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McDonalds: The McDLT

The Big N’ Tasty is the latest in a series of sandwiches that were designed to compete against the Whopper sandwich from Burger King. The first sandwich in this line of products was the McDLT sandwich. The McDLT was sold in a novel form of packaging where the meat and bottom half of the bun was prepared separately from the lettuce, tomato, American cheese, pickles, sauces, and top half of the bun and both were then packaged into a specially designed two-sided container.

The consumer was then expected to finalize preparation of the sandwich by combining the hot and cool sides just prior to eating. The company discontinued the sandwich in 1990 to appear more environmentally friendly as it moved away from polystyrene packaging which was integral to the McDLT “experience”.

The McDLT’s marketing focused on variations of the theme “Keep the hot side hot, and the cool side cool.” A 1985 commercial released to market the new sandwich featured Jason Alexander.

The McDLT was eventually succeeded by the McLean Deluxe in 1991. The McLean deluxe was a lower fat sandwich that included carrageenan to replace the beef fat in the patty and a low calorie mayonnaise. While the sandwich tested well, it failed to catch on after the national roll-out and was discontinued in 1994 in favor of the new Arch Deluxe, an adult oriented sandwich that featured a higher quality roll and a dijon mustard based mayonnaise. This sandwich was also unsuccessful and was discontinued in 1996.

The Big N’ Tasty was introduced in 1997 and was originally tested in the California market, while the Big Xtra was test marketed in the Northeastern United States as the MBX; during the simultaneous testing phase, either one could be sold depending upon the test market. The Big N’ Tasty sandwich was phased in nationally in 2000, displacing the Big Xtra in the United States. The Big Xtra became the basis for the Big Tasty sandwich in some international markets.