No Joke: Chocolate McFries

If you need proof that McDonald’s is back in its groove, consider the chocolate McFries it launched this week in Japan. Early reviews of this taste sensation are mostly – uh – positive, like this one from RocketNews24:

Without a doubt, the sauce was the prominent flavour, but with the savoury note, it didn’t taste like a dessert. Whatever the case, we couldn’t stop putting fistfuls into our mouths, so it was definitely a winning combination!

McDonald’s has been through a rough patch for several years now and business results released this week suggest that it’s coming back. Sales and profits for the fourth quarter were well above expectations. The improvement came mostly from a decision to start serving breakfast all day. Industry observers say these results mark a turnaround from a failed strategy of trying to be something McDonald’s clearly is not — a place for the supposedly healthier, more expensive food that popular “fast casual” restaurants are serving.

Japan is a big challenge. For the first nine months of 2015, McDonald’s lost more the $250 million dollars in Japan, largely because of food safety issues that hurt the brand. But in the fourth quarter, McDonald’s recorded its best sales of the last four years in Japan.

If you want evidence that McDonald’s has dropped the pretense of selling “healthy” food, McChoco Potato should satisfy you.

Click here and here to read more from the Washington Post.

Chocolate Sauce, photograph © Sam Breach / flickr
World Famous French Fries, photograph courtesy of McDonald’s

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January 30, 2016