Review of Burger King BBQ Jerk TenderCrisp
Website: http://www.burgerking.co.uk/menu-item/bbq-jerk-tendercrisp
What they say:
Stacked with succulent crispy chicken, fresh lettuce, onions, juicy tomatoes and delicious Pepperjack Cheese cheese. Topped off with a BBQ Jerk sauce that will blow your mind, this sandwich is the best choice you’ll make today!
Price: £4.79.
Calories: 470 kcal.
After the disappointing trip to BK recently to try out the new Summer BBQ line up, a degree of OCD crept in.
After all, I went to try all three, and ended up trying only two, because on the day that BK launched a new Tendercrisp, they’d run out of Tendercrisps. Embarrassing at best.
So for the sake of completeness and in the spirit of second chances, I went back to Burger King to try the BBQ Jerk TenderCrisp.
It was the one of the three I’d been looking forward to the most, and having tried the beef ones and found them dull, this had to be good.
At this point though, I was thinking I’d really rather it were a jerk sauce on it, than a jerk BBQ sauce. We are barely into summer and already I’m bored of “summer” being envisaged by BBQ sauce. There’s more to summer than that.
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| BK promotional picture… |
But anyway, I also wanted a Toffee Crisp Fusion to go with it, and I’m not berthed anywhere near one of BK’s trial delivery areas. It’s the drive through again.
I arrived and was welcomed with something to the effect of “thank you for choosing Burger King, we are only taking cash payment at the moment, is that ok?” Well, it was OK I suppose, and fortunately I did have some cash.
Now, before we get to the burger or anything else, a word about the Fusion.
On BK’s website, I was given a choice of Oreo or Toffee Crisp; on the menu board at the drive-thru it was Bounty or Toffee Crisp; and according to the voice mumbling at me through the speaker, it was Oreo or Twix.
A bit of consistency wouldn’t go amiss here, BK.
I chose the Twix one and later regretted it. The ice-cream was populated by little crunchy chocolate balls of some sort. Not at all Twix-like, and certainly not Toffee-Crisp like, which is what I actually wanted.
Anyway, as I waited for quite a considerable time at the window, I saw the car behind me paying with a credit card. Well, not the car, but the person in it- you know what I mean. Odd, considering I’d been told cash only.
My burger and Fusion were passed out to me and off I went, at this point still looking forward to the lovely spicy full-flavour hit that jerk sauce gives.
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| No promotional box for Summer BBQ… |
I got a bit of a sinking feeling when I opened the paper bag. Again, just like the beef offerings in this promo, it was presented in an ordinary Whopper box. Well, ordinary except for the fact it was upside down, with Jerk Chicken scribbled on the underside.
I opened up the box and the internal wrap (BK uses three layers of wrap which at least keeps the warmth in for longer) and was presented by a pretty well-made Tendercrisp.
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| Burger King BBQ Jerk Tendercrisp… |
I do prefer the Tendercrisp “patty” to the Royale, and this one looked inviting – all misshapen and crispy. On top of it were generous amounts of onions, lettuce, tomato and the burgundy-coloured “BBQ jerk” sauce.
The first couple of bites gave me a sort of normal Tendercrisp experience. Lovely chicken, fantastic crispy coating, you know the drill. As I got further in I got to the sauce and my heart sank. No jerk to be found – well, maybe me for buying this.
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| BK’s summer limited edition chicken… |
Either this was plain old BBQ sauce that this branch had used, or the blend is so insipid that the “jerk” part of it just doesn’t come through. I had no way of telling, but what I could tell was that this matched its two beef stablemates well. All boring.
It was still the best of the three, mainly because I do enjoy the Tendercrisp and it would work well for me with any topping. But I’d been so looking forward to this promotion as a whole, and the jerk sauce in particular, and feel very dramatically let down.
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| In search of Jerk sauce… |
Burger King have, even recently, had some really great promotions.
Party in the Park and Route 66 being particular favourites. But this Summer BBQ range simply doesn’t match up and as a result, I won’t be back until the next one.
Admiral Burgerbar