On a recent trip to Dubai I stopped in a McDonalds and noticed something interesting in their McCafe selection of desserts, macarons. I should make it clear, I'm not sure that this is the only place where McDonalds sells macarons, leave a comment if they sell them where you live. The thing about the McCafe dessert case is that it's strangely a place I rarely ever explore. In this particular case (no pun intended), the McCafe is attached to the front counter and sits right next to the place where you have to wait for your food. Many of the McCafe cases I've seen in the past are either near the cash registers (I use the touch screens to order my food) or the cafe is in another section of the restaurant entirely.
You might also imagine that any desserts are in my wheelhouse, but strangely that's not always true. When I'm at McDonalds I tend to focus on the classic desserts, the sundaes and pies, and I often ignore the fancy McCafe stuff. It's only been recently that I've even tasted their donuts, and that's only because we won a few in the Monopoly contest they had. So while waiting for my food, I happened to notice that the McCafe sold macarons, and I wondered how a fast food chain could handle such a sophisticated dessert.
I didn't buy any on the first visit, I instead decided to just gawk at them and wonder if anyone ever bought them. On the next visit my curiosity peaked, and I decided to give them a shot. Fortunately I could still order them from the touch screen kiosks, and I could even pick which flavour I wanted. The choices were very simple, which kind of surprised me. I guess they decided that they didn't want to be too outlandish with the choices. I still think making a macaron with a light brown cookie and a dark brown filling would have been fun, because it would look like a hamburger.
The flavours were pretty basic, and I went with chocolate, raspberry, and vanilla. The box was the first thing I noticed when I got my cookies. I was kind of wondering if these macaron were regularly available items at McDonalds, and the fact that they have a box specifically designed for the macarons tells me they are. It also tells me that they realise that these are a little fancier than their other desserts as every time I've had a donut at McDonads it just comes in a paper bag. Strangely I feel like the macarons would have survived better in a paper bag than the donuts I picked up.
I decided to start with the vanilla, as it's really the basic flavour that's the most challenging to get right. Vanilla treats can go be amazing if done right, but if not they're just kind of boring. My first impressions weren't that great. First of all they were cold, and I don't mean not warm, they were actually very cold. The vanilla flavour was fine, but nothing that impressive. Finally the centre was a cream, not a jam or even something similar to an icing, it was like a small dollop of whipped cream. The chocolate and raspberry were fairly similar in that they were cold, fairly flavourless, and the cream in the middle was kind of disappointing.
This leads me back to my original idea, is this the fanciest thing ever at McDonalds, and if it is, is it worth it. To the first part of this idea, I do believe that this is one, if not the fanciest thing I've ever had at McDonalds, but as to the second thing, I'd probably say no, it's not worth it. They're not overly expensive, but they're not cheap either (over 1 dollar each US). Personally I still have yet to warm up to the McCafe. I don't drink coffee and so far the desserts have been a little disappointing. If there's something I'm missing, let me know.
I really thought that the McCafe idea wouldn't have stayed as long as it has. I understand that the coffee at McDonalds is spectacular according to many people, but it was apparently spectacular long before the McCafe opened. Is this cafe gaining its success off of a product they sold before they even opened? So far the donuts where meh, and the macrons were pretty low quality too. I didn't hate either one, but I have no reason to get them again when I could have a caramel sundae instead.
CC
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