Usually, the McFlurry add-ins are mixed with the soft serve, but as you can see in the photo on the right that wasn’t the case with the McDonald’s Holiday Mint McFlurry I received.

It wasn’t a problem because I have opposable thumbs and extremely strong wrists to mix everything.

Also, I like the add-ins dumped on top like that because seeing all the red and green peppermint candy pieces made the McFlurry look more holiday-ish than if they were blended with the vanilla soft serve.

Having the candy pieces floating on the quickly melting soft serve also made the top of my McFlurry look like regurgitated crayons, a color blindness test, and the bottom of a fish bowl.

I originally thought the red and green pieces were minty candy coated chocolate, but after reading the ingredients list, it turns out they’re not chocolate and one-third of their ingredients are food dyes.

Here’s the ingredients list for those of you who are totally into food dyes: sugar, fractionated palm kernel oil, nonfat milk, corn syrup, corn cereal, modified food starch, partially hydrogenated soybean oil, degerminated yellow corn meal, soy lecithin, Red 40 Lake, natural flavor (botanical source), Yellow 5 Lake, salt, Blue 1 Lake, Turmeric Extract (Color), Red 40, Blue 1.

Mmm…degerminated yellow corn meal and Red 40.

After using my opposable thumbs and strong wrists to combine the reduced fat vanilla soft serve, mint syrup, and peppermint candy pieces, my mouth soon discovered how minty the McDonald’s Holiday Mint McFlurry was. There were no bursts of peppermint going off in my mouth, which would’ve make the cold soft serve feel even colder and make my mouth feel like it’s hosting a ski resort. The peppermint candies were equally minty and sweet, and reminded me of Wrigley’s Doublemint Gum.

The peppermint candy pieces weren’t really what I would call crunchy, but had a firmness to them. Even though they were made with corn cereal and corn meal, they surprisingly didn’t get soggy while sitting in my half-melted McFlurry. I hope whatever processed food voodoo McDonald’s is doing to prevent them from getting soggy ends up in our breakfast cereals.

One last thing about the peppermint candy pieces. I thought they were harmless, nutritionally, because they’re made with bunch of corn products, dyes, and no chocolate, but they provide eight of the 15 grams of saturated fat in this McFlurry.

The vanilla soft serve and mint syrup was a nice combination, so much so that I’d like to do a McHack that involves adding the mint syrup to an Oreo McFlurry.

Overall, McDonald’s Holiday Mint McFlurry was a delightful treat, and if I’m feeling the holiday spirit, my opposable thumbs and strong wrists could see themselves mixing another.

(Nutrition Facts – 570 calories, 190 calories from fat, 21 grams of fat, 15 grams of saturated fat, 0.5 grams of trans fat, 45 milligrams of cholesterol, 170 milligrams of sodium, 84 grams of carbohydrates, 76 grams of sugar, 0 grams of fiber, 12 grams of protein.)

Other McDonald’s Holiday Mint McFlurry reviews:
Brand Eating

Item: McDonald’s Holiday Mint McFlurry
Purchased Price: $2.99
Size: 12 ounces
Purchased at: McDonald’s
Rating: 7 out of 10
Pros: Delightful. Pleasant mintiness. Colorful, if the peppermint candies are dumped on top. McHacks. Peppermint candy didn’t get soggy in melted soft serve. Opposable thumbs and strong wrists.
Cons: Awesome source of food dyes. Awesome source of saturated fat. Peppermint candy pieces created using processed food voodoo. The candy pieces on top looked like the bottom of a fish bowl.

According to the internets, the McDonald’s McCafé Egg Nog Shake has been around for a few years, but only available in certain regions. This year, McDonald’s decided to let more people experience the wonder and delight of their holiday dairy beverage-flavored shake.

But why did McDonald’s take so long?

Instead of enjoying a McDonald’s Egg Nog Shake during the holidays, I’ve had to tolerate the McDonald’s Arctic Orange Shake, which is no egg nog shake or The Grimace Shake, a purple shake I really want McDonald’s to develop.

Sure, I could’ve gone to Jack in the Box and had their egg nog shake, but I’m boycotting Jack in the Box shakes until they bring back their bacon shake for an unlimited time.

It’s hard to tell in my overexposed photo, but McDonald’s McCafé Egg Nog Shake comes in a pastel yellow color usually found on Easter eggs, Post-It Notes, or on nursery walls belonging to infants whose parents wanted to wait until the child’s birth to find out its sex.

There’s not really anything wrong with its color. However, it’s an exaggerated egg nog color that had me expecting the McDonald’s McCafé Egg Nog Shake to have an exaggerated, maybe artificial, egg nog flavor.

Thankfully, the combination of reduced fat soft serve and egg nog-flavored syrup tasted exactly like the thick holiday dairy beverage I drink to my fill to celebrate the arrival of the fall season. And when I say, “drink to my fill,” I mean one glass, because that amount of the thick beverage makes my stomach feel like it ate a meal. Fortunately, the egg nog shake doesn’t make me feel that way.

