McDonald’s The Canadian Melt

Review of McDonald’s The Canadian Melt

Website: http://www.mcdonalds.co.uk/ukhome/product_nutrition.beef.1592.week-3-the-canadian-melt.html

What they say:

This Canadian taste sensation tops 100% beef with maple cured bacon, cheese slices, crispy onions and fresh Batavia lettuce with an irresistible maple BBQ sauce and sesame-topped bun. A hearty taste of Canada.

Price: £3.79.

Calories: 693 kcal.

We’re back… hot on the heels of breaking the WORLD EXCLUSIVE news of the Halloween Whopper coming to Burger King USA!

Here in the UK, week three of the Great Tastes of the World sees the release of The Canadian Melt.

McDonald’s promotional picture…

Back in August, we predicted that a burger bearing the Canadian Maple Leaf would make an appearance this year.

One of the main reasons we went with a burger from Canada is that McDonald’s UK have never done anything claiming to be from the Great White North.

We also had a hunch that due to the BBQ Smokehouse having maple cured bacon, this would be an ideal opportunity to re-use the ingredient on another burger in the promotion.

Talking of re-using ingredients, it appears McD’s have used the economies of scale and purchased barbecue sauce in bulk!

Not only has the aforementioned Smokehouse featured it, but also the Australian BBQ Supreme and now the Canadian Melt. But don’t worry… there’s no cool mayo on-board this build (in-case you need to check)!

First look at The Canadian Melt…

Those of you that follow BURGER LAD® will be well aware of the June promotion at McDonald’s Canada – the Great Canadian Taste Adventure.

We sort of hoped that one of the line-up from here could make it to the UK (sort of like a “guest” burger showing a true taste of the world) but alas that didn’t happen.

In that line-up, there was the Cottage Country Chicken – which had crispy seasoned Ontario-raised Chicken and a smokey Muskoka sauce (by all accounts a maple-infused BBQ sauce). The Western BBQ Burger – with sweet and smokey BBQ flavour and the near infamous McLobster – well, we’ll surely never going to see that here in the UK are we?

So what makes the Canadian Melt from Canada Eh? Or is that Aye? Or Ay?

Looking at the Canadian Taste Adventure, the obvious answer is maple BBQ sauce. Throw in some maple cured bacon and eh presto we’ve got a hearty taste of Canada for week three.

Now I approached today with extreme caution.

Like I have previously stated, when I ordered the Smokehouse just after 10:30am I didn’t receive any maple cured bacon, but instead leftover “breakfast” bacon. I would be watching the construct of this build like the proverbial Highway Mountie.

McDonald’s Great Tastes of the World – The Canadian Melt…

I’m so bloody happy to report back that my Canadian Melt DID have maple cured bacon!!

After doing our latest episode of BLTV (which you can see below) I took my first bite of this taste of Canada. Now this is a sweet burger. Very sweet. And I don’t mean that it buys you presents or does nice things for you.

Instantly your senses are flooded with the sweet BBQ sauce and you get a quick one-two combo from the sweetness of the bacon. A sweet double whammy. If you want to count how many times I say “sweet” in this review you better start now because there’s nothing else you can really describe it as. Sweet.

Maple cured bacon baby…

As you can see from the pictures, my build was fairly decent today. I think it took about 6 minutes to make, which is respectable considering the earliness of my visit.

I think some of the slack-jawed customers in there thought I was some sort of M.I.B agent/mystery shopper, as I snapped away photos of this latest limited time offer, wearing the signature BL® sunglasses.

Did I mention this burger is sweet? Well it is.

After the lofty heights of week two and The Italian Classic I really fell back to earth with a bump from The Canadian Melt. It’s not offensive or particularly rubbish, it’s just semi-uninspiring.

Like we mentioned earlier, yes this does somewhat offer a taste of Canada if comparing it to the Great Canadian Taste adventure promo. It’s a shame we can’t get Maple & Bacon Poutine though – I can just see people washing that down with a Big Tasty (by the way that’s coming back after this promotion).

Back to the Canadian Melt.

I’m not quite certain how crispy onions associate with the country but as they are one of my all-time favourite high street burger toppings I’ll let it pass. And, they do work quite nicely with the BBQ sauce, almost offering a counter-punch to that sweet sauce.

Week three…

The cheese is the standard variety and brings much needed lubrication to an otherwise dry patty. And the lettuce is only there really just to play lip service. My top bun also looked rather “flattened” too but attribute that to the promotional box weighing down on it for 20 seconds.

Don’t get me wrong. It’s not a terrible burger, it’s basically a barbecue bacon cheeseburger. And… if you crave sweet BBQ sauce you’ll be all over this like snow on the Rocky Mountains.

Would I have this burger again? At £3.79 and weighing in at 693 calories, I think there’s more chance of me going over Niagara Falls in a barrel.

Sweet…

Overall, The Canadian Melt is exactly what it says it is (if you’re using the Cockney rhyming slang for melt). No… I’m being overly harsh… and that’s just because I enjoyed week two so much, so when you get this it’s just a bit disappointing really.

The BBQ sauce is very sweet and this is backed up by its sweet buddy, the maple cured bacon. The crispy onions offset against the pair quite nicely, almost to the point of making the save. The cheese and ever recurring Batavia lettuce offer some moisture, texture and greenery, but for me, The Canadian Melt is certainly a once in a lifetime destination.

Now I wonder what sort of associations I can make with next weeks’ offering – The Brazilian Spicy.

Sweet!

Burger Lad®