Szechuan Sauce Return to McDonald's Is Off to a Rocky Start
Fans are already frustrated.
McDonald’s has officially brought back its Szechuan Sauce en masse following a disastrous attempt last October. Now, tons of people around the country get to complete Rick Sanchez’s desperate quest to consume the sauce, except when they still can’t find any sauce.
On Monday, after almost four months of quiet apologies from McDonald’s, the fast-food chain re-released Szechuan Sauce to the world. This came after weeks of rumors and an official announcement via podcast last week.
Twenty-million cups were distributed around the country with the promise that every single restaurant would have some of the sauce “while supplies last.” While the rollout of this new wave of sauce is nowhere near as disastrous as what happened in October, this new attempt still feels mismanaged.
By lunchtime on Monday, some high-volume McDonald’s were seemingly sold out already. In many cases, whether or not the sauce is in stock, employees had no idea about the promotion.
When Inverse visited a Brooklyn-based McDonald’s Monday morning, one team member taking orders didn’t seem to know anything about the sauce. There was some confusion, but a manager was able to confirm its availability and pull a box of it out from “the back.” A single hashbrown worked just fine as a “qualifying purchase” even if McDonald’s suggests you pair it with Chicken McNuggets or Buttermilk Crispy Tenders.
After receiving two complimentary packets, Inverse purchased additional packets of the sauce at 15 cents each.
While the podcast McDonald’s produced about the sauce might have lacked flavor, the Szechuan Sauce itself definitely does not. The taste is akin to General Tso’s chicken but a bit tangier with brighter hints of chili, peppercorn, garlic, and ginger. Predictably, it also has that classic syrupy texture found in most McDonald’s sauces.
As anyone could have predicted, an otherwise totally fine sauce is eclipsed by the overwhelming hype surrounding it.
The public’s reaction to the sauce ranges wildly. Some people love how it tastes.
Others find it totally disgusting.
Plenty are somewhere in the middle.
Tons of huge Rick and Morty fans are just super enthusiastic and probably don’t care about the actual taste either way.
Many are just totally making fun of how ridiculous this whole fiasco has become while wondering how those people who spent a ton of money on the sauce are feeling right now.
But here’s the best way to eat some Szechuan Sauce:
Judging by how crazy Rick and Morty fans can get, it’s only a matter of time before the supply runs out and more riots happen.
But until then, anyone should be able to walk into a McDonald’s and try some of the sauce for themselves.
