McDonald’s has a new sauce that matches the hue of its famous golden arches.
On Sept. 3, the fast-food chain released the Special Edition Gold Sauce, which blends a “vinegary North Carolina BBQ sauce” with notes of honey, smoke and mustard. It’s now available nationwide, while supplies last.
McDonald’s is offering the sauce in cups and also has paired it with four chicken-based menu items:
- Special Edition Gold Snack Wrap features Gold Sauce on top of McCrispy Strips, shredded cheese and lettuce, wrapped in a tortilla.
- Bacon Special Edition Gold McCrispy Sandwich features Gold Sauce, plus thick-cut Applewood smoked bacon and crinkle-cut pickles atop McCrispy Strips, served on a toasted potato roll.
- Bacon Special Edition Gold Deluxe McCrispy Sandwich features everything on the previous sandwich plus shredded lettuce and Roma tomatoes.
- McCrispy Strips feature white-meat chicken coated in “crispy golden-brown breading” and black pepper. Customers can order Gold Sauce on the side.
What Does McDonald’s Special Edition Gold Sauce Taste Like?
McDonald’s take on Carolina Gold barbecue sauce tastes like a much more sophisticated version of honey mustard, my usual go-to dipping sauce at the chain. In fact, I would go so far as to call it “Honey Mustard’s sexy older brother.”
This sauce has a motorcycle, a leather jacket and will upset your parents, but all your friends will be jealous. I love it.
I would describe McDonald’s sauce in four words: tangy, tart, honeyed and spiced. It’s not spicy at all, in contrast to Trader Joe’s Carolina Gold Barbeque Sauce, but you can taste that there’s more going on than salt and pepper.
And, if you’re wondering why I said both tangy and tart, it’s because there’s both lemon and vinegar in this sauce, creating a nice complexity. The sauce does have a subtle honey flavor, which reminded me of another chain’s sauce — and I’m not alone on that.
How Does It Compare to Chick-fil-A Sauce?
TikToker @hellthyjunkfood says she can “hardly tell the difference” between McDonald’s Gold Sauce with Chick-fil-A sauce in her video.
Other creators on the platform agreed, saying it “literally” tastes like Chick-fil-A Sauce and telling McDonald’s, “you cannot trick my tastebuds.”
Looking at their ingredients side by side, I found that they share many of the same ingredients, including soybean oil, sugar, mustard, egg yolk and vinegar.
So, I decided to try them side by side, and found that McDonald’s new dip is more vinegary than Chick-fil-A’s creamier, sweeter sauce. I can taste the similarity, but they have their own distinct vibes.
If I had to pick a favorite, I would have to give it to Mickey D’s, whose sauce has so much more going on, despite its lack of Scoville units. Sorry, Chick-fil-A.
