Sweet Meets Heat With McDonald's New Hot Honey Menu

Spicy menu items have become a major trend among fast food brands, and McDonald's is once more trying its hand at adding a wallop of spicy flavor to some of its tried and true favorites. It's a trend-based strategy that is designed to build engagement with younger diners, and it's been working out pretty well for fast food brands like McDonald's. Gen Z and Gen Alpha tend to gravitate toward experiential dining options, and seeing how well your group of friends can tolerate spicy food is one such experience. Younger generations are also more prone to enjoying spicy food, especially when they can share their tolerance via social media platforms, where spicy food challenges remain quite popular among content creators.

McDonald's latest entry into the melee of spicy fast food options is the Hot Honey Menu, which adds the restaurant's proprietary Hot Honey Sauce to the Sausage Egg Biscuit, the McCrispy, and the Snack Wrap. The Hot Honey Sauce is also available as one of McDonald's signature dips for Chicken McNuggets and fries. The Hot Honey menu isn't the first time McDonald's has attempted a spicy take on its classic menu items, which have come up with mixed results. I had a chance to check out the whole Hot Honey menu, and here's what to expect.

Before getting into the ups and downs of the new menu, here's the methodology that I applied to my evaluation. The most important factor in my review was overall flavor. I wanted to make sure the hot honey actually added something to the existing menu item instead of simply being a gimmick. I also wanted to consider the flavor of the hot honey itself — it's a nuanced condiment that can turn on a dime if it's not balanced properly.

I'm a fan of spicy food, so I also focused on the overall heat level of the new condiment. Fast food restaurants that roll out something spicy usually end up on the muted side of the spectrum, so I planned on awarding some bonus points here if the hot honey was actually hot. That said, I'm not a fan of spicy food that is just hot without any of its own individual flavor, so the sweetness also needed to show up to the party.

As with most promotional items, there is a bit of a premium that comes with the Hot Honey Menu. With the exception of the Hot Honey Snack Wrap, all of the other hot honey items are a bit more expensive than their honeyless counterparts. The price of the Hot Honey Sausage Egg Biscuit is probably the least egregious — my local McDonald's was charging about 20 cents more than the original version.

The McCrispy sandwiches are the priciest upgrades on the new menu. The original Hot Honey McCrispy is $1.50 more than the original, and the Bacon Hot Honey McCrispy is $1.50 more than the Deluxe McCrispy. The sandwiches also come with crispy fried jalapeños, which help add to the spicy flavor of the honey.

The new Hot Honey Menu is available at most McDonald's locations. I could see that most, if not all, of the restaurants near me were serving the Hot Honey Menu, so it shouldn't be too difficult to track these items down if you've got a McDonald's nearby.

Of all the new Hot Honey Menu items that launched, this was the item that I thought could get the most bang out of the promotional condiment. Nothing quite benefits from a hot honey drizzle quite like a breakfast sandwich, and the fact that McDonald's is featuring this item on a Sausage Egg Biscuit is a great call. Sausage and any type of honey on a biscuit is always going to be a win. Like most of McDonald's breakfast sandwiches outside of the McGriddles, you're looking at just over 500 calories for this item, so the condiment isn't adding too much caloric heft to the original.

Overall, the hot honey is a nice addition to this sandwich. The original Sausage Egg Biscuit is always on the dry side, and the McDonald's honey is my condiment of choice to liven things up a bit. The hot honey achieves this same effect, and it's got a decent enough capsaicin kick that adds a welcome spark to the sandwich.

As this was the first item I tried, it was my first chance to really evaluate the hot honey condiment. For the most part, it's a nice add. I was hoping for the balance between sweet and spicy to be a bit more proportional — the spiciness overwhelms the sweetness of the honey. Normally, I wouldn't mind this, but since it's not spicy enough to really knock my taste buds around, I was hoping to get a bit more nuance out of the flavors.

Ever since the Nashville hot chicken trend started sweeping the nation, spicy flavors and fried chicken sandwiches have become quite the combo. On top of that, the hot honey makes the most sense on the McDonald's line of McCrispy sandwiches — not sure a hot honey Quarter Pounder would bring in the crowds.

