In 1998, McDonald's offered Szechuan sauce to accompany chicken nuggets. It was a limited-time offer to promote the movie Mulan. In April, the bygone sauce was the subject of a joke on the show Rick and Marty. Since then, the internet became obsessed with Szechuan sauce. To capitalize on the meme, McDonald's made the sauce available for one day only on Saturday. They tragically underestimated the demand, and saw lines forming for the sauce. Some outlets only had a dozen or so packets to give out. And some had none at all.
And while some got their sauce—our very own Charles Pulliam-Moore called it “okay”—plus a cute poster to commemorate the occasion, reports are that many McDonald’s locations did not have the sauce packets in quantities anywhere near sufficient to meet demand. Many took to Twitter to document the pandemonium that their local burgery had become, descended upon by a mob of condiment-lacking customers from the saddest of timelines: ours.
Common theme, I tried two in Delaware that @McDonalds website said had it, and they say they never got it. Seems like a bait and switch.
— Kyle Grantham (@kylegrantham) October 7, 2017
But don't give up just yet. The company has hinted that it will do this again.
You spoke. We’ve listened. Lots more #SzechuanSauce and locations. Details soon. And that’s the wayyy the news goes! pic.twitter.com/ooIrbZBsOw
— McDonald's (@McDonalds) October 8, 2017
No date for the return of the sauce has been set. -via the A.V. Club
(Image credit: McDonald's Wikia)