McDonald’s The Brazilian Spicy

Review of McDonald’s Great Tastes of the World The Brazilian Spicy

Website: http://www.mcdonalds.co.uk/ukhome/product_nutrition.beef.1593.week-4-the-brazilian-spicy.html

What they say:

This spicy Brazilian burger features 100% beef, bacon, sliced and crispy onions, cool mayo and shredded lettuce with a flourish of spicy Brazilian-style salsa, all in a colourful paprika-topped bun. It’s time to treat your taste buds.

Price: £3.79.

Calories: 595 kcal.

Week four of Great Tastes of the World sees another new burger launched – The Brazilian Spicy.

Will we be transported to the land of beaches and football dreams for McDonald’s to play a Samba on our palate? Or will we feel like we’re sat in a retail park in Finchley munching on yet another slightly tweaked burger?

Today will also be the last time we report back on the promotion, as we previously reviewed week five’s South African Deluxe back in 2013.

McDonald’s The Brazilian Spicy
McDonald’s promotional picture…

A burger from Brazil was in our list of predictions for the 2015 Great Tastes line-up. But prior to seeing the full identity parade we’d talked briefly of another carnival-inspired LTO, the Brazil burger – launched in Australia as part of a promotion celebrating the 2014 FIFA World Cup.

This particular build was an interesting one, as the patty actually contained beef infused with beans, corn and capsicum (pepper).

Now, although it would be cool to see something similar in the UK I don’t hold much hope.

I’ve actually tried something similar in Germany before – El Chili Con Carne. Another McDonald’s patty containing a mixture of sweetcorn and kidney beans which was really rather good. It could be about the closest this style of patty gets, to reaching the Great British isles.

Anyway… The Brazilian Spicy is the lowest calorie beef burger (no cheese) of the line-up weighing in at a respectable 595 kcal (The Chicken & Chutney Indian is only 503 kcal.) Compare this with next week’s destination to South Africa which clocks in at 738 kcal.

McDonald’s The Brazilian Spicy
FIRST look…

Of course, upon placing my order I couldn’t help but ask for “a Brazilian” (accompanied by expected childish snigger). I wonder just how many tweets of this nature we’ll see this week. Pure. Comedy. Banter. Get in the sea.

So, is this burger the equivalent of Brazil in the 1970 or 2014 World Cup? Is it like your favourite football club unveiling your latest transfer signing, to find out that it is in fact Kléberson instead of Neymar? Either way, we’ll provide you with our “expert” post-match analysis right now…

McDonald’s The Brazilian Spicy
McDonald’s Great Tastes of the World – The Brazilian Spicy…

Beef Patty – like the dependable squad member of the team. Does nothing spectacular throughout or really lets the side down. Just there. Doing its job. Could work harder in training on juiciness as it was pretty dry for the entire match.

Bacon – didn’t show up today. Looking rather miniscule this was a disappointing performance, especially after last week’s sterling display with the maple cured bacon. Certainly hope there is a return to form next week for the encounter in Johannesburg.

Sliced and Crispy onions – the dynamic duo did everything they could to keep the score respectable. The fresh white onion slices really cut through their opponents on this build to provide a much needed crunch and tang.

This was complimented well in the middle of the park by the man-of-the-match – the crispy onions. Bringing a slightly burnt, but pleasant taste to proceedings, this definitely cemented the ingredient as one of the first on the team-sheet.

McDonald’s The Brazilian Spicy
A dry lunch indeed…

Cool mayo – substituted early and very difficult to appraise. Despite never being a fan of cool mayo I couldn’t even describe the performance today as there was so little on this build. Helped contribute to the dryness and subsequent downfall of The Brazilian Spicy.

Shredded lettuce – definitely showing signs of fatigue and in need of a rest. This wasn’t great and looking at the remnants in my promotional box this looks very much like yesterday’s leftovers. Definitely let the side down and difficult to defend.

Brazilian-style salsa sauce – I know it’s unlikely we’ll ever get anything with Habanero or even Sriracha in, but this pretty much scores an own goal in describing it as “spicy”. It’s not. It’s got a pleasant, sweet, fresh taste to it which is obviously tomato-based. But spicy!? No. Definitely not.

Again with a lack of cheese on here and barely any mayo this needed lashings of the salsa and it was sparse at best. Definitely deserved the cautionary yellow card.

Paprika-topped bun – pleasant, fresh and offered a bit of dimension to The Brazilian Spicy. It had a solid performance and there’s no criticism from the panel.

McDonald’s The Brazilian Spicy
The bun puts in a good performance…

Overall, The Brazilian Spicy was a slightly disappointing burger and mine was certainly quite dry from a lack of mayo and salsa. The lettuce was sub-standard, but the onion combination certainly worked well.

The salsa is pretty tasty but is certainly not spicy. For me, a slightly disappointing Great Tastes campaign with the bright stars being The Italian Classic and my favourite chicken menu item mentioned below.

In the latest episode of BLTV I did comment saying that I preferred The Brazilian Spicy to The Canadian Melt and I probably still stand by that statement.

But that’s the thing about reviews – they are all subjective to your individual taste. Would I have it again? Certainly not. Line it up alongside The Chicken & Chutney Indian and I’d reach for that one every time.

So having paid £3.79 for the burger alone, I stood there feeling rather like a deflated David Seaman, after Ronaldinho lobbed him with a looping free-kick at the 2002 World Cup (Ronaldinho being The Brazilian Spicy and his McDonald’s team-mates off celebrating my spend).

McDonald’s The Brazilian Spicy
Spot the mayo…

I’m sort of glad we’ve already reviewed The South African Deluxe as it spares me the pressures of being the FIRST to bring you a look at the latest McDonald’s limited time offers.

We’ve been living in the fast food lane and doing it best since 2012.

How many mainstream media outlets have reported on the BK Halloween Whopper AFTER we delivered that news to the world first?

The Daily Mirror called us “expert in all things burger-related” after all…

Remember to tune in soon, as we’ll be bringing you even more exclusives in our never-ending quest to report back on the latest urban burger news.

Burger Lad®

2 thoughts on “McDonald’s The Brazilian Spicy

  • 27/09/2015 at 9:45 pm
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    I had this today, the lettuce was definitely limp and mouldy looking, no onions to speak off (!!!), dry af beef patty and a meagre dollop of salsa, which was probably the best thing about this burger, just because added some taste. Utterly disappointing. And usually everything tastes good when I'm high.

  • 29/09/2015 at 12:50 pm
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    Gash, gash, gash & dry. Really wish Mc D would present like the pictures. Think I will stick with the trusty old mc chick next time.

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