For better or worse, the Korean boy band, BTS, has become a international cultural icon. When I was in college, I couldn’t escape from their music. I mean, it was okay. As good as any other K-pop boy group (personally, I was an iKon stan, but they never really got out of BTS’s shadow. Whatever).
Since then, they’ve created their own cartoon line, webtoon, New York pop-up store, etc., etc… So, when I saw that McDonald’s was releasing a “BTS Meal” that was endorsed by those Bangtan Boys… I wasn’t surprised at all. In fact, I was more shocked by the fact that they didn’t make this years ago. I mean, they made the “Travis Scott Meal” about a year ago (very disappointing by the way), so why wouldn’t they introduce other iconic artists into the mix?
Discovery and Suggestions
I heard about the BTS meal through a commercial where the boys were dancing and showing off the “new” product. And at the end of the commercial the only thought I had was “that’s it?” The “BTS Meal” consists of a 10-piece McNugget with a medium coke and fries. I was very… underwhelmed by the variety there. I mean, that’s the meal that I usually get (sans the coke), so I was shocked that they didn’t add more to it.
Literally the only difference is the two sauces... I don't get it.
I later found out that they included two new sauces that they were going to have available for limited release, which made the announcement a tad bit better, but I was still disappointed by the variety here. I mean, there are SEVEN of these boys. We couldn’t have had seven different meals? How easy would it have been to just have the boys fill out a sheet of paper with their order and have those be the different meals. You could be eating what RM eats. Or maybe another day you’d have a Suga day. V meals are just a milkshake with fries blended into it. I honestly don’t know why they had to lump all of the boys into one entity that said, “we only eat nuggets, fries, and coke when we go to McDonald’s.” Like… Imagine seven people saying that simultaneously. Creepy.
Review Explanation
In any case, I’m not going to be reviewing the base “BTS Meal” because that’s just a waste of time. Nuggets = good. Fries = good. Coke = ambiguous liquid, but good.
I do really like the containers.
What I will be reviewing is the two sauces that came with the meal because those were the only new, limited edition items that they introduced.
Sweet Chili Sauce
First off, let’s talk about the Sweet Chili sauce. One thing that I always say about sauces is that they are meant to enhance the flavor of whatever you’re eating. That’s the key to making a sauce work in any environment. If it’s too strong, then you’re just tasting the sauce, and if it’s too weak, you might as well put nothing on the nugget.
This sauce was on the latter side. I would have appreciated a stronger flavor coming from the Sweet Chili sauce as its initial impact was lacking. I was honestly kind of disappointed because out of the two, this one was more aesthetically pleasing. It had the viscosity of a sauce that would cling onto the nugget but not drench the nugget upon first dunk, and the color was pleasing to the eye. Plus, the label was a beautiful pastel pink that I really enjoyed.
It glistens in the lamplight...
After having a few nuggets and fries with this sauce, I started to notice a strange aftertaste in my mouth that was not preferable. I believe that this was because it was trying to emulate a chili to fulfill the chili side of the “Sweet Chili,” but instead, it just confused my palate, and made me want to rinse the bad taste in my mouth.
I guess the big question is: would I get this again? No. I would never get this again. I don’t need an inferior sauce in my life.
Cajun Sauce
Cajun sauce was interesting. I wasn’t expecting anything from this sauce… And I was right to have no expectations.
I’m not going to lie, I don’t like it when I dip my nugget into a sauce and the sauce just falls off. It’s like those two things were never supposed to go together. Like an unhappy marriage, the sauce flees as fast as it can, but if you try hard enough, you can force it to stay on the nugget. To make it clear, I do not condone this kind of relationship.
It took about three dips to achieve a somewhat decent looking dip.
The good thing about this sauce is that it is strong enough to enhance the nuggets flavor, and weak enough to not interrupt the base nugget. However, my initial thought when I ate (and smelled) the sauce was… Mustard. It just tasted like mustard. A different mustard from the original mustard or honey mustard, but it was mustard nonetheless.
And when I looked on the packet for the ingredients, the fourth ingredient in the sauce was “Dijon mustard,” confirming my mustard theory. I feel as though you can add as much ingredients as you want to a mustard sauce, but no matter what you put in there, the mustard flavor is going to be overwhelming everything else. And I’ll be quite honest when I say that mustard is not one of my favorite flavors to combine with chicken nuggets.
If anything, that came as a surprise to me because I don’t associate mustard with Cajun sauce at all. I went in expecting one thing and getting an entirely different flavor in return.
Would I get this again? No. I would rather just have regular mustard.
Final Ratings
Sweet Chili: 4/10
Cajun: 2/10
I think the Sweet Chili sauce was slightly better than the Cajun, but I don’t recommend either to anyone. There are much better sauces at McDonald’s, and the fact that this was all they did when they did a BTS collaboration is a travesty.
Although, the clothes and merch that they released is pretty fire (pun intended).
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