What’s New at McCafé and McDonald’s?

“Like our other “lists of new flavors” posts, this one gets updated when McDonald’s cook something new or just when we feel like sharing our McDonald trips, lol.”

Cheesecake Bites  with Vanilla Sauce

Deep-fried cheesecake pieces that comes with yummy vanilla sauce, the one we like with apfelstrudel.

The BTS Meal

BTS meal – a special menu promo of Chicken McNuggets (9/10 pieces), medium French fries, a medium Coca-Cola, and two spicy dipping sauces (Sweet Chili and Cajun). It’s a collaboration with Korean band BTS, and was introduced for a limited time – on May 26, 2021 to June 20, 2021 in select countries.

The pink-packaged Sweet Chili sauce has a sweet-and-sour plus chilli taste, while the purple-packaged Cajun sauce has a combination of mustard and gochujang taste, gochujang being the savory, sweet, and spicy fermented paste used in most Korean dishes. Both sauces have a hint of heat after but not enough if you really love spicy food.

February 2015 – McCaron and cookies

Blackforest cherry cake

Refresher

Nothing beats having black forest cherry cake after an hour or two of sitting, listening to, and digesting Bible lessons.

It’s not that we don’t opt to go to other restaurants, but we do like the sweets served at Mcdonald’s/McCafé. Aside from macarons, the boys like cookies too, and it’s official, dawty likes the Blackforest Cherry cake the most!

This must have been one of those days where we toured some visiting friends around the city. When they (visitors) want to have a snack, they asked the kids what they would like for snacks and so we ended up at McCafé for some coffee and desserts.

<- Happy to have some macarons again.

They said: Be it summer, autumn, or winter, our love for macaron will always stay. (lol)

We really like macarons that’s why we sometimes make them at home. And every baking session turns out differently: sometimes they do develop “feet” but they are not so fluffed, sometimes they are perfect but the filling isn’t right.

One thing we’ve learned is, macarons are expensive not only because of its ingredients, it’s not easy to make them perfectly crunchy outside, soft inside, with the right sweetness and perfect filling.

Afternoon Snacks

We leave home early whenever we have to accompany A to the city center for her theater performance, and most of the time we would hang out at the nearest McCafé for babycinos and sweets. The McDonald’s at Karlplatz/Schwarzenbergerplatz happens to be the very first branch of the American chain in Austria (opened in 1977).

Oreo Frappuccino (May 2012)

McCafé now offers Oreo Frappe and while it doesn’t look like the photo on the ad (they never do), it’s yummy. There’s a handful of mini-oreos on top and not just crushed toppings that most Oreo Frappes have.

The kids like this version and it doesn’t cost as much as the others, I’m sure they’ll be having this often!

Blogging Break

Sometimes I would stay out at McCafé or Starbucks to blog a little and then go pick up the kids at school. Sip a cup of coffee or chai latte in between, sometimes my cup gets cold from waiting. Being outside gives me the mojo to write, because being home means being comfortable (and later lazy to write). However, I think eating cheesecake can actually make you sleepy. lol

Chocolate Passion  and Apple Pie with Vanilla Sauce and Whipped Cream (May 2012) 

I don’t remember seeing this apple pie with vanilla sauce on the menu, it’s probably a special request and the person in the kitchen was a friend. This is how we usually eat our Apfestrudel at home sans the cream, but we’ll surely have them from now on.

The Chocolate passion cake slice is a mouthful of heaven (see above photo with son1). It usually has fancy golden flakes on top too! Son1 got off from school earlier than usual so we went to eat first before picking up her older sister later.

Caramel Cheesecake (November 2011) 

Cheesecake gets too much when you eat alone. Even when paired with Chai Latte, it tends to become too sweet later on.

This new caramel cheesecake, although as sweet as the original gives your palate a break from the monotonous creamy cheesecake taste. The caramel swirls aren’t as sweet, I actually like it than the original.

August sometimes have rains and cold bouts, Babycino is the best for the kids to warm them up a bit while waiting for cakes and other snacks! Again, it’s free! 😉 I would also get coffee – just black as I sit with them and idle time away.

McDonald’s Ferienspiel/Summer Fun Activities (July -August 2011)

We joined some of the days of Mcdonald’s Summer holidays full of fun: The big McDonald’s Ferienspiel takes place in selected McDonald’s restaurants across Austria for nine weeks. Children aged 3-12 can let their creativity run free with pedagogical supervision during painting and handicraft days on special themes. There were a lot of  exciting activities that the kids had at the McDonald’s Ferienspiel as an alternative to television and game consoles.

Below would be Kung Fu Panda tissue roll art, clay play, and beads.

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And back to sundaes when it gets hot again!

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And if it rains in July, a babycino will warm you up!

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Summers can be really warm, and when walking around the city, we can of course cool down with sundaes and McFlurrys! (This is mirage2g’s very first instagram photo.)

Cupcakes (April 2011)

McCafé introduced  some cupcake varieties : chocolate, blueberry, caramel and strawberry yoghurt on April 26, 2011.

Schoko (Chocolate) Cupcake: Smallish chocolate cake filled with chocolate cream, topped with a cocoa pastry cream and decorated with  white and dark chocolate shavings.

Heidelbeere (Blueberry) Cupcake: Small cupcake with blueberries, topped with a blueberry patisserie cream and a fruit sauce, decorated with white chocolate chips.

 

Erdbeer-Jogurt (Strawberry Yoghurt) Cupcake: Small cupcake with a strawberry filling topped with a strawberry -yoghurt patisserie cream, decorated with sugar vanilla icing and a white chocolate McCafé heart.

Karamell (Caramel) Cupcake: Small caramel cupcake with toffee filling, topped with a caramel-flavoured patisserie cream, decorated with dark chocolate chips and drizzled with caramel sauce.

As a kid who loves sour food among others, son 1 picks the strawberry yogurt all the time. Daughter and youngest boy only likes the chocolate flavor, a classic choice. These are too sweet for me so I only have taken a bite or two off of theirs.

There’s also a Cinnamon Star cupcake — both icing and base have hints of cinnamon. It is decorated with a star and dusted with powdered chocolate over the icing.

These selections are different than the muffins, as expected, lighter and fluffier and the icing of course, says it all. Mcdonald’s muffins include flavors of Schoko (Choco) and Heidelbeer (Blueberry).

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Babycino

When at a McCafé, kids get Babycino, a drink of hot milk that has been frothed up with steam and sometimes topped with cream and chocolate, for free. While this kids’ favorite has been around since the 1990’s, we can’t find when Mcdonald’s started serving it to their smallish customers.

The kids love pairing it with muffins and cupcakes.

McCaron (Macarons, February 2011)

The McCaron has been in all McDonald’s McCafé throughout Austria since February 2011.

This French pastry (original: macarons, German as Makronen) looks like small colorful burgers but tastes sweet, of course. McCafé’s McCarons range from flavors of raspberries, lemon, chocolate, pistachios and caramel. In detail, these are almond tartlets with a cream filling in spring-like colours.

We’ve been enjoying them at 0.89€ apiece, and we each have our favorites. Dad and I love the caramel and chocolate ones while the daughter always takes the raspberries. Older son prefers lemon while youngest likes pistachios than the others. So yeah, no troubles when we get the flavors in equal amounts, we just pick one flavor each. ^_^

<- While the photo seem to show the little boy confused, it’s because pistachio is almost gone from the shelves.