Burger King has a new purple whopper! Released to coincide with the latest animated adaptation of The Addams Family (and to no doubt leech on the massive success of Netflix’s Wednesday), Burger King is dropping an entire Addams Family-themed menu. The menu consists of re-packaged BK oddities like the Churro Fries and Onion Rings, as well as two brand-new additions, including Morticia’s Kooky Chocolate Shake and Wednesday’s Whopper. Since it’s fall, we’re going to go ahead and skip the milkshake, but this Whopper intrigues us.
For the last couple of years, it has become an annual tradition for Burger King to bring out its orange-bunned Ghost Pepper Whopper for the spooky season. This year, they’ve replaced it with Wednesday’s Whopper, and we have to say, we’re torn.
We love the Ghost Pepper Whopper, it takes the classic Whopper Build and remixes it, offering a spicy take on the brand’s flagship burger. Having said that, we also love all new recipes. But if Wednesday’s Whopper doesn’t give us a meaningful remix of the Whopper, we’re going to be pretty damn disappointed that the Ghost Pepper Whopper had to die for it.
So we ordered Wednesday’s Whopper to see whether it’s worth a trip to Burger King this week. Here are our thoughts.
Wednesday’s Whopper
Thoughts & Tasting Notes:
It pains us to inform you that Wednesday’s Whopper is no Ghost Pepper Whopper! This thing is entirely redundant and doesn’t over anything new aside from a purple bun with black sesame seeds and a slice of Swiss cheese. Everything else about the burger: the ketchup and mayo combo, the incredibly pungent raw onions, the pickles and tomato — are all stock ingredients in the regular Whopper build. It has that same dry, overcharred Whopper flavor. In other words, this is a typical mid-tier cheeseburger.
The bun doesn’t taste different from a typical burger bun, though its purple color is derived from purple potatoes, and the inclusion of Swiss isn’t enough to change the general Whopper experience. Sure, it has a creamy, nutty top note that is lacking from the OG, but I don’t think that I even prefer that over the saltiness of American Cheese.
This is an incredibly lazy cash grab and a real missed opportunity. Just imagine what we could’ve had — this thing could’ve had jalapeños on it, maybe some fried onions, Mozzarella sticks, or some kind of spin on black licorice or squid ink, since those are canonically Wednesday’s favorite foods. Instead, we got a burger that looks straight out of Hot Topic. It’s like they didn’t even try to come up with anything interesting here.
The saddest part is a good burger had to die to replace this one. After the very good Fiery Chicken Nuggets and Fiery Chicken Sandwich, we had high hopes that this year might go down as a Burger King Renaissance. After Wednesday’s Whopper, we’re not so sure.
The Bottom Line:
The Wednesday Whopper feels incredibly lazy. If you already love the Whopper, go ahead and give this one a try so you can experience the burger with Swiss cheese instead of American. But if you’re not a Whopper fan, skip this, it’s not a reason to go to Burger King.