The McDonald’s McCafé Egg Nog Shake was delightful. It was eggy, sweet, and creamy, although I wished it had more of a cinnamon spice flavor to it. But, still, it was yum on my tongue.

(Nutrition Facts – Small – 540 calories, 150 calories from fat, 17 grams of fat, 11 grams of saturated fat, 1 gram of trans fat, 50 milligrams of cholesterol, 180 milligrams of sodium, 86 grams of carbohydrates, 74 grams of sugar, 0 grams of fiber, 11 grams of protein, 20% vitamin A, and 40% calcium.)

Item: McDonald’s McCafé Egg Nog Shake
Purchased Price: $2.99
Size: 12 ounces
Purchased at: McDonald’s
Rating: 8 out of 10
Pros: Delicious. All the goodness of egg nog. Creamy. Awesome source of calcium. Not as rich as regular egg nog. Whipped topping is durable. Post-It Notes. Better late than never for the McDonald’s Egg Nog Shake.
Cons: One gram of trans fat. Unnecessary Maraschino cherry. Could’ve used a little cinnamon. Worse for you than actual egg nog. Exaggerated egg nog color.

CBO…

COB…

BOC…

BCO…

OBC…

OCB…

Oh, hello there. I’m just trying to figure out why McDonald’s decided to promote their new Cheddar Bacon Onion sandwiches with the acronym CBO, and not some other letter combination.

Perhaps COB would’ve confused people into thinking there was only corn in the sandwiches; BOC might’ve made consumers think these sandwiches are all about chicken because if you say it out loud as a word and not an acronym, it makes you sound like a chicken; BCO looks like text speak for bacon; with so much drama in the O-B-C, it’s kinda hard bein’ Snoop D-O-double-G; and OCB sounds like something I need to a psychiatrist for.

Hmm…I guess CBO was the right choice. Oh wait, it ends with BO. That can’t be good.

The Cheddar Bacon Onion Sandwiches are available with either an Angus Third Pounder beef patty, a Crispy Premium Chicken filet, or a Grilled Premium Chicken filet. Along with your choice of beef or BOC, the sandwiches are topped with white cheddar cheese, grilled caramelized onions, hickory-smoked bacon, and a creamy mustard sauce.

Don’t all those ingredients make these sandwiches sound awesome? Sure, pigs that become McDonald’s bacon should be ashamed that they end up as mediocre bacon and white cheddar cheese tastes just like orange cheddar cheese, but I thought perhaps putting them together with onions and a mustard sauce would create a tasty sandwich.

However, both the McDonald’s Cheddar Bacon Onion Angus Third Pounder and Cheddar Bacon Onion Crispy Premium Chicken Sandwich don’t excite my palate.

If you’re staring at the new calorie-fied menu at McDonald’s and can’t decide whether to get the CBO Angus Third Pounder or the CBO Crispy Premium Chicken Sandwich, go with the beef. It’s the better tasting of the two, because the chicken has very little flavor. It has a slightly crispy outside and the filet has a pleasant thickness, but those are the only positive things I can say about it. The chicken version is also noticeably smaller than the Angus Third Pounder, but costs the same.

As for the CBO Angus Third Pounder, again, it’s better, but not much better. The patty was dry, but had a good meaty flavor. Both sandwiches had a lot of bacon and each bite I took had enough bacon to make me squeal like a pig that just realized it ate pork, but it provided a little smokiness and a lot of saltiness.

(Side note about McDonald’s bacon: If McDonald’s thinks so highly of their bacon, why isn’t it an option when ordering their Big Breakfast? It’s only available in sandwiches.)

The onions were plentiful and buttery, but they didn’t have an oniony punch. I could taste the white cheddar whenever I took a bite that didn’t have much sauce, but the melted cheese did a better job at making sure the bacon didn’t fall out than providing a cheesiness. Overall, the bacon, onions, and cheese trio added very little flavor and just the made the sandwiches taste super salty.

However, the most disappointing ingredient in the two sandwiches was the creamy mustard sauce. I thought McDonald’s could make a good mustard sauce, after all, they did come up with the greatest chicken nugget dipping sauce ever — Hot Mustard. But the sauce, which is made up of ingredients like Dijon mustard and horseradish, didn’t have a strong mustard seed spiciness or any kind of bite. It’s a weak sauce, which makes it, as the kids say, weak sauce.

I read somewhere on the internets that test versions of this Angus Third Pounder also included a steak sauce. That might’ve helped, but it wasn’t included.

Weak sauce, man. Weak sauce.

(Nutrition Facts – CBO Angus – 790 calories, 370 calories from fat, 41 grams of fat, 18 grams of saturated fat, 2 grams of trans fat, 150 milligrams of cholesterol, 1830 milligrams of sodium, 62 grams of carbohydrates, 4 grams of fiber, 11 grams of sugar, and 45 grams of protein. CBO Crispy Chicken – 630 calories, 260 calories from fat, 29 grams of fat, 9 grams of saturated fat, 0.5 grams of trans fat, 85 milligrams of cholesterol, 1630 milligrams of sodium, 61 grams of carbohydrates, 4 grams of fiber, 13 grams of sugar, and 32 grams of protein.)

