This week, Snacks have the spotlight. Which means, we’re getting into Holiday Party Season. In the Mains section, the usual suspects are announcing their ‘Turkey Leftover Alternative’ meal deals. And a celebrity note: The Grinch is back in Town!
The KFC Festive Feast – 2024 Edition
The rundown…
Snacks like you’ve never seen them before! Lay’s Turkey Dinner Chips, Not one, but 2 Holiday col-lections from Krispy Kreme. And homage to the exotic: Dark Chocolate Cinnamon Hummus!
Mains
KFC brings back Family Feast
This year, the Festive Feast is back as a limited-time digital-exclusive. Includes: six pieces of fried chicken legs and thighs (Original Recipe or Extra Crispy), six pieces of Original Recipe Tenders, three dipping sauces, and two large sides. The ‘suggested’ price is $25.99. But price may vary according to where you live…
Popeye’s does $20 Family Meal
You get: four pieces of fried chicken, four chicken tenders, four regular sides, and four buttermilk biscuits. A pretty good deal! Even better, you don’t have to be a member of Popeye’s Rewards loyalty program to get it! But it IS a limited-time offer.
McDonald’s dangles $0.50 Double Cheeseburger…
… In front of app members. It sounds like another desperate measure for desperate times, designed to kick up sales following the mass exodus of home-market fans over the E.coli crisis. This is a very-limited-time special, ending December 15. And it’s open only to McD’s Rewards program members. The burger giant is really angling to get new members for its loyalty program, offering a menu item that sells normally for around $4 at just half a buck. But there you go…
… Offers holiday Grinch Meal
It’s a Green-themed feast: choose either a Big Mac, a 10-piece Chicken McNuggets, or a McChicken, and get an order of New Dill Pickle McShaker Fries and a medium fountain drink.
Plus a pair of ‘exclusive mismatched Grinch socks’. It’s just another component of a huge – and still growing – Holiday McMenu!
Papa Murphy does Stuffed Crust
It’s the now-classic cheese-stuffed, rolled-edge crust many brands offer. But Papa calls it, “the hot-test, meltiest, best stuffed crust you’ve ever had.” Looks like a new permanent menu option! Avail-able only in 14 in. / 35 cm Large size…
El Pollo Loco tosses together $5 Bowl Deal
It’s on the Original Pollo Bowl, and it’s available chain-wide through January 29, 2025. A nice change from the usual Turkey-Ham-Whatever holiday leftovers. There’s also an enticing deal offering two tacos for $5 deal every Tuesday, now through December 31. (See photo, top of page.)
Sides
Potato Wedges back at Jack In The Box
Folks love Potato Wedges. Except for fast food fry jockeys. That’s because these crunchy-chewy treats take somewhat longer than much-narrower regular fries to cook through, and slow down production.
But JITB is bring them back to address popular demand. There are 3 variants; Plain, Classic Sauced & Loaded, and Spicy Sauced & Loaded Wedges…
Beverages
Sprite Vanilla Frost new for the Hollidays
It’s a new (not returning) year-end holiday flavour combining Sprite’s tangy lemon-lime blend with smooth, umami vanilla. A natural alliance, when you come to think about it! Vanilla Frost is caffeine-free. It’s a nice counterpoint to the ‘traditional’ Winter Spiced Cranberry Sprite already back for the season…
Dairy Queen reprises Peppermint Hot Cocoa Blizzard
It’s back! A seasonal fave that has it all… Vanilla soft serve mixed with candy cane bits, choc chunks, and cocoa fudge, topped with whipped topping and more candy cane bits. You can hardly get more Holiday-themed than that!
Snacks & Desserts
Lays Canada serves up Turkey Dinner!
Well… It’s Turkey Dinner ‘Holiday Dinner’ Limited Edition potato chips. They missed Canadian Thanks-giving, back on the second Monday in October. But we’re glad to have these savoury dippers in time for the year end celebrations! They taste like classic turkey stuffing.
One thing… They come with the same level of salt as all Lays potato chips. But they really don’t need that much for optimum flavour balance… The festive package was impossible to miss even in the overstuffed, holiday-jumbled chips aisle at our go-to supermarket, Sister Erin reports…
McD’s Chicken Snack Wrap coming back soon…
McDonald’s is teasing fans with the possible early return of one of its most beloved limited-time menu rotation items – the Snack Wrap. Sounds counter intuitive to starve fans for items such as the Snack Wrap and the legendary McRib… But as we’ve explained, McD’s has a good reason: These be-loved treats bring fans into the resto in droves – while they’re around. In keeping with this strategy, the Fast Food giant isn’t saying when, for sure, the Snack Wrap may next reappear…
Krispy Kreme intros TWO holiday collections!
One is traditional, featuring new Sugar Cookie, Gingerbread Cookie Crumb and Red Velvet Cake sinkers, along with returning Santa Belly and Chocolate Sprinkles favourites. The other collection is a new Marry Grinchmas array celebrating the seasonal classic tale from Dr, Seuss, featuring three new Grinch-inspired doughnuts plus the returning Santa Belly classic.
M&Ms features all-new Toasted Peanut flavour
It’s a truly new, chestnuts-roasting-by-an-open-fire-inspired holiday treat: Toasted peanut M&Ms. I’m kind of curious about the prominent notice on the package that it’s artificially flavoured.
Maybe that means the ‘toasted’ component of the overall flavour profile is added artificially. Because the photo will shows a whole roasted peanut in the centre of the familiar over-sized, oval M&M…
Baskin-Robbins brings back Winter White Chocolate
It’s white chocolate ice cream with tart cherry swirls, studded with chocolaty-coated cherry pieces. And it’s the Flavour of the Month. Brrr the Snowman Cake, Egg Nog ice cream, and Peppermint ice cream are also back for the season. The Happy Holidays and Reindeer ice cream cakes are also back…
Dark Chocolate Cinnamon Hummus
The critics are divided: Genius move? THE next-gen snack? Or a dip too far? It’s from Cedars, already a hummus powerhouse with 22 previous flavours from Everything Bagel to Hot Honey. And fans will know there’s already a Dark Chocolate version (without the cinnamon) which has resonated with the ‘healthier sweets’ crowd…
Subway readying footlong Chocolate Peppermint OREO cookie
And it’s apparently set for release in January. Looks positively, tooth-achingly sweet! And it’s shaped like a boat.
Not officially announced yet, but photos have leaked online! Could also rank as OREO’s first collab of the new year…
And that’s the skinny…
… On what’s going to be making some of us look more like Santa-like in the days and weeks ahead. See you right back here in 7 for the next over-indulgent edition of Fast Food Week!
~ Maggie J.