Just The Specials: Burger King’s ‘Trick Or Heat’ Menu

Welcome to the table,

I love themed foods and things that deviate from the typical menu. I am someone who does not eat at fast food places often, trying instead to eat at home and be mindful of stuff like macros and serving sizes. I toss all sense of dietary discipline out the window when a fast food chain sticks chicken between two donuts or offers a purple milkshake from machines that seldom work.

Now, this does often cause me no end of stomach issues, as my system has long forgotten the skills it use to have when I was a teenager. Back then, I could eat anything and be fine, but the thrill of trying something weird and new just to have had the experience is to strong and pull.

With that in mind, I recently tried the Burger King Trick or HEAT menu and it was pretty good.

Burger King got into the Halloween spirit with two limited-time menu items that played off the holiday theme in a fun way that was not just a package swap or a color change. Swapping out the treat for the heat the fast food giant offered a Ghost Pepper Chicken Fries and a Ghost Pepper Whopper.

The Ghost Pepper Whopper we have seen before, as it was first introduced back in 2022. The Whopper has the usual 100% beef patty, with spicy queso, crispy jalapeños, bacon, and ghost pepper cheese, sandwiched between two toasted orange buns and topped with black sesame seeds.

My bun was for sure not toasted, and when I unwrapped the holiday-themed paper I for sure thought I had gotten the Trick, not the Treat, but this thing actually tasted pretty good. The heat was minor, but the creaminess of the cheese and the flavor profile of the spicy queso and the ghost pepper cheese blended together made for a pretty tasty offering.

For this Spooky Season, Burger King also introduced Ghost Pepper Chicken Fries. Now they have had Spicy Chicken Fries, Buffalo Chicken Fries, Jalapeño Chicken Fries, and more, but this was the first time we have seen the Ghost Pepper variety come to the table.

The texture of these was fine, and they were for sure edible, but the flavor profile of Ghost Pepper did not come through as much as just a really heavy black pepper taste. It was not bad by any stretch but there was not a lot to them aside from a heavy black pepper taste and the signature chicken fry flavor.

The French fries were almost raw, a bit of a disappointment as I enjoy a Burger King fry (I still think the curd-coated fries from the 90s were the best fast food fry I have tasted) but all in all this made for a fun deviation from the normal lunch plan.

As with all things Burger King changes to an alternate color, that Orange did come back and haunt me later. This can be alarming if you are not expecting things from your body to be a totally new color, but I have eaten enough of these fast-food special editions that I learned long ago this is typically the result of consuming brightly colored bread.

While the whole meal was a little “mehhh” the individual items did stand out and I really like what they did with the branding for this one. It was not over the top and had almost a retro feel and that nostalgia play really worked for me.  The Whopper was tasty and the Chicken fries are at least consistent so I’m giving the 2023 Burger King “Trick or Heat” menu a solid 7 out of 10.

Until next time, the was supposed to be a special edition Burger King crown but we were not offered one. I do not need a little paper crown but that would have legit made this an 8 out of 10 because I love goofy stuff like that.