McDonald's Remastered Big Mac

Without very much warning, I found out this week that McDonald's was revisiting and remastered the classic Big Mac. How would they improve on "Two all-beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions – on a sesame seed bun" ???

I didn't know this until I got home, but apparently it's not just the Big Mac, it's also the Cheeseburger & Quarter Pounder. Why are they going back to reinvent the classics? As far as I know, the Big Mac has remained relatively unchanged since it was created in 1967.  Well back in 2016 McDonald's had a crisis - it turned out only 1 in 5 millennials had ever had a Big Mac. Overall, people, not just millennials, want fresher burgers.

Here's what I knew: they were being remastered, and to promote this new sandwich, they are selling them this week for only $3 (normally a Big Mac is about $5.50). So I went to check them out without knowing what was changed.

Were they changing up the patty? New sauce? I had no clue. So it was just guessing. The box is still the same.

At first look, I couldn't see much of a difference. The bun looked a little shiny, the patty a little lighter brown. It still looked flat and nothing like the photos.

I should also note that I ate this at lunchtime, and within about 2 minutes of getting it after going through the drive-thru. I wanted it to be as fresh as possible - lunch time meant they would be cooking up a lot quickly without time to sit around.

Again the only thing I noticed different so far was more pepper on the patty?

Here are the things that I noticed that seemed different:

• extra Mac Sauce - there was a lot, which I like. Made for a more moist sandwich
• the burger patty didn't seem as dried out or over cooked

That was about it. Overall it was a really good Big Mac. It was really fresh, full of flavour, and was one of the better Big Mac experiences I've had, and I like Big Mac's. But if I didn't know about this remastering thing, I wouldn't really know there was a change, I would just assume I got a fresher properly made Big Mac. So what was different?

Well, the patties are still 100% beef, but they are cooked in smaller batches so they aren't sitting in those plastic warming trays. I couldn't put my finger on it, but I could taste that difference.

They've added the chopped onions to the grill to cook. This I didn't notice or at least, not consciously. I like this idea, it just wasn't apparent

Finally, they served the buns warmer. I don't know how they did this differently, but the bun did seem slightly softer.

So this wasn't a major revamp, just some slight adjustments. Adjustments that aren't huge but are welcome. Overall, a better Big Mac experience, but marginally. I mean, my burger still fell apart (that middle bun shifts as do the patties) making a real mess. But for $3, this was an awesome deal.

As far as I know, this is just in Canada for now ...