User:DoctorWho42/Mac n' Cheetos

The Mac n' Cheetos is a deep-fried cheese-flavored, puffed cornmeal and macaroni and cheese product sold by the international fast food chain store Burger King. Mac n' Cheetos is the combination of both macaroni and cheese and the Frito Lay snack Cheetos. Mac n' Cheetos was first introduced June 27, 2016.

The menu item contains five pieces and is currently priced at $2.49. It will be sold for about eight weeks or until supplies run out. Many publications have pointed out how Mac N' Cheetos is part of a larger trend of blending fast food with well-known snack foods as well as reflecting the current state of fast food alliances.

History
A year ago, Burger King entered into a partnership with PepsiCo's Frito-Lay, which also owns Doritos and Ruffles. Mac N' Cheetos marked the first time the Cheetos brand has extended beyond chips into hybrid foods.

In June 22, 2016, Burger King announced that in less than a week they will begin selling the product. Previously, it had appeared in some Burger King restaurants during a trial phase. Mac n' Cheetos was first officially introduced June 27, 2016. In an interview, Burger King president Alex Macedo said "We’re partnering up with one of Americans’ favorite brands. It’s quite unique."

Advertising
Burger King called its product a "dangerously cheesy re-imagination."

Price
Mac N' Cheetos contains five pieces and was originally priced at $2.49   or "about" $2.50. In New York City, the total cost including New York state sales tax, is $3.26. USA Today's Ted Berg was critical of the price choice as he thought it would be 99¢ at Taco Bell.

Analysis
Mac N' Cheetos, including other Burger King products like the recently introduced Oscar Mayer hot dog's (Oscar Mayer is owned by Burger King's parent company Restaurant Brands International, reflects the fast-food alliances restaurants have with other companies. While PepsiCo owns Frito-Lay's Cheetos, the American restaurants sell The Coca-Cola Company beverages. Despite this recent product, Burger King president Alex Macedo remarked "It’s not a plan for us to migrate to Pepsi. Our relationship with Coke is as good as it is with PepsiCo." However, Macedo has said "We’re working on a few other menu items. There’s room for us to do more together in the future."

Other fast food restaurants like Taco Bell have previously employed a similar strategy. In 2012, Taco Bell, which is owned by Yum! Brands, introduced the Doritos Locos Tacos whose taco shell is composed of the Doritos chip. Offshoots followed as Cool Ranch, Nacho Cheese and Fiery Doritos.

Appearance
Reports varied on the appearance of the Mac n' Cheetos. Fox News described the menu item as "bright orange" and "the shape is pretty unusual." Chicago Tribune's Joseph Hernandez called the color of the menu item "neon-orange." Consumerist's Ashlee Kieler perceived its color as "glowing, orange-ish." Bloomberg News's Leslie Patton said it was "portable macaroni-and-cheese bites are similar to mozzarella sticks." The Raw Story's Brad Reed saw it as "radioactive-orange" and "Trump-colored", but remarked "do look marginally more appetizing than the terrifying bright-red Whopper Burger King released earlier this year." Vice's Alex Swerdloff noted the product as "a chode-like mass" and resembling "the lovechild of E.T.’s finger and a bloated corpse that was given a spray tan." ''Yahoo! Style'''s Claire Lower called them "orange nuggets."

Concept
USA Today's Ted Berg said he was "mildly hungry and massively curious" by the concept of Mac N' Cheetos. Fox News remarked on the idea as "the ultimate comfort food may seem like a no brainer now" but questioned whether "the world actually need more crazy, cheesy mashups?" Kotaku's Mike Fahey compared the product to the Star Trek: Voyager episode "Tuvix"—which concerns the merging of two characters Neelix and Tuvok to form one composite character—in that "[t]he idea of two unhealthy things combining to form another unhealthy thing with the abilities, attributes and memories of both can be off-putting. But once you look past their dual origin, Mac N’ Cheetos are just breaded and fried macaroni and cheese." Chicago Tribune's Joseph Hernandez lamented "[a]s one of my colleagues said: 'This thing doesn’t even belong in reality. Why?' I don't know." xoJane's Claire Lower said she was "super freaking stoked to try the Mac 'n' Cheetos."

Nutrition
The Mac N' Cheetos contains 310 calories. The Raw Story's Brad Reed said the calorie count "sounds surprisingly low given how you’re eating deep-fried synthetic dairy goo."

Taste
Fox News Channel's Chew On This performed a blind taste test for Mac N' Cheetos in the streets of New York City. Reception proved positive.

USA Today's Ted Berg said "they’re not good" but also "not totally awful" either. Kotaku's Mike Fahey said "pleased to report that Mac N’ Cheetos taste much better than they look" but also that they do not taste like the cheese puff but rather like the Kellogg's cracker Cheez-It. Chicago Tribune's Joseph Hernandez described the meal as "gritty, fried nugget of Easy Mac, rolled in the remains of the bottom of a bag of Cheetos." ''Yahoo! Style'''s Claire Lower said "I liked them but, maybe this is because my standards for stunt food are much too high, I didn't love them."