Jamba Juice Making Cheeseburger Smoothies!?!?

See for yourself:

Could it be? Is Jamba Juice really putting burgers and blenders and serving them up with ketchup and mustard!?!?

No way. They're just trying to make a point... as you'll see when you go to their dedicated website for this video & promotion: cheeseburgerchill.com

Their point is that fast food chains are getting into the smoothie business, but that's not their specialty (like Jamba) and they're not doing as good a job. The implication is that fast food restaurants serving healthy, tasty smoothies makes as much sense as Jamba Juice putting a hamburger in a blender.

Just for receiving their little message, they're offering a coupon for $1 off a smoothie.

QSR Drive-Thru Timer iPhone App

There's an iPhone app aimed at those in the QSR (Quick Service Restaurants) industry who need to keep tabs on or track the efficiency of their (or their competitions) drive-thru performance.  It's called the Fast Food Timer.

It could also be fun for those app-happy fast foodies out there with nothing better to do with their iPhone or iPod Touch while sitting in the drive-thru.

App creator, Neal Layton, describes his app:

Fast Food Timer was developed for the QSR Industry. This app is for all the Business Consultants, Owners, Supervisors, managers, A-crew and Secret Shoppers (or anyone else!) that wants to Observe, Analyze and Improve the speed of service at any QSR location. This app can be adapted to or for many locations.

One review in the app store by a fast food restaurant owner reads:

While preparing for an inspection I looked at the app store for a timer and found this one, wow! DT KVS and front counter timed like it was written by corp for their consultants. It deliveres on everything it promises.

Here's a screenshot:

Fast Food Drive Thru Fun; Video from Funny or Die

By Alki Stevens Music by Kevin McLeod

Blizzard vs. Blizberry: DQ Sues Yogubliz

DQ has gone to court to prevent a small California frozen yogurt chain, Yogubliz, from selling their 'Blizzberry' froyo because the name is too similar to DQ's Blizzard soft-serve ice cream and candy dessert.

DQ's lawyer says:

"Yogubliz chose a term whose only significance is a shortened form of Blizzard, Yogubliz did so with every intention of trading on the fame and goodwill of Dairy Queen's mark."

Are you confused?

Dairy Queen says Blizzard is its most popular menu item and generates $750 million in sales a year and that 1.5 billion Blizzard treats have been sold since 1985.

Blizz Frozen Yogurt has 11 locations in California and Nevada, but is looking to expand and offering franchise opportunities.

El Pollo Loco's Queso Crunch Burrito is Back

El Pollo Loco has brought back, for a limited time, their Queso Crunch Burrito.

This time, though, you can order it with either El Pollo Loco's flame-grilled chicken or citrus-marinated, flame-grilled Carne Asada style Sirloin steak.

The Queso Crunch Burrito combines your choice of meat with Jack cheese, poblano queso, Pico de Gallo salsa, tortilla strips and optional jalapeno slices, wrapped in a flour tortilla.  The burrito is grilled.

The Queso Crunch Burrito will be available through the end of September 2010.

The chicken version has 627 calories and 28 grams of fat.  Here's the complete nutritional info:

El Pollo Loco - Chicken Queso Crunch Burrito
Nutrition Facts Serv. Size 11 oz Servings 1 Calories 627   Fat Cal. 252 www.foodfacts.info	Amount/serving	%DV*		Amount/serving	%DV*
	Total Fat 28 g	43%		Total Carb. 64 g	21%
	Sat. Fat 9 g	45%		Fiber 3 g	12%
	Trans Fat 0 g			Sugars 5 g
	Cholesterol 36 mg	12%		Protein 28 g
	Sodium 1617 mg	67%
	*Percent Daily Values (DV) are based on a 2,000 calorie diet

In-N-Out Animal Style Recipe from AHT

There's practically a whole industry out there based on selling you recipes to recreate your favorite fast food (just do a google search and see!), but A Hamburger Today blog has done their own homework and had a West-Coast-Only In-N-Out Burger Double-Double Animal Style burger overnighted to their East Coast location.

They have their recipe for the In-N-Out Double-Double Animal Style, but their dissection, research and re-creation is even more interesting.

Carl's/Hardee's Testing Foot-Long Hamburger

Some Carl's Jr. locations in Southern California and Hardee's locations in Indiana are testing a new foot-long burger with 850 calories and 20 grams of saturated fat.

The 'burger' includes 3 beef patties and 3 slices of cheese on a 12-inch hoagie-type bun. It is being sold for $4, or $4.50 for the 'deluxe' version with more toppings (lettuce, tomato and such).

Here's a pic from USA Today:

Free Smoothie Samples at McDonald's *Cancelled*

McDonald's will be promoting their new Real Fruit Smoothies with free samples today and tomorrow (Friday & Saturday July 23-24).


Free samples of Wild Berry or Strawberry Banana Real Fruit Smoothies will be available at McDonald's 14,000+ locations in the US.


“The addition of McCafe Real Fruit Smoothies to the McCafe beverage line reinforces McDonald’s as a convenient destination for a variety of quality, great-tasting beverages at a value only McDonald’s can offer,” said Ashlee Yingling, supervisor of U.S. media relations for McDonald’s.


Prices for the smoothies vary by market and start at a suggested $2.29 for a 12-ounce serving.

We thought we were giving you a 'cool' heads up about the free smoothies, but it has been brought to our attention that McDonald's felt that sales of their new smoothies were just fine, so the promotion was cancelled:

“The McCafe Real Fruit Smoothies are an absolute hit with our customers, and we’re experiencing unprecedented demand for this delicious new choice on our menu,” said Neil Golden, chief marketing officer for McDonald’s USA. “Due to the overwhelming popularity and to ensure continued supply to meet our customers’ needs, we will not be executing the national in-restaurant sampling event … as previously communicated. However, all other national promotional activities, including coupons, will be accepted at participating restaurants.”

We're sorry about the error. (But we also think McDonald's can afford to honor their promotions once they've been announced!)

Chipotle Wants Your Junk E-Mail

Chipotle has announced that they are doubling their donation to The Lunch Box if its new goal of 1 million junk e-mails is reached by August.

The Lunch Box, which will help to give approximately 32 million school children at 100,000 schools nationwide access to 100 school tested, junk-free recipes created by Chef Ann Cooper, the Renegade Lunch Lady.

"Clearly, Chipotle has many like-minded fans when it comes to making sure the nation's schools have access to better, more sustainably raised food," said Steve Ells, founder, chairman and co-CEO of Chipotle. "The immediate response which got us to 500,000 pieces of junk e-mail inspired us to increase our donation to The Lunch Box, an organization that shares many of our beliefs when it comes to sustainable food."

Forward your junk to: nojunk@chipotlejunk.com

Chipotle points out that "As in the first wave of this simple but effective campaign, no e-mail addresses will be automatically captured when junk e-mail is submitted through its no junk campaign, and the content of e-mails will not be read."

Has the King infiltrated McDonald's

A tipster sent this video by some guys who were eating their burgers at a McDonald's in San Francisco when they discovered the BK King on the hamburger bun:

Has Burger King found some ingenious viral marketing toasting technique or is this just a BK miracle.

Either way, McDonald's needs to be checking their buns!

The guys who found it have saved the bun and are selling it on ebay (just as they predict in the video below).

Here's the full video:

Thanks to Jen for the tip!