3 August 2009

Dairy Milk Caramel Milkshake (McDonalds)


I really don’t go in to McDonalds very often, and when I do, as you might expect, it is the new and specials that catch my eye. Now I don’t think that I have had one of their milkshakes since I was a child, but the idea of a ‘Dairy Milk Caramel’ variety meant I just had to buy one!
My first taste of this product was that of caramel and banana (no chocolate), which really isn’t a good sign. It made me worry for a moment about how the machines are used to produce different shakes, as banana clearly wasn’t supposed to be there.
I decided to stir the drink a bit and noticed it got visibly darker when I did that, like the caramel (with banana) and chocolate taste were separate and as I mixed them up the chocolate became more prominent and the drink went browner.
After doing this the banana flavour subsided a great deal and chocolate was also noticeable for the first time. In texture the drink was quite thick and (very) cold, but it did go up the straw okay. As it happened I liked the shake, despite this error in taste, but the making of the drink was obviously poorly executed by the assistant.

6 comments:

cinabar said...

eating better - doesn't specifically rule out 'drinking' bad for you stuff ;-)

Anonymous said...

The machine dispenses a vanilla milkshake base, while simultaneously adding a flavoured syrup (unless the milkshake you want is vanilla). At the end of the milkshake there should be a shot of plain vanilla to wash the syrup tubes down, preparing them for the next milkshake, with a possibly different flavour.
What happens is that the machine doesn't always give that plain shot, so more often than not the milkshake will have a bit of a different syrup, normally on the bottom, which is the part you taste first.
This has nothing to do with the crew member making it wrong. It's actually the machine's fault and there's no way to correct it.
I work at McDonalds...

cinabar said...

Okay I accept it wasn't the assistants fault. But it is still pretty poor to find out that it is a common problem and not just one branch of McDonalds. The banana flavour was pretty strong. If the machine is 'supposed' to give a plain shot to clear the flavour, surely someone should be maintaining the machines to ensure they work and do this properly?

Anonymous said...

It's me again!
I'm not sure how they could actually change the way the machine works. It gives the amount of milkshake it thinks the cup will hold (if you put in a smaller cup it'll know it's smaller, if you put in a bigger cup but put it in such a way that the holder is lower down the cup, the machine will also think it's a smaller cup). I don't know exactly how the machine calculates the size of the cup... but it's definitely not a modifiable preset. And yeah I do wish it always got it right =/ There's a different model of milkshake machine btw, which operate using buttons instead of the standard lever, and I've never seen those fail. Although I do think they slightly underfill the cup.
If I were you I'd try another caramel milkshake. But then again I am addicted to them so I guess I'm terribly biased.
I wish we had banana milkshakes in Ireland =(

cinabar said...

You don't have banana milkshakes in Ireland??? Now that is shocking!!

I do hope McDonalds switch to the new machines... do many people complain about mixed up flavours? I'm sure if I had complained they would have just made me a fresh one - and I wouldn't need to moan about it! :-D

Anonymous said...

I've never had a complaint about the flavour of the milkshakes. We're very careful that the whole milkshake is the proper flavour.
And tbh I much prefer our lever machines (they're not old, just a different model). We can fit in much more milkshakey goodness inside every cup =P
With the other machine people complain saying that there's not enough milkshake, but without a stop fill button we can't fill it up to the top because the machine would give a full standard amount, not just a little bit.
(I'm loving the blog btw!)