DRIVE BY DINING

Cinnamon Melts

By Dog Davis

McDonald’s is currently touting its new Cinnamon Melts by claiming, “It’s only the centers of the cinnamon roll, where the warm icing and cinnamon reach their peak of gooey goodness.”

Sound familiar? Nine years ago, Burger King used nearly the exact same line to introduce their bite-size Cini-Minis. “Cini-minis are the heart of the cinnamon roll, served hot with icing on the side,” proclaimed a 1998 press release.

What they really mean is, “Think Cinnabon, but smaller.”

The Cinnamon Melts and the Cini-minis may share common advertising language, but the products themselves couldn’t be more different. Can McDonald’s take Burger King’s fast food breakfast pastry crown?

McDONALD’S CINNAMON MELTS vs. BURGER KING’S CINI-MINIS

TASTE

Cinnamon Melts

3 tongues

Served piping-hot from the microwave, the Cinnamon Melts are moist and cinnamon-y, larger than expected and easily live up to the “gooey goodness” they proclaim.

Cini-Minis

0 tongues

Cini-Minis are four hard cinnamon nuggets that come with a dish of icing. The nuggets are bland and the icing is dry.

PORTABILITY

Cinnamon Melts

2 cars

Not driver friendly. The Melts come in a box warning in bold type, “CAUTION / HANDLE WITH CARE / I’M HOT.” They come with a plastic fork to keep your fingers from scalding.

Cini-Minis

2 cars

Though easily handled with the fingers, problems occur when you try to dip the minis into the icing. The icing’s so hard, you squish the rolls and bits of flaky pastry crumble everywhere.

DIET WATCH

Cinnamon Melts

1 scale

There are 580 calories in McDonald’s Melts. Is that a lot? Put it this way, a Big Mac has only 540.

Cini-Minis

2 scales

An order of Cini-minis with frosting has only 500 calories, but ties the Cinnamon Melts with 20 grams of fat.

HYPE-O-METER

Cinnamon Melts

!

The Cinnamon Melts biggest problem is not of taste, but grammar. Much like McDonald’s McGriddles breakfast sandwich, the Cinnamon Melts are always, needlessly, plural. It’s “Melts,” not “Melt.” Cini-minis are plural, but there are four to an order. You get one “Melts” to an order. That’s just dumb.

Cini-Minis

!!!

The King introduced Cini-minis by giving out free samples. Four million people tried them and were surely under-whelmed, but since the superior Cinnabons are sold mostly in malls and rarely during breakfast, customers have kept the minis on the BK menu for nearly nine years.

THE WINNER: When it comes to taste, Mac’s Melts easily kick BK’s minis to the curb.