Harry Kersh: From a gravy pizza to a pint of frosting,
we wanted to find out all the differences
between seasonal fast-food menus
in the UK and the US.
This is "Food Wars."
Let's start with McDonald's.
Now, they've gone quite big
and added five seasonal items to their menu.
Joe Avella: McDonald's in the US only has two menu items,
and actually one of them isn't very festive.
This thing is itching me and making a lot of noise,
so I'm taking it off.
Santa Claus, you got it.
In the US, McDonald's has
the holiday pie and the McRib.
Harry: Now, let's start with what, for me,
is probably the main event,
which is this: the double Big Mac.
Now, I have a couple of reservations about this burger.
No. 1, I'm not sure what makes it Christmassy,
and No. 2, I'm not sure
you can really call it a double Big Mac
unless it is actually double the weight and size
of a regular Big Mac.
I mean, it is kinda tall.
About 275.
So, it's actually only a 30% increase
if you get the double Big Mac,
which, as I suspected, is far from doubling it.
Joe: Harry, I feel you on that double Big Mac,
so I'm gonna make one of my own
and see exactly what you're working with over there.
One piece of bread in the middle.
The middle piece of bread's always really strange.
I mean, this is looking,
this is actually looking pretty good, right?
Let's see how much it weighs!
280 grams?
Harry: McDonald's, I'm a bit disappointed,
'cause you've advertised this as a double Big Mac,
but you've only given us 30% more.
So what we're going to do now
is make our own double Big Mac, the official way.
Ta-da.
Joe: [mumbling]
That's a big mouthful.
Harry: Now, the other seasonal sandwich item
on the McDonald's menu is this,
the jerk chicken sandwich.
Now, in this burger, you'll find two chicken strips,
some bacon, some cheese, some lettuce,
some onions, and a spicy jerk sauce.
Next up, we have these things,
which are cheese melt dippers.
These come in portions of four
or as a share box of 12,
and it's basically like a breaded and fried bite
of Camembert cheese.
On the dessert menu, we have a Celebrations McFlurry,
which is a nod to Britain's obsession
with chocolate selection boxes around Christmastime.
Now, Celebrations is Mars' addition to this,
and what they have in here
is Galaxy, Twix, Mars,
Snickers, and Maltesers.
Joe: Uh, of those candy bars that you mentioned,
I've heard of two of them.
One of them was Twix, but besides that,
I'm not familiar with a lot of those candy bars,
so maybe we should do a "Food Wars" candy bars episode.
Harry: Finally, McDonald's offers a salted caramel latte.
One thing to note is that the anticaking agent
used in the caramel sugar for this latte
is calcium silicate.
Now, this is fairly commonly used in food.
However, it's also one of the most popular
fireproofing materials,
and it's also used to neutralize acids
that leak out of mines.
Joe: The McRib. I have no idea why the McRib
is during this holiday season at McDonald's.
I think what they do with the McRib
is they pretty much liquefy the meat,
then pour it into a rib-shaped mold.
Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Mm.
Harry: KFC in the UK only has one
exclusive seasonal menu item, and it is this.
This is the gravy burger box meal.
This is a combo meal in which you get
a regular portion of fries,
a single chicken fillet, some gravy,
gravynaise, which is a new addition to the menu
which is a kind of gravy and mayo combination,
and then the main event is the burger.
So what they've done here is taken a fillet burger,
put some cheese on it,
and then on top of it, it's got a hash brown.
They've kind of put, like, a divot in it.
And the idea is that you pour the gravy straight on that,
and it kind of collects it in a pool.
In this, there are 1,215 calories,
which is quite a lot,
and I'm not sure how this is the case,
but this is actually more calories
than a 14-piece bargain bucket.
Joe: I love that reservoir. That's such a good idea.
That innovation, is that only in the UK?
That's fantastic.
Here in the US, our KFC actually doesn't have
any exclusive menu items.
We do, however, have this,
an exclusive KFC festive bowl.
My boy Colonel's wearing a hat similar to mine.
What else is on here?
Cursive fonts, that's holiday.
Got the ornaments.
But that's it.
Oh, wait, I almost forgot.
Bam!
Look at this thing! You know what this is?
Do you guys know what this is? Look at this.
So, this yule log smells exa--
get this lame-ass bucket out of my way.
