24% Want This Discontinued Burger King Item To Make A Comeback
After a year of various chicken sandwiches duking it out for fast food supremacy, it's easy to feel nostalgic for a time when chains would take a chance on riskier foods. Burger King, for example, had to really stand out in order to shine beyond McDonald's industry-wide shadow. So, we thought we would take a trip down memory lane and find out which discontinued Burger King item people miss the most. 590 Americans responded.
The Burger King item people were least enthused by was the Cupcake Shake. Only 10.51% wanted a second chance at the milkshake that The Impulsive Buy thought tasted like eggnog or cake batter. Next came Sastisfries, which Money describes as having 30% fewer calories and 40% less fat than standard french fries. 10.68% of people surveyed remember them fondly. A slightly larger 12.71% wanted the Burger Shot to return. In fairness, these were effectively just Burger King sliders, according to Meat + Poultry.
After this point, people's excitement grew more noticeable. 19.32% desired the Shake 'Em Up Fries — and after watching a commercial on YouTube about shaking a bag of fries and cheese flavoring, anyone with a tongue would want that. Anyone, that is, except for the 22.37% who most missed the dearly departed Donut Holes. While it might be surprising to hear that over a fifth of people surveyed would want a burger joint's donuts that badly, no one should be surprised by the identity of the number-one most desired discontinued item.
A once in a lifetime success
24.41% of the 590 people surveyed want ribs to come back to Burger King. At first, this might seem strange. However, it's even stranger that Burger King has not brought back its ribs since their debut in 2010.
It is difficult to overstate the absolute success Burger King found in offering straight up ribs. As Time Magazine raved in 2010, "June brought us Burger King's out-of-nowhere experiment with pork ribs, which turned out to be so spectacularly successful that the chain sold 10 million of them and ran low on ribs a week before it planned to end the limited-time offer." The reason, the piece cynically suggests, is that "the ribs were not three times removed from their animal origins." In other words, the ribs were real food and thus tasted better than processed fare typically found at fast food chains.
Despite its success, Burger King has not revived its ribs. The closest move it made was to offer a rib sandwich that, per CNN, looked too much like the fabled McRib to not bring out comparisons. The best explanation for why Burger King has not attempted to step up their food again is that it's too expensive. In their review of the ribs, Brand Eating was "pleasantly surprised by the execution, but put off by the miniscule size for the price." If people want better and cheaper ribs, there are innumerable places to find them.