Why Is McDonald's Hot Mustard Sauce So Incredibly Hard To Find?

Nobody should ever doubt the passion with which some people miss their favorite McDonald's dipping sauces. The disaster around the Szechuan McNugget sauce following an early episode of "Rick and Morty" should prove as much, with that episode having been etched into popular food culture as probably one of its more bizarre episodes; but it's not completely out of left field if you consider the confused reactions of some people about the ubiquitous fast-food chain's hot mustard sauce.

In short, sometime in the mid-2010s, hot mustard disappeared from some menus but not others. Granted, items at fast food restaurants come and go, often without warning. And to be clear, the hot mustard sauce is indeed yummy. We here at the Daily Meal have ranked it as the best dipping sauce on the McDonald's menu. So McDiners were bound to take notice when they could no longer find it at their local Mickey D's.

Some have been crestfallen enough to take to social media to vent. A thread at the r/McDonald's subreddit started by a now-deleted user is filled with customers who really and truly cannot imagine their fries or McNuggets without the spicy dipping sauce. "@McDonalds are you guys still serving that delicious hot mustard dipping sauce?" asked @Number1Ninja632 on Twitter in 2017. "Or is it discontinued?"

"Hot mustard sauce is available in select locations, Peter!" replied McDonald's Twitter. "Inquire at your local restaurant to see if its offered!"

Certainly, we can see why a certain item being available at some locations while not at others is confusing. One of the whole points of massive fast-food chains is that they are one-size-fits-all, with menus that are more or less identical no matter where you are in the country. For an outright decision to be made, probably at the corporate level, to have it available in some places but not others is just odd.

Sure enough, the McDonald's website has the hot mustard sauce, and with no mention of it being only available at some locations. And, apparently, some of the places it is unavailable include some very large markets. There's an entertaining article at The Takeout in which author Dennis Lee, after mentioning that he cannot find the hot mustard anywhere in his hometown of Chicago, also manages to order about 30 of the sauces to stock up, paying a grand total of $5.

Lee may have the right idea. Hot mustard devotees may just want to drive to participating locations and pay for a large amount of the dipping sauces. Though this is difficult to do without any sense of exactly which locations are participating and which ones aren't.

Then there's the option of hunting online. Amazon has a listing where you can purchase a 12-pack of McDonald's hot mustard for $30. This is far from the bargain that Dennis Lee got at the drive-thru himself. It comes to about $2.50 for each 1-ounce packet of hot mustard, compared to the 10 cents you would normally have to shell out for any side of dipping sauce at an actual McDonald's location. There are also a few similar deals floating around on eBay, such as $90 for a pack of 80 dipping sauces.

A more practical option might be to simply make your own hot mustard dipping sauce at home. An online search will reveal plenty of copycat recipes out there. Also, it looks like the spicy mustard Doritos have made a comeback. According to some on Twitter, they taste just like McDonald's sauce. 

"EASILY my favorite Dorito now," wrote @MillsTwitch. "Tastes exactly like the Hot Mustard dipping sauce from McDonald's." Dipping might be out of the question with them, but you can always grab a bag on the way to a McDonald's drive-thru and pop a few on a burger or sandwich.