People just weren’t lovin’ McDonald’s premium burgers and toppings.
The fast food giant has ended its custom-burger menu—advertised as “Create Your Taste”—for a new option with fewer choices it’s calling “Signature Crafted Recipes,” reports Business Insider.
And as it pares down its premium menu, the Golden Arches chain appears to be sticking to what it knows best.
Next year, the company will be rolling out two new versions of its iconic Big Mac that it tested in smaller markets this spring. The original Big Mac has two patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, and onions on a sesame seed bun. A smaller version, called Mac Jr. is a single-layer Big Mac without the middle bun and the Grand Mac is a larger version with beefier patties that add up to one-third of a pound of meat, plus a larger bun to carry all that extra special sauce.
The Create Your Taste platform started rolling out across the country late 2014. The chain allowed customers to build burgers from more than 30 ingredients, including different buns and sauces, and lots of toppings not typically seen on usual McDonald’s fare including caramelized grilled onions, chili lime tortilla strips, guacamole, and jalapenos. Customers placed orders at touch-screen tablet kiosks.
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According Business Insider, many franchisees invested a quarter of a million dollars to install Create Your Taste kiosks in their restaurants.
But over the last month, the customizable menu started to disappear from McDonald’s location around the country.
"Create Your Taste was a test, which we used as the name for customizable burgers in select cities," McDonald's spokeswoman Becca Hary confirmed to Business Insider. "McDonald’s is now testing a customizable burger platform under the name 'Signature Crafted Recipes.'"
By mid-2015, McDonald’s said the Create Your Taste platform had been rolled out to about 2,000 restaurant— about 14 percent of all U.S. locations.
But there were several problems with program with customers citing lengthy wait times for their food and expensive burgers. Franchisees allegedly also complained about the program’s expense and claimed it slowed down kitchen operations.
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The chain isn’t axing all of its premium offerings, however. The Signature Crafted Recipes menu is a simplified version of Create Your Taste that allows diners to choose different items but with bundled toppings and flavor combinations to streamline both the ordering and cooking processes. The Signature menu still uses the same kiosks. McDonald’s started testing the new program earlier this year.
As for the new Big Macs, McDonald’s says they’ll roll out nationwide in January 2017 but will only be available for a limited time.
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