From late January to mid-February, McDonald's Japan offered a limited time Valentine's Day menu item of fries with regular and white "double" chocolate sauce. As soon as I read about it on RocketNews24, I knew I had to try it.
We made the mistake of getting them as takeout, and as a result, by the time we got home and had finished taking pictures, the fries were rather cold. Perhaps if the fries had been piping hot we would have enjoyed them more, but as it was, they were just OK.
After eating them, though, I realized that there wasn't any need to wait for McDonald's to offer it as a special menu item, when I could easily get a similar chocolate sauce from the grocery store!
A Japanese company called Verde has a whole line of dispenser pack spreads with dual flavour combinations such as strawberry & butter, oligo honey & butter, chocolate & peanut, &etc. (Source: RocketNews24) Although they were designed for use with bread and/or pancakes, after trying McDonald's chocolate fries, I realized they could easily be used with fries as well!
So in February, my husband and I went out and bought a pack of each available flavour of spread, then got two large packs of McDonald's fries, and did a taste test!
Flavours from left to right: Oligo Honey & Butter; Chocolate & Peanut; Blueberry & Butter; Strawberry & Butter; Black & White (Chocolate); Matcha & Milk Cream
Oligo Honey & Butter
Mel's Verdict & Ranking: The honey lost to the taste of the fries and the butter flavour was too strong and distinctly fake tasting. Definitely my least favourite. Ranked last (#6) out of the six flavours.
Husband's Ranking: Completely opposite opinion! Ranked #1 of the six flavours.
Chocolate & Peanut
Mel: The chocolate and peanut flavours came through with a nice balance of sweetness and saltiness to match the fries. Ranked #1 of six.
Husband: #2 of six
Mel: Blueberry flavour was rather overpowered by the butter. #5 of 6.
Husband: #4 of six
Mel: The strawberry was strong enough to match the butter, making this the best of the butter flavoured spreads. #4 of six.
Husband: #3 of six.
Black & White (Chocolate)
Mel: Made the mistake of not warming the sauce sufficiently (we were supposed to warm it up with our hands until it the chocolate was soft), so the chocolate was hard to squeeze out, making the distribution and ratio of sauce to fries uneven. As a result, this chocolate sauce tasted quite a bit sweeter than the McDonald's one. #3 of six.
Husband: Too sweet and a pain to squeeze it out of the dispenser pack. #5 of six.
Matcha & Milk Cream
Mel: Same problem as the Black & White spread with not warming it up sufficiently before use. But the bitterness of the matcha helped balance out the sweetness of the milk cream, so it was pretty tasty. #2 of six.
Husband: Another completely opposite opinion! Liked this one the least, #6 of six.
Overall Verdict: Chocolate & Peanut was the hands-down winner of the taste test, with Mel ranking it #1 and her husband ranking it #2.
Apart from Chocolate & Peanut, we also both agreed that Strawberry & Butter was better than Blueberry & Butter and ranked both flavours around mid-range. But the rest of our opinions were totally different!
McDonald's Japan Chocolate Fries Part II: "Halloween Choco Potato"
Just in time for Halloween, from the end of September, McDonald's Japan started offering a new version of their chocolate fries, this time with regular and pumpkin "double" chocolate sauce.
Although RocketNews24 was highly complimentary about the pumpkin flavour, neither my husband nor I could taste anything but chocolate. But at least this time we learned from our first experience with the McChoco Potato and made sure to eat-in instead of getting it to go. It definitely tastes much better when the fries are piping hot and the chocolate melts easily onto them!
We still have some leftover Verde spreads, so we might just have to bring them with us the next time we decide to go to McDonald's!
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1 comment:
Hahahaha loved this post. Thx for being the guinea pigs!
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