Are McDonald’s New Burgers Actually Better?
We did a side-by-side comparison. Here’s what we found.
Amy Reiter
Back in April, McDonald’s announced it was planning to make “small but tasty improvements” to its classic burgers: specifically, the Big Mac, McDouble, and Cheeseburger, Double Cheeseburger and Hamburger — basically everything except the Quarter Pounder, which it has already tweaked in recent years.
The chain promised that, after introducing the burger changes in several international markets, it would begin rolling the improvements out across the U.S. By 2024, McDonald’s vowed, “Customers will be able to taste the difference at all restaurants nationwide.”
This week, that moment has arrived: The new McDonald’s burgers have officially landed at all U.S. locations.
Photo courtesy of McDonald's
The changes include “softer, pillowy buns that are freshly toasted to a golden brown; perfectly melted cheese that will make you want to savor every last bit off the wrapper; juicier, caramelized flavor from adding white onions to the patties while they’re still on the grill; and even more of everyone’s favorite Big Mac sauce, bringing more tangy sweetness in every Big Mac bite,” according to the brand.
But were the new burgers actually better? We, like probably everyone else, wondered.
We were lucky enough to have a chance to taste the new burgers side by side with the old ones at a McDonald’s burger-tasting press event, held at a McDonald’s location in New York City’s Times Square.
First we were ushered outside to gape at the new Burgercuda, a custom Hamburglar-ified 1970 Plymouth Barracuda that the Hamburglar will be taking on a promotional tour to locations around the country. (Best feature? It’s a three-way tie between the spare tire styled to look like a giant McDonald’s cheeseburger, the burger warmer hidden in the center console and the sesame-seed-speckled hubcaps.)
Photo courtesy of McDonald's
Then we were welcomed into the kitchen, to watch the new burgers get cooked and assembled. While the buns have definitely gotten an upgrade, we learned that, when it comes to the burgers, what’s changing is the process of cooking them, rather than the product itself.
“We focused on the technique — in the way we make the food in the kitchen,” Chad Schafer, McDonald’s senior director of culinary innovation and commercialization, explains. “And the care we take into that. It’s every step of the way, not just all the little components and that’s what you end up seeing and experiencing.”
Fewer burgers are placed on the grill, which somehow results in a hotter, juicier, tastier burger, and the diced white onions are added to the beef patties on the grill as they are cooking, rather than afterwards at the prep table. The cheese has been “tempered” longer to make it meltier as well, Schafer says.
The proof was in the tasting. In a side-by-side comparison, the new Double Cheeseburger looked, felt, tasted and even smelled better. The new one sat up higher and … is it weird to say prouder? The new bun was for sure puffier and moister, with an attractive golden color and sheen on top — and it smelled fresher and more buttery. The whole sandwich felt more substantial in the hand. And it definitely tasted sweeter and more flavorful— perhaps because it was cooked with the onions on the grill. The cheese, too, seemed more intrinsic. We would definitely choose the new Double Cheeseburger over the old one.
Our response to the side-by-side Big Mac comparison was a little more nuanced. With the old Big Mac, we mostly tasted lettuce (not a bad thing, in our opinion). The new one, though, felt like it was way more about the sauce. Perhaps, for our taste, a bit too much about the sauce.
Don’t get us wrong, the improvements were clear. The new cooking technique has rendered the burgers more flavorful and juicy. The new moist, shiny, puffy, golden, buttery-tasting toasted buns are light-years better than the old ones, which is especially important in a sandwich with three bun sections. The pickles add just the right amount of pop to each bite. And the cheese did seem “meltier” atop the hotter burger patty.
However, the additional Mac sauce, which Schafer says came in response to customer requests, made the sandwich a bit messy for us. The burger slid around on the bun a little too much, and we went through we don’t know how many napkins.
Apart from the abundance of Mac sauce, though, the new Big Mac was a tastier, fresher, more substantial sandwich. The cushier bun is inarguably a big improvement.
“When we looked at best burger, it was about looking at all the components, all the facets of it — how do we do it, how do we prep it, how do we cook it,” says Wayne Kuhl, McDonald’s senior manager of U.S. menu strategy, culinary and operations. “But really what best burger did is it gave each of the ingredients an opportunity to contribute to the overall flavor of the sandwich. So it becomes a dichotomy of flavors versus individual flavor tastes, where you might just get bread or ketchup or cheese — a singular flavor note. You start getting all the flavors together and they work well together better. They kind of harmonize together.”
And you thought it was just a burger.
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