BK's Cheddar Jalapeno Burger

I realize I haven’t posted in a while.  I’ve been staring at this review of the Jalapeno & Cheddar Burger for a while now.  It’s just that my relationship with Burger King is so extensive that I’ve been finding it rather difficult to fit it all in to one post.  I consider myself a relative expert on BK.  Maybe someday I’ll write a book about it (highly unlikely).  It only makes sense.  Did Adam Smith write a blog about economic theory?  No; he wrote Wealth of Nations.  Consider this post to be an excerpt from my future fake book, “Diarrhea Nation”. 

Burger King has the best commercials of any of the fast food chains.  Notice how I did not say marketing scheme.  The best marketing of the fast food chains has to be McDonalds.  They are EVERYWHERE.  I once watched a documentary that had an adult showing kindergarten kids flash cards with symbols on it.  When the adult showed the kids a flash card with the letter “m”, the kids had no idea what it was.  When the adult then showed the kids a flashcard with McDonald’s golden arches “M”, the kids erupted as if they were just told they won a free trip to Disney World, screaming the right answer, “MCDONALDS!!!!!”

This kid loves the Golden Arches

If that’s not effective marketing bordering on brainwashing, I don’t know what is.  Back to BK commercials. They are definitely geared toward me, a male age 18-30.  BK’s commercials peaked when I was in college from 2003-2007 when they featured a man who dressed up as The Burger King himself with a mask that does not change its reaction.  My favorite of these commercials were when The King was superimposed into NFL football games.  Specifically, I loved when the King took the role of Ed Reed of the Baltimore Ravens and intercepted Drew Bledsoe of the Buffalo Bills for a touchdown.  Simply genius.

If you watched the 2010 NFL playoffs, there’s a 99% chance you are aware about the Jalapeno & Cheddar Burger.  The commercials show a bunch of jalapenos and cheddar cubes in with a black background and flames.  The voice over says starts with something like, “Beef, meet cheddar….”

A few weeks, I decided that it was time to try the Jalapeno & Cheddar Burger.  I went to the Burger King closest to work on a solo mission.  It was my first time at the Copley Square BK.  I previously avoided it because I had one in South Boston for 2 years, and because fast food joints increase their prices in downtown Boston for obvious reasons. 

Ehhhhhhhhh

When I first opened the wrapper of the Burger, I was instantly disappointed.  It was soggy and juices dripped down my hand.  I’ve been told before that I should really eat my meals at the restaurant that I buy them in, and that the transfer of the food from the restaurant to wherever I eat it declines the quality of the taste.  I understand that argument, but I try to keep my lunches as short as possible, and I would much rather spend my lunch time eating while reading espn.com than eating in the some uncomfortable chair at a fast food restaurant by myself.  I also believe that most of the time, people take their food out of fast food restaurants and my reviews should reflect that. The taste is spicy due to the jalapenos.  Every other bite or so, I taste the cheddar.  The texture of the burger isn't as meaty as I like.  The meat is surrounded by jalapeno and cheddar and its meatloafy consistency reflects that.  I would not recommend the Jalapeno & Cheddar Burger.

Ratings:

Taste: D

Visual Appeal: D

Value: C+

Actual to Commercial: D