What surprises lurk within the vanilla ice cream at Sonic Drive-In?
If you have certain common food allergies, what precautions should you be sure to take?
Keep watching for tips to follow on your next trip to Sonic.
The Sonic Blast is one of the chain's most beloved menu items.
It's ice cream swirled with a range of toppings and add-ins like candy.
If you've never had one, just think of them as essentially Sonic's version of a Dairy
Queen Blizzard.
They can be pretty delicious, but alas, it's not uncommon for diners to find some unusual
items in their Sonic Blasts.
As one person revealed on Reddit,
"[I] started eating it, and found like a little shred of plastic in my mouth after taking
a bite (like, just a little plastic fiber).
No matter, I [...] just keep on eating, only to realize that I'm four bites in and EVERY
single bite has had multiple plastic strips in it."
Sonic employees came to this Redditor's rescue to explain what exactly was going on.
Apparently, according to the employees, all those ingredients crammed into the ice cream
can make a Sonic Blast a bit difficult to mix up.
The result is a blender working extra hard to blend everything, and sometimes that means
the Blast cup is damaged in the process.
Unfortunately, in many cases the employees just dump the mixture into a new cup before
it gets to you, leaving remnants of the old, damaged cup in the mixture, whether it be
paper or plastic.
Sonic's ice cream problems go beyond the Blast and its plethora of paper and plastic bits.
Employees have also revealed that the vanilla ice cream is pretty suspicious all on its
own.
So if you're particularly conscious about food safety and kitchen cleanliness, you may
just want to opt for a different Sonic dessert the next time you stop by.
The chain did make a big change to "real" ice cream in 2010, after years of using a
product that was not legally considered ice cream, although they could get away with calling
it "soft serve."
But the legitimate version still isn't particularly ideal either.
The fact that they made the change didn't matter to one Sonic employee who took to Reddit
in 2016 and called the vanilla ice cream "nasty."
So what exactly was the problem?
As the employee put it:
"We use bags of milk that we pour in this machine that then turns it into soft serve.
But I worked at one location that just about never cleaned the machine out.
We added new milk into the old milk over and over without first dumping the old milk out.
At the end of the summer, we found mold and a dead fly in the milk tray."
Nasty indeed.
"Miss Jackson if you're nasty."
If you're someone with food allergies, you're surely used to being careful whenever you
dine out, and you'll definitely want to be careful if you head to Sonic.
As one of the chain's employee's revealed on Reddit,
"If you're allergic to any kinds of foods be [wary].
Onions are in the same dressing station as the rest of the condiments and cross contamination
is not our problem."
This is unfortunate, as intolerance to onions or allium plants in general, including garlic,
leeks, chives, and scallions, is a growing issue for many diners.
But is it, as the employee claims, not really Sonic's problem?
According to a Healthworks Collective article, a restaurant like Sonic would only be liable
for an allergic reaction if it was, quote, "acting negligently."
This could include ignoring expressed concerns on the part of the diner, not taking precautions
against common allergens, or not providing a warning if they're unable to meet those precautions.
Perhaps even more concerning than the onions are Sonic's milkshakes, if you happen to have
a peanut allergy.
The same employee who warned about the condiment station also found fault with the frozen treats
by warning,
"The same goes for peanuts with the shakes."
This could be a much bigger deal for some people.
As noted by Popular Science in a 2017 article, the growing sensitivity to onions and other
allium plants can result in unpleasant gastrointestinal symptoms.
But anyone familiar with a peanut allergy knows that exposure, even in the smallest
amounts, can sometimes lead to death.
According to Health.com, peanut allergies are the most widespread of all food allergies
in the United States.
One doctor who was quoted in that article even called the growth of peanut allergies
an "epidemic," as it affects 1 in 70 children.
But unfortunately, even if you do experience some sort of allergic reaction to peanuts
at Sonic, it's unlikely that you could take any legal action.
That's because on the chain's website is the following warning:
"Blended/mixed drinks and frozen desserts may come in contact with milk, egg, soy, wheat,
gluten, peanuts, and tree nuts."
Thus, the chain is essentially in the legal clear, so remain vigilant if you or anyone
you know has a peanut allergy.
If you're watching your waistline, you may just want to steer clear of Sonic's Super
Sonic Bacon Double Cheeseburger with mayonnaise.
It's pretty much the unhealthiest item you can order there.
It's packed with flavor, sure, but it's also packed with calories and sodium.
In fact, it's the highest-calorie item on the entire Sonic menu, unless you're planning
on taking out a family-size serving of chicken wings all on your own.
According to the FDA, depending on your gender, age, and amount of regular activity, this
burger could account for more than half of your daily recommended caloric intake.
It's not exactly an exaggeration to say that the Super Sonic Bacon Double Cheeseburger
with mayo is definitely not the most heart-healthy option at your disposal.
