Burger King Introduces 10 New Menu Items

Since officially falling behind Wendy's for the first time and becoming the nation's #3 burger chain, Burger King is hoping stem the tide and reverse course.  In what's described as the chain's biggest expansion since it began in 1953, Burger King is now offering 10 new menu items.  The new items include the following:

• Garden Fresh Salads: BLT, Apple and Cranberry or classic Caesar Salad varieties are made fresh to-order, premium ingredients and topped with a choice of TENDERCRISP^® or TENDERGRILL^® chicken (suggested retail price starts at $4.99).
• Chicken Snack Wraps: Honey Mustard Crispy Chicken Snack Wrap and the Ranch Crispy Chicken Snack Wrap are flavorful snack options with less than 400 calories each (suggested retail price of $1.59).
• Real Fruit Smoothies: Tropical Mango and Strawberry Banana smoothies are made with low-fat yogurt, real fruit and juices, providing a full serving of fruit (suggested retail price of $2.29).
• Frappés: Mocha and Caramel flavors are made-to-order with a hint of coffee and ice, topped with whipped topping and a swirl of fudge or caramel (suggested retail price of $2.29).
• Crispy Chicken Strips: Premium Crispy Chicken Strips are made with white meat tenderloin chicken, marinated and lightly battered in seasoned home-style breading, served in three- or five-piece servings and perfect for dipping in one of our classic or bold new sauces, such as new Kung Pao and Roasted Jalapeño Barbecue sauces (suggested retail price starts at $2.99).

Many of you are probably thinking a lot of the new items above sound very similar to offerings at McDonald's, but Burger King has addressed that:

"Burger King doesn’t deny that its new chicken strips, caramel frappe coffees, Caesar salads and strawberry-banana smoothies sound pretty close to those on McDonald’s popular menu. But executives say the company came up with them through its research...'Consumers wanted more choices,' said Steve Wiborg, president of Burger King’s North America operations. 'Not just healthy choices, but choices they could get at the competition.'"

The AZFoodDude's only question is, did Burger King's research go a little something like this?

Cold Stone & Baskin-Robbins Roll Out New Items

Locally headquartered in Scottsdale, Cold Stone Creamery is now offering five new yogurt based items for a limited time.  The first three are part of the Yogurt Creations line and the last two are Yogurt Shakes:

• Strawberry Crumble- Dreamy Vanilla Yogurt mixed with juicy Strawberries and Graham Cracker Pie Crust
• Chocolate Banana Indulgence- Gratifying Chocolate Yogurt mixed with fresh Bananas and rich Fudge
• Berries Upon Berries- Luscious Raspberry Yogurt mixed with sweet Strawberries and Blueberries
• Shake Them Berries- Divine Vanilla Yogurt blended with sweet, juicy Strawberries, Raspberries and Blueberries
• Powered By Chocolate- Enticing Chocolate Yogurt blended with rich Fudge

Meanwhile, Baskin-Robbins is celebrating March Madness with their 3-Point Chocolate Ice Cream which is made of "chocolate flavored ice cream with a salty caramel ribbon and orange-colored caramel pretzel balls."  Only around until the end of the month, the 3-Point Chocolate can be ordered in sundae form:

The 3-Point Chocolate Sundae is also available all month long as a decadent combination of 3-Point Chocolate ice cream, hot fudge, Reese’s® Peanut Butter Sauce, crushed Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups and whipped cream.

Check the links for nutritional information at Cold Stone Creamery and Baskin-Robbins.

Dairy Queen's Orange Julius Opens in Peoria

Coming on the heels of their opening in Tempe, Orange Julius has opened another location at 10100 W. Lake Pleasant Parkway #1320, Peoria, AZ 85383.  If you've never been to an Orange Julius, you can check out the menu focusing on fruit beverages and smoothies here, but also of note, from the press release: 

The DQ Orange Julius store in Peoria features DQ favorites, such as the iconic Blizzard Treats, MooLatte frozen coffee-flavored beverages, Blizzard Cakes and a wide variety of other soft-serve items, as well as the full line of Orange Julius premium fruit smoothies and fruit-blended beverages.

While known for their original Orange Julius, currently, the smoothie of the month is the Strawberry Delight Light Smoothie, which is made of strawberry and banana, a nonfat dairy blend and Splenda brand sweetener.

The location is open Sunday - Thursday from 10:30am to 10:30pm and 10:30am to 11:30pm on Fridays and Saturdays.

Dairy Queen's Orange Julius Opens in Tempe

Yesterday at the Arizona Mills Mall at 5000 S. Arizona Mills Cir. Tempe, AZ 85282, Dairy Queen's Orange Julius opened their 14th location in the state.  If you've never been to an Orange Julius, you can check out the menu focusing on fruit beverages and smoothies here, but also of note, from the press release:

The location offers all of the amazing Dairy Queen soft-serve treats and cakes as well as Orange Julius products including an array of fruit beverages and smoothies. In addition, the store also will serve Dairy Queen signature Iron Grilled Sandwiches as well as hot dogs.

While known for their original Orange Julius, currently, the smoothie of the month is the Strawberry Delight Light Smoothie, which is made of strawberry and banana, a nonfat dairy blend and Splenda brand sweetener.

The location is open Monday - Saturday from 10am to 9:30pm and 11am to 7pm on Sundays.

Whataburger Introduces Banana Pie and Shake

Today, in fact, 42 minutes ago, Whataburger began selling their new Banana Pie and Banana Shake, both of which will be available until October 31.

The Banana Pie, with its creamy banana filling surrounded by a flaky crust, comes in at 300 calories, 13 grams of fat and 3 grams of protein. Meanwhile, a medium Banana Shake has 940 calories, 28 grams of fat and 23 grams of protein.

Cinnabon's New Summer Treats

Until September 3rd, you will be able to get the new Creamy ReTreat at Cinnabon. The Creamy ReTreat is composed of "Oreo cookies, a hint of vanilla and ribbons of Ghirardelli chocolate sauce." The Creamy ReTreat is also being described as a "cream-based vanilla drink with the lighter texture of a shake...more like a smoothie."

Along with this, new at Cinnabon are three flavors of cream cheese frosting. The flavors are raspberry, orange and strawberry and they are recommended for many of Cinnabon's snack options.

The Creamy ReTreat and frosting flavors come in addition to Cinnabon's Tangy ReTreats and Fruity ReTreats which are described by NRN this way:

The Tangy ReTreat is a low-fat, dairy-free frozen blended lemonade, which is available in lemon, raspberry and orange-mango flavors and served with Cinnabon-flavored syrup swirls. The Fruity ReTreat is an existing line of fruit-puree blended beverages in strawberry, strawberry-banana and tropical blast flavors.

You can find your nearest Cinnabon here.

New Strawberry Banana Shake at Fatburger

Beginning this weekend (5/27), Fatburger is bringing out a new Strawberry Banana Shake. The only announcement of the new shake came from Fatburger's Twitter page where they released this photo. Made with real ice cream and whipped cream on top, the shake will only be around for a limited time. Check here to see the locations of the six Fatburger restaurants operating in Arizona.