Not Rock & Roll, but the next-best-thing: Smashburger presents its Summer of Smash! We also have a broad selection of new, mid-Summer and (very) early Fall specials from Brands you told us you love. Plus earliest-ever return of Pumpkin Pie Spice…
The rundown…
Crossovers with new movie premieres headline Fast Food Week this time around. After that, its a cavalcade of summer treats and snacks…
Mains
Summer of Smash
It’s the snappy name Smashburger chose for its new summer specials selection. Technically, it’s a limited-time $4.99 ‘All-The-Time’ value menu. And it’s festooned with seasonally-themed Burgers and Hot Dogs… Somewhere in there, there’s also a yummy-sounding, new smoked Brisket Sandwich…
7-Eleven hosts summer specials
7-Eleven welcomes two new, limited-time additions to its hot food options with the arrival of the new Bacon Lover’s Pizza with Sweet Baby Ray’s BBQ Sauce and the Jalapeno Ranch Chicken Taquito. As always, something legitimately new and tasty from 7-Eleven and it’s kissing cousins, Speedway and Stripes…
Taco John’s rolls out Taco Burger
And it’s coming to the entire chain. It’s meant to mimic a Taco on a bun. Features: seasoned ground beef, cheddar cheese, lettuce, and taco sauce on an ‘upgraded’ potato bun.
You can get one for just $1., on Taco Tuesdays, trough the end of Summer…
Wednesday’s ‘Meal of Misfortune’
Some ideas are just timeless, I guess. Like the Wednesday character from the Addams Family who got her own limited series a couple of seasons ago. Now she’s back with Season 2. Wendy’s is set to launch its new Wendy’s x Wednesday Meal of Misfortune starting Monday, August 4 2025, at locations US-wide. The new season of the show starts Wednesday August 6.
Sides
Marco’s elevates Hot Honey to ‘permanent’
Marco’s Pizza keeps its Hot Honey Pepperoni Magnifico Pizza on the menu permanently. Hot Honey sauce was a runaway winner on the Fast Food new-flavour roster last year. it must have been THE flavour fave for Marco’s fans, to be kept on the menu permanently.
The Honey Honey Pepperoni Magnifico pie is topped with pepperoni, Old World Pepperoni, Romesan seasoning (a Parmesan-based seasoning with Italian herbs and spices), and a drizzle of Mike’s Hot Honey.
Desserts & Snacks
Chips Ahoy! x Stranger Things Cookies arriving SOON
The special edition cookies featuring a chocolaty base with fudge chips and a red strawberry-flavored filling hit stores August 11, 2025.
In spite of the fact that the fifth and last season season of Stranger Things doesn’t premiere until… November! There will also be an augmented-reality game with a chance to win limited-edition Stranger Things merchandise…
Taco Bell loves Hispanic desserts!
Taco Bell’s Cinnabon Delights are coming back, in new Dulce de Leche flavour starting July 31, 2025. Available for a limited time at participating locations US-wide, the new variety is described as, ‘a warm doughnut hole, with a dulce de leche filling, rolled in a salted caramel sugar coating’. Available in packs of two and 12.
Hershey’s to increase prices
Tariffs. Rising cocoa prices courtesy of climate change. Tariffs courtesy of President Donald Trump’s compound tariffs, upon which he will not budge.
Hershey says its tariff ‘bill’ to be between (US)$15 million and us)$20 million during the second quar-ter of 2025. Although it noted that, once it depletes its chocolate stockpile already in the United States, the bill could reach $100 million in the second half of the year.
Fried Pickle Taco reigns at Del Taco’s
A tangy Fried Pickle Taco headlines Del Taco’s contribution to this summer’s apparently mandatory homage to the Pickle craze. I guess DT felt it really should do something to get into the pickle parade already featuring entries from SONIC, Popeye’s and Shake Shack.
Described as: ‘a breaded, fried dill pickle spear folded in a warm flour tortilla along with shredded lettuce, fresh-grated cheddar cheese, diced tomatoes, and ranch sauce’.
Novelties
Summer Doldrums, battery-lickin’, blues…
It must be the dead-centre, Dog Days of summer. Rewind, a Netherlands snack brand, has released corn chips that taste like 9-volt batteries. Specifically, the tiny tingle that comes from licking the tip of a 9-volt battery.
Rewind wanted to take you down memory lane. So it whipped up, “a blend of citric acid and sodium bicarbonate to create a tongue-tingling effect, and balanced it out with mineral salts, which give the chips a metallic tang.”
Smell-O-Vision still a no-go… But…
Science has given us at least a significant portion of the overall experience that will eventually be full-fledged Taste-O-Vision for VR. It’s an add-on for the proliferating VR glasses that have recently taken the gaming market by storm.
A team at the City University of Hong Kong, recently unveiled its VR Mouthpiece, described as a, “portable lollipop-shaped gustation interface.” It releases small packets of flavour concentrates as directed by the overall game interface…
Dominoes Singapore does Sausage Crust
But does it differently, and whole hog. The crust is, in fact, a work of art featuring whole breakfast sausages in intricately-woven ‘macramé’ pastry. The pit itself is covered with Dominoes Mac & Cheese…
Two other pies are also available in this limited-time ‘family’: the Mushroom Mac & Cheesy (adds on mushrooms) and the Spicy Beef Mac & Cheesy (adds on ground beef, pickled red chiles, and a sweet-and-spicy lava sauce).
And that’s the skinny…
… On what’s going to be making some of us a little warmer and cuddlier over the days and weeks to come… See you back here in 7 for the next sun-drenched edition of Fast Food Week…
~ Maggie J.