This is such awesome nerdiness! 
The Szechuan sauce is really limited though, according to the official website. For example, there’s only 2 McDonalds in Massachusetts that will have it, out of 15 that will be giving out posters. So don’t stroll down to your local McDs that afternoon hoping to snag a few packets.
You sure about that? I checked the site, and it lists 16 cities in Massachusetts 9including mine). It doesn’t say anything about which sauces are in which cities, so I assume all of them (including Szechuan) are available in all cities.
The page includes this paragraph:
If you pick Boston or Holyoke, they say “Szechuan available”. None of the other MA locations say that, so they’re only giving out posters.
And god, that search page sucks if you want to search multiple locations. You’ve got reload it, then pick Massachusetts again, then pick the new town.
There’s a “Back” button highlighted that lets you search all the Massachusetts towns without reloading. There’s also a “Back” button to let you go to another state without reloading.
You’re quite right about only Boston and Holyoke only having the “Szechuan Available”. If you didn’t click either of those, you wouldn’t have known that the others only give a poster (as I did)
There’s also not much rhyme or reason to the choices. Boston I can understand, but then only [Holyoke as the other? OK, they’re far enough apart to get a fair amount of the state (People in Cambridge can go to Boston if they want a shot at sauce)
But in Utah it’s Salt Lake City and Provo, which are only an hour apart, while they ignore large chunks of the state. If you say “Well, BYU is in Provo”, well, there are universities in other Massachusetts towns.
In New York these are mostly in Manhattan, none in Brooklyn, and one in Long Island City and one in Buffalo (?)
In New Jersey one is in Camden! Camden can use the foot traffic, I’m sure, but it seems a weird choice.
I’m guessing Holyoke is because of the approximately 50k college students in the immediate area, who are prime targets for Rick & Morty stuff. Little surprised they didn’t make it a little closer to UMass Amherst though.
WTF does it taste like???
A bit sweet and spicy.
My first thought, too, but that doesn’t fit in with many of the other sites. Ogden’s got lots of college students. Cambridge, MA is infested with them. Rochester’s got more college students than Buffalo.
Is szechuan sauce like the McRib; something they used to have and people have been pining for ever since they discontinued it or something? I’ve never heard of it before.
Not really. A character from the TV show “Rick and Morty” said it was the best thing he ever tasted, and he’s been looking for it since 1998. The fans took that and ran with it, and McDonalds has been playing along.
It was released as a cross promotion with the movie Mulan in 1998, most people never heard about it or even cared but the show Rick and Morty made a big deal out of it during one of their episodes so now its a big thing online.
Never had it. What am I missing? And those posters look terrible!
I stay home.
In the Season 3 premiere, the Szechuan Sauce was revealed as the prime motivator for the existence of the entire Rick and Morty universe. So it’s totally a nerd thing – a MacGuffin, if you will – no one has any idea what the actual stuff tastes like.
Why wouldn’t they? it’s not like Rick and Morty invented it, the stuff already existed. It’s sweet and spicy.
I recall very few meals I consumed in 1998, and I don’t eat at McDonald’s. Bottled Pickapeppa sauce is also sweet and spicy. Did it taste like that?
Indeed. McDonalds sent the creator of the show a half gallon jug of the sauce after the episode aired.
I never cared for McDonald’s nuggets, and I doubt the “Szechuan” sauce is much more than sour ketchup. I worked at McDonald’s starting in October 1998 (good god, 19 years ago!), so right after the Mulan marketing run, and I remember exactly zero people reminiscing about the Szechuan sauce or lamenting its loss.
Lot’s of people I know still miss the McHero. And I remember the Arch Deluxe fondly. No such love for the Szechuan sauce, until this year.
I remember the Arch Deluxe, but not the McHero. What was that? Was it national?