Item: McDonald’s Cheddar Bacon Onion Angus Third Pounder & Crispy Premium Chicken Sandwich
Purchased Price: $4.99 each
Size: N/A
Purchased at: McDonald’s
Rating: 6 out of 10 (Angus Third Pounder)
Rating: 5 out of 10 (Crispy Premium Chicken)
Pros: Lots of bacon. Lots of onions. CBO Angus was better tasting. Buns did a good job of not falling apart. 90s hip-hop. Awesome source of protein.
Cons: CBO Crispy Chicken was boring. Creamy mustard sauce didn’t have a lot of flavor. McDonald’s bacon. Cheese didn’t do a good job of preventing onions from falling out. The bacon, onions, and cheese trio just the made the sandwiches taste super salty

What happens when you combine a McDonald’s Apple Pie with their soft serve? Find out in this video review.

Length – 2 min. 36 sec.

Image via flickr user [email protected] / CC BY SA 2.0

Having survived the Great Mid-Atlantic Derecho of 2012 and discovered my stash of home bound ice cream to have turned into soup once the power came back on, you might say I’ve been in a cautious mood when buying ice cream over the last week.

Don’t get me wrong, I still have a great appreciation for the richest and most indulgent dairy I can get to blow my savings on, but seeing mold in the viscous brown goo that used to be your Belgian Milk Chocolate Gelato will make you think twice before spending the big bucks again. Thankfully, that’s why places like McDonald’s exist.

McDonald’s has been selling soft serve since pretty much forever (heck even Wikipedia didn’t have a start date) but so far as I can tell, they’ve only recently launched the Chocolate-y Dipped Cones to the nationwide audience. Nope, that’s not a typo. It’s “Chocolate-y” as in does not contain actual chocolate (read: cocoa butter not included) but instead is made from a mixture of sugar, coconut oil, hydrogenated coconut oil, and cocoa.

Man, talk about a step down.

Still, with temperatures approaching a billion degrees in the Mid-Atlantic, I felt inclined to try it out. Also, I figured McDonald’s had invented some proprietary magic shell chocolate dispenser to coat the “reduced fat soft serve” in, but watching the girl behind the counter dunk the cone into a bucket of liquidity chocolate goo pretty much debunked that theory. Nevertheless, the coating clung to the soft serve tighter than a lid on a pickle jar, creating a hard reflexive sheen that could probably fry an ant if angled correctly toward the summer sun.

It was into that sun which I cautiously stepped, hoping my cone would last for a few worthwhile licks before the heat and humidity extracted its revenge on my summer bliss.

One, of course, faces an eating dilemma with soft ice cream encapsulated in hard ice cream form, but I found it worthwhile to approach the chocolate shell as if I was trying to get to the center of a tootsie pop. The chocolate flavor is sweet, a tad cool, and surprisingly smooth for being so artificial, reminding me of a chocolate ice cream bar with an especially thick chocolate shell. Not as pronounced and richly indulgent as a Magnum Bar, mind you, but this is McDonald’s and it’s 1,000 degrees out, so I’m willing to overlook that.

In any case I eventually ventured to splinter the shell and take a whack at the soft serve. Like Han Solo released from carbonite, the vanilla soft serve is not completely melted, and still retains its sweet and cool shape. Neither bursting with vanilla bean flavor nor having the lickable richness and smooth mouthfeel of egg based soft custard, it’s serviceable on its own, but delicious when combined with the shell.

It’s a treat worth savoring for a good five minutes, and the only real downside of the whole experiences come once the integrity of the binding site between the shell and cone is broken. At this stage you might as well stuff the rest of the cone into your face as quickly as possible, or else you risk an afternoon of sticky fingers, much like I did.

McDonald’s Dipped Cone is a surprising find in a fast food dessert market saturated with oversized milkshakes and coffee drinks disguised as milkshakes. It’s also an affordable option should you be looking to cool down without having your cool down treat immediately melt all over you.

(Nutrition Facts – 1 cone – 270 calories, 110 calories from fat, 12 grams of fat, 9 grams of saturated fat, 0 gram of trans fat*, 15 milligrams of cholesterol, 80 milligrams of sodium, 35 grams of carbohydrates, 27 grams of sugar, 1 gram of fiber, 5 grams of protein, 15% calcium.)

*Contains Hydrogenated Oils

Item: McDonald’s Dipped Cone
Purchased Price: $1.49
Size: 4.5 ounces
Purchased at: McDonald’s
Rating: 7 out of 10
Pros: Chocolate-y shell has smooth sheen and lickable, bittersweet cocoa flavor. Tastes like a really thick chocolate bar. Soft serve ice plays well with with hard coating. Doesn’t melt even under intense heat. Affordable dessert that won’t break the calorie bank.
Cons: Soft serve is run-of-the-mill. No actual chocolate involved. Contains hydrogenated oil. “Volcano effect” of melting ice cream once shell is compromised.