This smells exactly like KFC fried chicken.
Do you put it in the fire with the paper?
How does this work?
[sniffing]
No, it doesn't...
I think the burning of it
is crucial for it to smell.
It doesn't smell like...
oh, hang on.
Yeah, it doesn't...
OK, so it doesn't smell like fried chicken now,
but I'm gonna take this home,
I'm gonna throw it on my grill, I'm gonna light it up.
My whole neighborhood is gonna smell
like fried chicken thanks to me.
That's gonna be my holiday gift to my neighborhood.
The gift of things smelling like things.
Harry: Now, if there's one chain you can count on
to go all out for the holidays, it's Starbucks.
Let's take a look at some of their exclusive menu items,
starting with the drinks.
Now, Starbucks UK has added four drinks
to its seasonal menu, and we'll start on this side.
This is a truffle deluxe hot chocolate.
This is a gingerbread latte,
which is festive for obvious reasons.
This is an eggnog latte.
Now, I've never actually tried eggnog.
And then finally we have a toffee nut latte.
Again, not hugely sure how this is festive,
but I like toffee, I like nuts,
sounds like my kind of drink.
Ooh.
Joe: See, the thing about eggnog is
every year I look forward to the holiday season
when I finally get my hands on some 'nog.
And then, like clockwork, I have, like, a couple sips,
and then I realize why I didn't think of eggnog
for the past 11 months,
and I feel like this year will be no different.
Mm.
I'm a 'nog head. I love eggnog.
Mm.
And two sips is all I can handle.
Pour the rest of that in the toilet.
These are the four exclusive Starbucks holiday drinks
that we did get our hands on.
They didn't label them,
so I'm gonna find out in real time what they are.
It's like smelling the cork. Just...[sniffs]
I'm pretty sure this is the toasted hot chocolate.
And it's just OK.
This is the -- ooh, they labeled it --
the peppermint mocha Frappuccino.
Oh, it's got bits of stuff in it.
[sniffing]
Ugh!
Toothpastey.
That's what it tastes like when,
you know when you brush your teeth
and then you drink a milkshake?
That's exactly what it tastes like.
[sniffing]
This last one, oh, God.
I know which one this one is.
This is a caramel brûlée latte.
The caramel stuff at Starbucks is all terrible.
Nope.
And this is no different.
Harry: Now, we love Christmas sandwiches in the UK.
A lot of the supermarket chains
will bring them out around Christmastime,
and Starbucks is getting in on the act
with quite a few of its own offerings.
Let's start with this one.
This is the 'Tis the Season turkey sandwich.
This is the Very Merry Vegan wrap.
I love the festive colors they've got going on here.
Great addition.
Now, this one might provoke some philosophical questions
as to what constitutes a sandwich,
but this is a celebration salmon and cream cheese croissant.
This is the Turkey Festive Feast panini,
all the good stuff, no vegetables, fantastic.
Now, the one I'm probably most excited to try is this one.
It's The One With the Gravy Layer sandwich.
Now, if you're a fan of the show "Friends,"
you might recognize this as a Moist Maker.
As you can probably tell
by the difficulty I'm having swallowing this,
gotta say I'm a little disappointed.
The whole point of the "Friends" sandwich
is to add a gravy layer in the middle
that made it super moist.
They've not really done that with this one.
It's just three layers of bread.
The ratios are all off.
Joe: Over here is a cranberry bliss bar.
You can get a whole tray of the cranberry bliss bar.
The toasted ham and Swiss sandwich,
and of course egg.
This handsome gentleman right here,
you got yourself a snowman-shaped cookie.
It's Frosty.
And if you want just the head,
booyah,
a decapitated Frosty head on a stick.
Sending a message to the rest of the snowmen.
Stay in line. Stay in line.
Salted peppermint bark.
All right? Producer: Classic.
Joe: Yeah, classic. People seem to like these.
Harry: And then, to round out the Christmas menu
from Starbucks, we have a bunch of festive baked goods.
We'll start on this side,
with a Cranmerry cheesecake muffin.
Bad pun. Come on, guys.
Now, I'm not sure if mince pies are a thing
outside of the UK,
or at least to the degree they are inside the UK,
but basically it's made with mincemeat,
which is not as bad as it sounds.
It's like baked fruits that are kind of stewed a bit.
