The Long-Gone McDonald's Brownies We'd Travel Back To The 2000s For

I bet you can name a few discontinued fast food items you miss dearly. For me, it's Pizza Hut's Chocolate Dunkers and Chick-fil-A's carrot and raisin salad. Others may mourn Burger King's Rodeo Burger. Among this cemetery of fast food treats is a unique sweet treat from McDonald's that has some fast food archivists yearning for the 2000s: Brownie Melts. The dish consisted of small brownie-like bites clustered together in a small container. These chocolate bits were covered in a rich chocolate sauce and a white icing drizzle.

While the exact dates of this treat's availability are unclear, its limited run lasted from the late 2000s to around 2010. While short-lived, this treat certainly made an impact. On Reddit's r/forgottenfoods, many users lamented the early loss of this unique fast food dessert. One Reddit user posted a thread about the defunct menu item, lamenting that they're "...still thinking about it to this day." "These were so good I could cry," another Reddit user commented under the post.

Brownie Melts didn't hit the McDonald's scene alone. Around the same time that the chain released its Brownie Melts, it introduced another now-defunct McDonald's menu item called Cinnamelts (also known as Cinnamon Melts), which were a cinnamon bun bite version of the Brownie Melts. Cinnamelts managed to stick on the McDonald's menu until 2017, outlasting brownie melts by several years.

As it happens, both Brownie Melts and Cinnamelts happen to be a part of an interesting point in McDonald's history. Both items were released in the late 2000s, at a time when the fast food chain was rapidly expanding, and McCafé made its way to the United States. In fact, Brownie Melts were marketed alongside McCafé beverage items, and in 2010, The Takeout reviewed both Brownie Melts and McDonald's iced coffee, noting that the chain was attempting to sell itself "...as [an ideal spot] to hang out, grab a sweet snack, and wash it down with some of their café-quality coffee." 

So it seems that this nostalgic chocolate dessert was a somewhat sputtering start to McDonald's now well-worn McCafé line and an artifact of McDonald's shaky first attempts at reshaping its image and offerings. Though they are no more, the chain's frappes and iced coffee offerings are still going strong. And if that's not enough, you can still get a chocolate fix with the Hot Fudge Sundae, our top-ranked McDonald's dessert.

Static Media owns and operates Chowhound and The Takeout.