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| McDonald's USA Pumpkin Cream Pie - September 2016 |
Pumpkin Cream Pie
Purchased on 10 September 2016
Location - McDonald's Middletown, Rhode Island, USA
Price - $2.04USD for 2
Calories - ~270kcal
Maple Blueberry Pie
Purchased on 29 February 2016, Consumed on 23 September 2016
Location - McDonald's Amherstburg, Ontario, Canada
Price - $1.14CAD = $0.86USD ($1.57CAD for 2)
Calories - ~250kcal
Full disclosure, if this review ends up being a bit incoherent that's because I just flew back from Canada this morning on a 4-flight, 32 hour journey, to arrive just in time for a full day at work. But it's been over a week since my last review so I want to make sure you guys always have something new to read.
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| McDonald's Rhode Island Receipt 2016 |
Going to start this two-pie, two-country combo review with the Pumpkin Cream Pie that I was able to find in Rhode Island when I visited my cousins a few weeks back. I was actually looking forward to trying the McLobster, but it finished a little over a week before I arrived, which wasn't as bad as last year when it was released in Canada I missed it by only 3 days! They didn't have any other promo burgers to review, so I settled with a pie.
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| McDonald's Rhode Island Pumpkin Cream Pie - 2016 |
I was half-hoping that the Pumpkin Cream Pie use the same cinnamon-loaded Pumpkin Pie crust that I reviewed in 2014, but it turned out to be nothing of the sort. The outer crust was dry and didn't have any flavour at all. The top even seemed a bit under-cooked as it didn't have the same golden colour you'd expect in the baked pies, and it was a bit doughy. The filling was equally underwhelming as the pumpkin side was nothing more than a syrup flavoured like pumpkin (completely different to the thick filling used in the 2014 Pie), no pieces of pumpkin were found here, and it seemed a bit too "bright" orange for my liking. The "Cream" had no notably dairy at all (unlike the Milk Pie from Japan I had a few months back) and was nothing more than a smooth sugary frosting, which on it's own didn't taste horrible, but it certainly tasted cheap. Also strange was that they used less cream than pumpkin filling, it wasn't split 50/50 down the middle, it was probably closer to 5/8ths.
All in, there wasn't really anything I liked about this pie and although it wasn't gross, it definitely doesn't deserve a high score, and it's probably worth skipping all together if you live in the US.
Rating - 1.5/5
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| McDonald's Amherstburg Ontario Recveipt 2016 |
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| Nearly 7 months after it's "Enjoy By" time. |
McDonald's Canada wasn't selling any promo pies during my September 2016 visit, so I only planned on reviewing the McTaster line on this trip. But one afternoon when I opened my mothers freezer (a relitvely unused freezer out in the garage) only to find a Blueberry Maple Pie purchased way back in February 2016 frozen for me. I don't remember asking her to do this, so took this as a sign that she must finally embrace this little blog of mine. Unlike the undercooked Pumpkin Cream Pie from down south, this pie was actually a bit overcooked with 3 clearly burnt corners, and although I don't have a photo of it, most of the bottom of the pie was darker than it should have been. This however meant the top crust was nice and brown.
Since the pie was frozen I stuck it in the toaster like other flown in pies I've reviewed before, and usually this is a rather painless process, to get it heated back to a suitable temperature without burning it. But just as my luck would have it, this time one of those hard burnt corners got stuck in the toaster and I actually needed to flip it upside down to try and shake it out, as even sticking in something to dislodge it didn't work. That meant that perfectly toasted top crust broke up into a couple pieces.
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| McDonald's Canada Blueberry Pie filling |
It's pretty easy to see that with the amount of both actually blueberries + all the syrup, that the primary flavour was going to be Blueberry and not Maple here. Now, I'm not 100% sure if it was because the pie was overcooked, frozen for 7 months, or simply that's how it was served, but it was really difficult to place any maple flavour in the pie. When I had that big chunk of blueberries in the centre I could finally get a hint of maple, so I suspect they mixed maple syrup in with the fruit syrup. With a pie in slightly better condition I think it would have had a better score, but this was still pretty good, especially for something frozen then broken to pieces.
Rating - 3.5/5
I'll hopefully be back with another review before the end of the week, but right now, I'm going to go pass out for the next 12 hours or so.