At this point, you may be thinking that you'll go ahead and just avoid the cheeseburgers,
since they're high in calories and saturated fat, and instead opt for something a little
bit healthier like chicken.
You probably figure that poultry is usually a safe bet health-wise, after all.
[Cut to: https://www.ispot.tv/ad/7f48/sonic-drive-in-popcorn-chicken-which-came-first 0:05-0:07 "What came first: the popcorn or
the chicken?"]
Unfortunately, what you save in calories, you pay for in sodium.
A large serving of the jumbo popcorn chicken contains more sodium than any other item on
the Sonic menu.
[Cut to: https://youtu.be/YwG4F-16Tno?t=44 0:44-0:45 "Houston, we have a problem."]
Depending on your health goals, you might actually be better off opting for the higher-calorie
cheeseburgers over the popcorn chicken.
One of the largest appeals of fast food is that it's, well, fast.
So if you're in a tremendous hurry the next time you stop by Sonic, you might just want
to skip the boneless chicken wings, at least according to one of the chain's skating carhops,
who wrote on Quora,
"Wings usually take 6–9 minutes to cook depending on the thickness of the wings, the
number being cooked at once, and the fryer temperature.
They aren't sold with consistency enough [to] precook any.
So 9 times out of 10, if you come after 6 p.m. you'll be waiting for wings."
On one hand, this could actually be a good thing.
If this employee is correct and Sonic's boneless wings aren't pre-cooked, you're guaranteed
fresh wings every single time.
But, of course, if you're in a rush, this could very well be a problem, as you probably
don't have ten minutes to spare after placing your order.
"These wings are pretty great."
"Yeah!"
"What is that?"
"Oh, it's a wing ring!"
"What's a wing ring?"
"I ask it what kind of rings I should have and it tells me."
Sonic is one of the only fast food restaurants where you can order tater tots.
And thankfully, those tots are one of the items that this chain actually pulls off really,
really well.
Whether you order them plain and salted, smothered in cheese, or topped with chili, Sonic's tots
are reliably crispy, hot, and just downright tasty.
So with this in mind, why in the world would you go to Sonic and order the french fries
instead?
To reiterate, the tater tots are widely considered to be the superior option.
As one reviewer for The Buffalo News put it in a 2015 article,
"If nothing you've read thus far is bringing you to Sonic, the tater tots should do the
trick.
[...] [They're] crunchy, warm, and evenly cooked inside.
[...] Someone is bound to toss a few of these in a volcano and create a religion surprisingly
popular among Hollywood celebrities.
Put them in your face or risk dying without ever seeing the light."
In contrast, another reviewer on FranchiseChatter.com laid down the truth about the fries by simply
stating,
"The Sonic french fries [...] are no good, I'm sorry to say."
There are multiple reasons why someone might order sugar-free items.
Perhaps you're simply cutting down on your sugar consumption.
Or maybe you have a medical condition that requires you to eat less sugar.
Whatever the case may be, if you order a sugar-free Slush at Sonic, you should reasonably expect
that it doesn't contain any sugar.
Unfortunately, that's not exactly the case.
According to employees who have posted on Reddit, these supposedly sugar-free Slushes
aren't actually sugar-free.
This is a tricky area, because Sonic offers sugar-free syrups that you can add to your
sugar-free drinks.
So it would stand to reason that if you add these sugar-free syrups to a Slush as your
flavoring option, then you would indeed have a sugar-free Slush.
Alas, as one employee explained,
"If you get these syrups in Slushees, the slush mix is full of sugar so it won't be
sugar-free.
[...] Sometimes employees lie to diabetics who want sugar-free Slushees, even though
it's really not."
So the culprit here isn't the sugar-free syrups.
Instead, it all comes down to the slush mix, thereby making a sugar-free Sonic Slush a
virtual impossibility.
What could be better than starting your day off with a healthy and filling breakfast?
Not much, but don't look for that first meal of the day at Sonic, at least not if you plan
on ordering one of the breakfast burritos.
In 2021, Eat This, Not That included Sonic's Ultimate Meat & Cheese Breakfast Burrito on
a list of the worst overall fast-food burritos.
That's thanks to its not-so-appealing nutritional facts.
It's high in fat, including trans fat, and it contains a whopping 2,000-plus milligrams
of sodium.
And if all that salt isn't enough to scare you off, perhaps you'll listen to the former
Sonic employee who wrote on Quora,
"You should definitely avoid our burritos.
They are made from eggs in a carton that aren't always kept at a safe temperature."
To be fair, egg storage complaints can be taken with a grain of salt, especially when
you consider that raw eggs are kept at room temperature in many other countries around
the world, even if that's not the case in the United States.
Either way, this burrito's belly-busting properties remain a cause for concern.
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