Over the years McDonald’s did some tinkering with their menu as one would do if one was
a giant fast-food chain.
Some of the tinkering was met with approval and that meant that the menu item was here
to stay.
Others, however, didn’t make it and soon disappeared from the public menu if not from
the public memory.
Fondly remembered or not, here are 10 canceled McDonald's items that people still talk about
part 3.
Jalapeño Double
The Jalapeño Double was test marketed, found to be lacking, and quickly removed from the
public menu just as fast as it had appeared.
And while the US website still has a page for the now-defunct item, there’s no image
there.
Maybe McDonald’s is so embarrassed about the Jalapeño Double that they want to erase
it from everyone’s memory.
But that’s neither fair to the sandwich nor to the customers who took to online forums
and social media asking about whatever happened to their favorite sandwich.
You see, even for its short and brief life, and despite the fact that the Jalapeño Double
was officially being test-marketed only, it had managed to create a loyal fan base.
So why, oh why, was it pulled off the menu even when it was selling like hot cakes?
Or was it?
The answer comes from deep inside the McDonald’s franchise itself.
It seems the sandwich wasn’t the success story the online ravings make it to be.
Some outlets would go whole days without selling a single sandwich.
Add to that the fact that Jalapeño doesn’t have a long shelf life, which meant that most
of the sandwiches were being thrown in the trash by the end of the day instead of landing
on paying customers’ trays, and you start to get a clear idea of why the Jalapeño Double
was an embarrassment to the company.
The McHot Dog
McDonald’s has a long history with hot dogs.
In fact, hot dogs were the backbone of the McDonald’s menu long before burgers became
the staple of the franchise.
So it’s only natural to dig out a few hot dog skeletons buried deep in the McDonald’s
closet.
And this one really rattles.
See, once the fast food giant realized that people were all about burgers and it was long
over for hot dogs, the smart executives made the switch rather quickly.
The decision not only ensured the survival of the franchise but helped make it the multi-billion
dollar global brand it is today.
However, some people were still harking back to the early beginnings of hot dogs and pickles.
And those people wanted to reintroduce hot dogs to the menu just in case the customers
were feeling just as nostalgic as the top executives of the franchise were.
Enter the McHot Dog.
The retro sandwich made its entrance with a lot of marketing fanfare in the 1980s.
And it had tried to stay true to its origins.
It was a hot dog in a bun with some mustard and ketchup.
Just the way hot dogs have been served for decades throughout the 20th century.
But either the unimaginative sandwich had failed to entice the customers or people were
too attached to burgers and weren’t willing to let go - the result was the demise of the
McHot Dog after clinging on to its place on the menu for over 10 years.
Fish McBites
For a while now McDonald’s has been seeing its sales decline or remain flat at best.
And just like every living thing, a flat line is never a good sign.
So to bring some life back to sales, the marketing folks decided to bring in the heavy guns.
And by heavy guns we mean introduce a single new item to the Happy Meal menu.
Something that hasn’t been done for a decade.
So you’d think that for 10 years they’ve been working hard on a secret menu item that
would take the fast food market by storm.
Well, it turns out that the secret weapon was the humble Fish McBites.
It coincided with Lent and cautiously McDonald’s added the new item as a seasonal side dish.
Now you might be wondering how a seasonal item would revitalize sales and ignite the
appetites of the weary customers.
And it’s a good question.
Because the answer, of course, is that it wouldn’t.
Foodies everywhere just had a lukewarm response at best to the fishy bites while the general
public just ignored it.
And since it didn’t help sales much, if at all, the item was briskly removed from
the menu and the marketing department hoped that nobody would notice.
Some people did notice though and they keep asking about the fishy nuggets from time to
time.
Because no one wants to break apart their Fillet-O-Fish into little pieces trying to
recreate the Fish McBite experience.
McRib
The McRib had two appearances on the public menu and both of them were brief.
In 1980 the pork sandwich was test-marketed.
The results were encouraging enough to make it to the official menu in 1981.
But right from the start, there was something off about it.
Maybe it was the oblong slab of pork with the barbecue sauce.
Even back in the ‘80s where appetites were easier to satisfy and customers were less
finicky, the McRib just couldn’t cut the mustard, so to speak.
As sales kept declining, the plug was pulled on the pork sandwich in 1985.
At the time it was stated that pork is just not a big hit in the US market.
Some customers expressed their dissatisfaction and demanded the return of their favorite
sandwich.
So in 1989, the McRib returned with a whole new sandwich.
Only it was just the same old slab of boneless pork smothered with barbecue sauce, onions,
and pickles stuffed in a roll.
This time it was offered as a promotion and it stayed on and off until 2005.
The McRib remains a staple of the public menu in countries like Germany where it has been
a popular item.
But in the US its journey finally came to an abrupt end after a McRib Farewell Tour.
Which is a fitting ending to a sandwich that couldn’t capture the spirit of the times.
Well, the times keep changing and the McRib does seem to make an appearance here and there
every so often, however rare.
So never give up hope, this one might just turn up again at a Big M near you - and then
disappear just as fast.
Chicken Fajita
The McDonald’s Chicken Fajita has loyal customers in the American market who still
carry fond memories about it.
Some went even so far as to start campaigns on social media to bring it back.
One such campaign, after pointing out that the item is still available in some locations
in Canada but nowhere in the US, declares that such “type of regional menu discrimination
is unfair to Americans who also deserve these ‘lighter choices’, or at least a chicken
fajita.”
And that’s the voice of fans who miss their chicken fajita so bad they can’t imagine
their life without it.
And ignoring that part about geopolitical envy since Canadians finally get to enjoy
something that’s not available in the US, we can only otherwise empathize with these
sentiments.
Another campaign on Facebook was met with the same fate.
