of these burgers.
Angus Third Pounders
Again, McDonald's was trying to seem a little fancier and promote better-quality menu items.
The Angus Third Pounders was a line of burgers made with 100% juicy Angus beef and thicker
slices of basically everything. This became the first menu item to offer full slices
of bacon, and funnily enough, it was also the chain's first new burger since the Big
N' Tasty. Introduced nationally in July 2009, you could choose between the Angus Deluxe,
the Bacon and Cheese, or the Mushroom and Swiss. McD's tried really hard to advertise
these burgers as having the best-quality beef and the "Angus trend" quickly spread to McDonald's
worldwide. Despite its seemingly successful promotion, the burger line was dropped from
the menu after a 4 year-run and a long deliberation, three months to be exact. McDonald's claims
this decision was the result of the ever-rising price of beef and the overall lack of consumer
interest. People tended to opt for lower-priced and true classics instead, like the Big Mac
or the Quarter Pounder, leaving no room for the Angus Third Pounders. It was still available
at some McDonald's overseas, but most of them have since been cut for the time being in
light of the pandemic.
The Son Of Mac
When you go to McDonald's, it's hard to go wrong with a Big Mac. You can always count
on the tastiness, famous sauce, and overall feeling of joy this one burger will bring.
Some people argue that it's too big of a sandwich, others say that it's too small, but everyone
can agree that it's delicious. For those who eat a Big Mac as an appetizer, this next item
might appear outrageous to you. The Son of Mac - or the Mac Junior - was a smaller version
of the Big Mac - a baby Big Mac, if you will. It was first introduced around 2007 and had
all the same ingredients as a Big Mac. The only difference? It had one patty instead
of two and no middle bun. The weird thing about this one was, why make it smaller and
not bigger? It seems like the way to go is up, not down! You can get Double Big Mac,
Triple Big Macs, and basically, a Big Mac with as many patties as you want, but why
would you want to get only one patty? Well, even though they're gone, you can still sort
of get a Mac Junior today, just not by name. All you have to do is order a regular cheeseburger
and replace the ketchup and mustard with lettuce and Big Mac sauce, and voila!
Super Size
Ok, so we've already established that McDonald's menu is not the most healthy to begin with.
It's no secret that eating a meal there is probably not the best idea if on a strict
diet. But, back in the day, there was a way to take things up a notch. Back then, for
little extra cost, you had the option to upgrade your fries and drink to an extra-large size
because, apparently, large was not large enough. However, following a rather disturbing documentary
called Super Size Me that came out in 2004, the option was pulled for good. In the documentary, Morgan
Spurlock wanted to try eating McDonald’s food exclusively for 30 days straight to see
the effects it would have on his mental and physical health. His only rules? Try at least
everything once and always say "yes" when he was asked if he wanted to Super Size his
meals. After the 30 days were up, the effects on his health were concerning. He had gained
over 24½ pounds, his liver turned to fat, and his cholesterol shot up 65 points. Obviously,
it had an undeniable effect on consumers’ perception of McDonald’s as well. Shortly
after, the chain removed the Super Size option from the menu, citing health reasons and streamlined
menu options.
Looking for more? Just tap or click another video. First time here? Then leave us a comment,
hit that subscribe button and ring that notification bell.