The Hot Honey McCrispy is definitely one of the standouts of the new menu. Its bun circumference allows for more of the hot honey to be applied to the sandwich, and it's got some creamy mayo to help balance out the heat. The crispy jalapeños do add a bit of extra kick and a nice textural contrast, but I think I'd have preferred the pickle slices that come with the original. They also add a bit more to the calorie count — this item is hanging at 660 calories, which is around 200 more than a standard McCrispy.

This, of course, made me think of how a novice menu hacker could simply order a Hot Honey Sauce Cup — which is a new addition to the McDonald's menu of dipping sauces — and drizzle it on their original McCrispy. This addition will only set you back about thirty cents, so it's not a bad way to give the menu a try on the cheap. Like most indulgences in life, however, it's the bacon that will end up costing you.

Since the bacon is the only thing that sets this sandwich apart from its hot honey cousin, I was thinking this sandwich would make more of a splash. Don't get me wrong — the bacon is thick, and there is plenty of it, but it just didn't land for me. Despite its quantity, its flavors got a bit drowned out by everything else.

Oddly enough, I found myself thinking that this sandwich might have worked better with thinner, crispier bacon. Hot honey is a pretty strong flavor, so it would make sense that a crunchier texture and more concentrated bacon flavor would be a bit more effective here.

It's not a bad sandwich by any stretch — the fried chicken breast was at its McCrispy best and everything else worked well together. Considering the price increase, however, I am not sure it's worth springing for the extra bacon. Or the extra calories for that matter, as this sandwich clocks in at a hefty 770 calories.

Ever since McDonald's relaunched the Snack Wrap on its regular menu, it's become a fairly cheap and calorie-friendly way to enjoy McDonald's fried chicken. Those positive traits are definitely enhanced by the addition of McDonald's Hot Honey. While the Ranch Snack Wrap remains the stalwart favorite, the Hot Honey Snack Wrap gets the job done — and does it with fewer calories. It's sitting at 350 calories, which is 40 fewer than the Ranch Snack Wrap.

My initial concern with this item was that the tortilla and shredded cheese would absorb all the hot honey flavor, but it ended up being the opposite. Their cool, mild flavors created a nice blank canvas for the hot honey to work, and the sweet, spicy flavors came through loud and clear. While the Hot Honey Snack Wrap isn't as flashy as the McCrispy sandwiches, it just might be the underdog of the Hot Honey lunch menu.

Since the McDonald's Hot Honey Menu revolves around this spicy sauce, I was glad to get the chance to try it out as a dipping sauce. McDonald's dipping sauces don't have too many spicy options, but I think this condiment rounds out the list nicely. It's not as acidic as the Buffalo Sauce, and it's not as aggressive as the Hot Mustard.

Much like all of the other sauces on McDonald's condiment menu, the Hot Honey Sauce is the key to unlocking new menu hacks that turn up the heat. It's great on fries and Chicken McNuggets, but it really shines as a supplement to your favorite sandwich.

While I'm not sure the Hot Honey Sauce would be very effective on a burger, one never knows until one tries. With this promotional condiment on the menu, the only limit to what you can create from the existing menu is your imagination.

The sum total of the McDonald's Hot Honey menu is positive. While I'd like the sauce to have a bit more nuance and balance, the sweetness and spiciness it does have go a long way to improving its respective menu items.

As much as I like the Hot Honey Sauce, I do think the crispy jalapeño crumbles on the McCrispy sandwiches are a misstep. They're not objectively bad as flavor and texture enhancers, but fried chicken sandwiches don't need a dry, crunchy component. Though I am glad the sandwiches kept the mayo, I found myself missing the pickles.

Overall, I think the Hot Honey Snack Wrap is the MVP of this promotional menu. It's not more expensive, it's less caloric, and you still get plenty of spicy bang for your buck. Outside of that, there is plenty of value from the Hot Honey Sauce on its own. Regardless of what you're after in a McDonald's promotional menu, the Hot Honey items are worth checking out.