We have this adorable little guy,
who's called South Pole Sam.
I love him. He is my son.
Sea-salted caramel swirl,
which, I don't know when salted caramel became festive.
Then we have this guy, the Christmas tree brownie.
And then finally we have this thing,
which is a raspberry and pistachio linzer cookie.
It looks like a fancy Jammie Dodger.
Joe: I want to take this brief moment
to talk about that snowman-head cake pop
you saw only a moment ago.
Now, I know that little guy is cute
and you wanna snack on it this holiday season.
I would be remissed if I didn't share with you
the ingredients list.
OK. Ingredients.
The cake, which has sugar,
enriched wheat flour, which is wheat flour,
malted barley flour, niacin,
reduced iron, thiamine mononitrates,
riboflavin, folic acid...
diglycerides, polysorbate 60, citric acid,
BHT antioxidant, can we bookmark that one?
Thank you.
Maltodextrin, annatto color extract,
and potassium hydrates!
You know the one ingredient that I bookmarked
five minutes ago, BHT?
That is butylated hydroxytoluene.
I think that's how that's pronounced.
I'm pretty sure that's how that's pronounced.
If I had to say,
it's buto-hauled hydro-deloc-terloserin.
Studies have suggested that BHT,
along with similar chemical, BHA,
increase the risk of cancer in animals.
Woof, so even though that cake pop
with the little Frosty snowman hat on it
looks cute and fun and your kids want to have it,
you'd be better off skipping the cake pop
and just feeding them the stick.
Harry: Now let's look at some of the best of the rest,
starting with Pizza Hut.
What Pizza Hut have done
is take some classic UK Christmas dinner ingredients
and put them onto a pizza.
So, we've gone for the classic base,
and then on top of that,
we have a red wine gravy instead of pizza sauce.
We have some cheese, some bacon, some stuffing,
and some rotisserie chicken.
The red wine base does actually contain alcohol,
so there is some real red wine in there.
I'm not sure how many of these
you'd have to eat to get drunk.
I think the grease would probably kill you
before alcohol poisoning did.
Joe: I don't know what it is about that pizza,
but it's incredibly depressing.
Something about all the things
that should be at this full family Christmas feast
all on one pizza, let's be honest,
for some guy by himself, it's a bummer.
I imagine a guy eating that pizza alone in his apartment,
one light bulb just swinging above his head,
just, like, staring out into the distance,
just no one in his life.
I don't know why I'm projecting
such sadness on this pizza,
but that is a very depressing pizza.
Chick-fil-A in the US has two exclusive holiday menu items,
a soup, their chicken tortilla soup,
and a shake, a peppermint chip shake.
At first glance, kinda yuck.
Smells all right,
and it comes with these
crispy seasonal tortilla strips.
[sighs]
All right, I'll try it. For you guys.
Happy holidays.
Hmm.
Surprisingly not bad.
That's not bad at all.
Harry: Burger King in the UK
is getting involved with their own addition,
which is the festive barbecue king.
However, we have a problem.
Now, the one thing that was supposed
to make this burger festive
is the fact that it contains five onion rings,
which symbolize five gold rings from the Christmas song.
However, when ours arrived, what did we find?
We found one, two, three,
and maybe a half onion rings.
That is not the song, Burger King.
This is no longer a festive burger.
You failed.
Joe: Dunkin' Donuts in the US does have
quite a few promotional products.
Four seasonal drinks,
seasonal sandwich,
and these very fun and seasonal doughnuts.
Check those out. Look how fun those are.
For breakfast sandwiches,
Dunkin' Donuts has this,
their sourdough breakfast sandwich.
And, just as advertised,
two big pieces of sourdough bread,
eggs, bacon, cheese.
Look at the size of this thing.
Yeah, dude.
So, we have the signature peppermint mocha latte.
This is the sugarplum, I think, macchiato?
The chai latte with oat milk.
Don't know why that's so seasonal.
And the gingerbread latte.
Woof! Oh, my God!
That tastes like cough syrup.
No, Dunkin' Donuts. No to this.
Get that off of your menu immediately.
Bleh.
[coughs]
Like I said, there's three drinks.
Now I know why I've never seen or heard
of the sugarplum IRL till today.
'Cause if that's what they taste like,
they can stay in a Dickens carol.