McDonald’s Szechuan sauce stirs chaos once again

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A McDonald’s sauce emergency is usually cause for alarm in the US, so it’s no surprise that the chain’s popular Szechuan sauce has taken the spotlight once again.

After months of petitioning, bidding wars, and riots in McDonald’s parking lots, the fast food giant said that 20 million packets of its Szechuan sauce will be distributed across the US starting Feb. 26 to prevent a shortage.

The sauce, created to mimic China's traditional hot Sichuan sauce, was initially released in 1998 as a tie-in promotion for the Disney movie Mulan, a story of a brave Chinese girl who disguised herself as a man and enrolled in the military to take her wounded father’s place in the fight against the Hun invasion.

The Szechuan sauce is created to mimic traditional Chinese Szechuan sauce. /Weibo Photo

The sauce disappeared from McDonald’s outlets after Mulan’s release, but came back in 2017 when the cartoon scientist Rick obsessed over finding the sauce in an episode of the TV show Rick and Morty.

After the appearance of the sauce on the show, McDonald decided to bring it back, but only offering it as a limited-time promotion with its Buttermilk Crispy Tenders in several US locations. However, the shortage of the sauce led to mass frustration, culminating in scenes of customers screaming and jumping onto counters in McDonald’s across the country, according to the Business Insider.

“We did not anticipate the overnight crowds, the cross-state travel and the amazing curiosity, passion and energy fans show,” MacDonald’s said on its website dedicated to the sauce and the riots.

The ingredient of the sauce, “doubanjiang,” is made from fermented broad beans, soybeans and various spices in China. According to the Chengdu Business Newspaper, with the popularity of McDonald‘s Szechuan Sauce, Pixian Douban, one of the most famous doubanjiang in China, is gaining popularity overseas, on sale in over 40 countries.

According to Chengdu Business Newspaper, Pixian, an area under the administration of Chengdu, capital of China's Sichuan Province, is famous for making doubanjiang. /VCG Photo ‍

The ingredients of doubanjiang are soybeans, various spices, and fermented broad beans. /VCG Photo