McDonald's Premium line facts for kids
The McDonald's Premium line was a special group of food and drink items that McDonald's started selling in 2003. This line included bigger chicken sandwiches, fresh salads, and a variety of coffee drinks. McDonald's created these items to attract more adult customers who were looking for higher quality food. The grilled chicken sandwiches and salads were especially popular with people who wanted healthier options.
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Delicious Chicken Sandwiches
McDonald's introduced a line of larger chicken sandwiches in July 2005. These were part of an update to their menu.
The main sandwiches were:
- The Classic: This sandwich came with crisp lettuce, juicy tomato, and creamy mayonnaise.
- The Club: This one also had lettuce, tomato, and mayonnaise. It added tasty Swiss cheese and crispy bacon.
- The Ranch BLT: This sandwich featured a creamy ranch sauce, bacon, lettuce, and tomato.
You could choose any of these sandwiches with either a crispy buttermilk chicken patty or a grilled chicken patty. They were all served on a special honey wheat roll.
For a short time in 2006, McDonald's offered a Spicy Chicken sandwich. It had chipotle spices in the chicken breading. This spicy version was similar to the Classic, but it used ranch sauce instead of mayonnaise. The Spicy Chicken sandwich returned for a limited time in late 2008.
In 2011, the honey wheat roll was changed to a whole grain bun. This made the sandwiches have a more "neutral" flavor. The entire Premium Chicken sandwich line was replaced in 2015. New sandwiches called the Crispy Chicken Deluxe and Grilled Chicken Deluxe took their place. These new sandwiches were served on artisan rolls.
Fresh Salads and Dressings
The Premium line in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom also included McDonald's salads. These salads first appeared in March 2003.
All the salads started with a mix of iceberg lettuce and other types of lettuce, like romaine. They also had small cherry tomatoes. Different toppings made each salad unique. You could get any salad plain, or with a grilled or crispy chicken patty cut up and added to it.
McDonald's offered special salad dressings from Newman's Own, made for each salad type. The salads included:
- Southwest Salad: This salad had chili-lime flavored tortilla strips, black beans, roasted tomatoes, poblano peppers, and fire-roasted corn. It came with a lime wedge and a cilantro-lime glaze for the chicken. It was served with a "southwest" dressing.
- Bacon Ranch Salad: This one featured bacon bits, cheddar cheese, and Monterey Jack cheese. It was served with ranch dressing.
- Grilled Chicken Caesar Salad: This salad had chicken breast, cheddar cheese, and Monterey Jack cheese. It came with a creamy Caesar dressing.
- Fruit & Walnut Salad: This sweet salad included candied walnuts, low-fat yogurt, and slices of red and green apples with red seedless grapes.
- Fiesta Salad: This salad had warm seasoned beef, cheddar jack cheese, and crispy tortilla strips. It was served with all-natural chunky salsa.
- The Asian Salad: This salad contained mandarin oranges, red peppers, edamame, and snow peas. It had an orange glaze for the chicken and was served with low-fat sesame ginger dressing.
Other dressing choices included a low-fat Italian dressing and a low-fat balsamic vinaigrette.
Crispy Chicken Selects
McDonald's also changed how they advertised their chicken strips, called Chicken Selects. The word Premium was added to their description in ads, online, and on TV. The word was capitalized to show it was part of the Premium line.
McDonald's stopped selling Chicken Selects in 2013. However, they brought them back for a short time in March 2015. This was done to help boost McDonald's sales.
McCafé Drinks
In the United States, McDonald's improved its coffee selection. In some areas, coffee was sold under the Newman's Own brand. In 2007, McDonald's added flavored iced coffee to its Premium coffee line. From 2008 to 2009, they expanded it even more. They started offering lattes, cappuccinos, and mochas in North America.
The Premium coffee line was created to compete with other popular coffee shops. These included international chains like Starbucks and Dunkin' Donuts. McDonald's advertised these new coffee drinks under their McCafé brand.