It seems that the chicken fajita has left the US for good.
The chicken fajitas were on the dollar menu and were just as yummy as they sounded.
They contained chicken, cheese, onions, green and red bell peppers, all rolled in a flour
tortilla.
You could also request packets of Picante sauce with it and enjoy a flavorful and yummy
meal.
But for some reason, the sandwich wasn’t a huge success and around 2013 it was finally
retired to the chagrin of at least 50 signees of the petition to bring it back.
McLean Deluxe
It was the 1990s.
The ‘80s were over and simple fatty meals were a thing of the past.
Customers were starting to question what their sandwiches were stuffed with and whether it
was healthy to eat fried stuff day in day out without having their hearts pay the price.
McDonald’s couldn’t ignore the rising murmurs of discontent any longer, what with
the declining sales and the other fast food chains offering healthy alternatives.
So McDonald’s came up with their own version of healthy sandwiches.
The McLean.
Touted as having 91% less fat than a normal sandwich.
And that doesn’t sound bad at all.
For years, having a burger with so little fat was something foodies only had in their
dreams.
But now it was a reality at long last.
And the secret?
Well, you’d better not ask.
Because you might not like the answer.
But if you must know then it’s the seaweed which makes the burger leaner and less fatty.
Without fat how would you make the burger tasty?
Well, beef flavors were used to make the sandwich more appealing.
As you can imagine a lot of fiddling went on behind the scenes and the end product wasn’t
as tasty as anybody had hoped, including the health conscious advocates.
Which is why after one year, the whole idea was buried deep in the basement never to be
talked about again.
Hot & Spicy McChicken
The idea behind the Hot & Spicy McChicken was simple.
Get a toasted wheat bun, slice it open and stuff it with a breaded chicken patty, some
lettuce, and mayonnaise.
Voila.
Simple and tasty with a dash of fresh veggies to satisfy those people worried about eating
fried chicken every day.
What could go wrong?
Well, a lot actually.
Lack of flavors and the chicken patty was a little dry.
So after disappointing sales, it was pulled off.
The Hot & Spicy McChicken made its debut in January 2006, but a short six months later,
because of slow sales, it was discontinued.
The Hot & Spicy McChicken made a brief comeback in 2013 when McDonald's decided to add the
sandwich to what was then their Dollar Menu.
This time the honeymoon lasted a full eight months before the item was pulled again.
While the Hot & Spicy McChicken was still available in some southern McDonald’s locations,
it vanished for good in June 2015, never to be heard from again…that is until Mickey
D’s decides to give it a try one more time.
McDonald’s Brownie Melts
A blast from the not-so-distant past.
Brownie Melts were a delicious treat that both children and adults adored.
Now to be fair we need to add hastily that they were a bit of an acquired taste.
They were brownies dunked in hot chocolate and drizzled with icing.
Some people swore by them while others thought they were too sweet and messy.
Well, to each their own, we say.
But the fact remains that they were quite popular for some time on the menu until McDonald’s
decided they weren’t going to sell them anymore.
That was in 2010.
But you could tell the decision created seismic shifts in the culinary world as customers
looked around frantically for something to fill the sugary void in their diet.
McPhilly Cheesesteak
The Philly Cheesesteak is a popular sandwich, so when McDonald’s decided to “borrow”
the concept and create its own fast food version, fans of the restaurant were quite excited.
Only, as we have seen over and over again, that not all good ideas translate into compelling
products.
In fact, all the items on this list prove that you can’t trust a concept until millions
of customers have come back to buy it.
McDonald’s found that out the hard way.
The outcry of the customers could be heard in almost every outlet where the bad copy
of the original thing was sold.
People called it every name they could think of.
And they had every right to be disappointed.
The McPhilly Cheesesteak was nothing like the original one.
It was messy, and pricey too.
It still had a few things going for it, like how it had fewer calories than the Big Mac.
But that didn’t save its fall from grace and like many other items on this list, it
was swiftly swept under the rug and never mentioned in the company’s meeting rooms
ever again.
Cheesy Bacon Fries
Up until recently, if you landed on the McDonald’s US website that used to rave about cheesy
bacon fries, you would have seen a surprising message asking, “How did you get here?”
While the McDonald’s Chessy Bacon Fries had vanished from the menu, it seems this
disappearing act is back for at least one last curtain call.
While Cheesy Bacon Fries used to be a regular thing, and they are still served in several
countries across the world, the fact that McDonald’s had removed the item from their
menu without even an explanation tells us that the cheesy thing wasn’t the success
it originally hoped to be.
Which is fine.
We get it.
These things happen and you can’t always expect your food experts toiling away in the
bowels of your food labs to churn out one culinary hit after another.
There’s bound to be some duds.
But never one to give up, it looks like Mickey D’s are trying again with this new limited
US release.
A major business publication reviewed McDonald’s cheesy bacon fries and came to the conclusion
that it was a “gross, mucky mess of gobbed cheese.”
That’s kind of harsh though.
Considering that you’re getting three of the most popular fast food ingredients in
one nifty box.
To McDonald’s credit, they never intended the item as a side dish.
It was originally conceived and marketed as a snack.
Something to munch on when the afternoon hunger hit.
But somewhere along the way between the drawing table and the drive-thru window, something
went wrong.
You could blame it on the paper box that doesn’t do a good job of keeping the cheese from creating
a surrealist painting all over the snack.
Whatever the reason, it seems all that cheese-bacon-fries goodness from McDonald’s wasn’t meant
to be.
Or was it?
Wendy’s has their own take on this idea, the Baconator fries, and they seem to be doing
well!
So it looks like McDonald’s are giving these fries another chance.
But get em while you can because chances are they will be gone without warning at any time.
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