Popeyes Chocolate Chip Biscuit And Apple Caramel Cheesecake Cup Review: Delicious Desserts That Transcend Typical Fast Food Fare

Popeyes is solidifying its status as a dessert chain with the introduction of the Chocolate Chip Biscuit and the Caramel Apple Cheesecake Cup to its menu. Dessert-ification is something of an ongoing process at Popeyes. In August 2022, for instance, Popeyes offered dessert enthusiasts both Chocolate Beignets and a Banana Cream Cake for a limited time. Earlier that year, Popeyes debuted a sweet fried pie flavor with its Blackberry Cheesecake Pie, also available for a limited time. Year-round, the chicken chain limits its dessert offerings to just a Cinnamon Apple Pie, so the lion's share of its sweets are promotional rather than permanent additions to its menu. This remains the case with its new biscuit and cheesecake flavors.

From their respective prices to their nutritional values and more, here's everything customers both brand new to and well familiar with the growing Popeyes dessert scene need to know about the promotional Chocolate Chip Biscuit and the Caramel Apple Cheesecake Cup — plus reviews of each item based on my impressions after trying them.

While the Chocolate Chip Biscuit is decidedly a dessert item, its base is the very same biscuit that Popeyes serves as a savory side. Added to the classic Popeyes biscuit recipe are chocolate chips, contained within the body of the biscuit. All Chocolate Chip Biscuits are served with icing on top, increasing their overall sweetness quotient.

Meanwhile, as its name indicates, the Caramel Apple Cheesecake Cup incorporates caramel and apple into a classic cheesecake filling. Housing that component is a graham cracker crust. As is typical of the Popeyes style of cheesecake — like the Oreo Cheesecake, which is arguably one of the all-time best cakes from a chain restaurant — a single serving of the Caramel Apple Cheesecake is round in shape with no crust across its perimeter. It's served in a cup, giving it an almost pudding-like character, courtesy of both a crust-less outer wall and a distinctly soft interior.

As is the case with most fast food chains, Popeyes locations are franchised, so prices can vary from location to location. That said, the Popeyes online ordering system shows identical prices at a store local to me in Las Vegas, one in New York City, and a few spots across the Midwest, indicating that the following are standard for the chain's promotional dessert items. Nevertheless, franchise owners are technically free to price items as they see fit, so these numbers may not be universal.

Customers purchasing a Chocolate Chip Biscuit from Popeyes can choose between quantities of one, two, and four. They cost $1.79, $2.99, and $5.39, respectively. Breaking down both larger quantities, the two-pack prices each biscuit at approximately $1.50, and the four-pack lowers each biscuit to about $1.35. Meanwhile, The Caramel Apple Cheesecake Cup is available solely as a stand-alone item. It's priced at $3.79.

Popeyes debuted its Chocolate Chip Biscuit and Caramel Apple Cheesecake Cup at stores nationwide on August 5. The chain's press release for the two items lacks a precise end date, so just how long they will remain on the Popeyes menu is unclear.

Also debuting around the same time — albeit a week later, on August 12 — are two variations on what the chain is calling the Bigger Box. These are accompanying the return of a limited-time combo called the Big Box. Presumably, the Bigger Box promotion and both promotional desserts will stick around for roughly the same amount of time. Furthermore, just as Popeyes brought back its Big Box, it's entirely possible the Chocolate Chip Biscuit and even the Caramel Apple Cheesecake Cup could return to Popeyes during a future promotion. Strawberry Biscuits, for example, returned to Popeyes just months after their initial promotional window. So, if customers share a lot of love for either new item, a comeback could very well turn out to be a possibility.

The Chocolate Chip Biscuit marks just the second time that Popeyes has introduced a dessert biscuit to its menu. Previously, in December 2023, the chain unveiled the Strawberry Biscuit to customers nationwide. Then, the following February, Popeyes celebrated Valentine's Day with Heart-Shaped Strawberry Biscuits. While Chocolate Chip Biscuits are merely round like the unaltered Buttermilk Biscuits on the menu full-time, they're similar in composition to the Strawberry Biscuits, simply subbing out strawberry bits for chocolate chips.

Unlike the Chocolate Chip Biscuit, which has a savory biscuit counterpart on the menu year-round, the standard Popeyes menu lacks a direct point of comparison for the Caramel Apple Cheesecake Cup. That said, past cheesecake promotions, like the head-turning Strawberry Cheesecake Cups from June 2021, have established a template that the Caramel Apple Cheesecake Cup follows. Just like those cheesecakes from years past, the Caramel Apple Cheesecake is round, served in a cup, and starts with a standard cream cheese flavor as its base. Incorporated into that cheesecake base are apples and caramel, marking the sole key difference between this newer item and past promotional offerings.

According to the chain's publicly available nutritional info, a single Popeyes Chocolate Chip Biscuit totals 310 calories. It contains 14 grams of fat, 6 grams of which are saturated fat, 340 milligrams of sodium, 44 grams of carbs, 1 gram of fiber, 24 grams of sugar, and 3 grams of protein in total.

Unsurprisingly, the richer, dessert-ier Caramel Apple Cheesecake Cup could be considered comparatively less healthy, eclipsing the Chocolate Chip Biscuit in categories like total fat and sodium. One Caramel Apple Cheesecake Cup is equivalent to 460 calories, 29 grams of fat, 18 grams of which are saturated fat, 1 gram of which is trans fat, 115 milligrams of cholesterol, 390 milligrams of sodium, 43 grams of carbs, 1 gram of fiber, 30 grams of sugar, and 5 grams of protein. In short, both items are indulgences, but given that they're both desserts, none of these numbers should be all that surprising.

What stands out first and foremost about the Popeyes Chocolate Chip Biscuit is an apparent savory quality. Rather than its sweet components overpowering its base, the core flavor of the buttermilk biscuit is not just perceptible but prominent. That said, a savory buttermilk biscuit pairs well with chocolate chips and icing. Its overall flavor is akin to a just somewhat saltier chocolate chip pancake. In the texture department, Popeyes has managed to come up with a spongy take on a biscuit that's firm enough to provide a satisfying heft — this style of biscuit isn't even a little bit flaky — while remaining soft enough to lack any sort of excess toughness. That texture is a major asset.

Since the Chocolate Chip Biscuit melds salty and sweet, its overall degree of sweetness is relatively mild, especially for a fast food dessert. Customers averse to cloying sweetness, then, might find the Chocolate Chip Biscuit just right. I personally enjoy cloyingly sweet desserts and still loved the Chocolate Chip Biscuit. Its flavor is straightforward enough that a honey packet or two might be a nice way to add some extra sweetness if desired. Overall, it's equal parts unique and something that's easy to imagine most customers enjoying.

Whereas the Chocolate Chip Biscuit is surprisingly bold for a fast food dessert, the Caramel Apple Cheesecake Cup falls well within the bounds of a typical fast food item. That's not a bad thing, though, because the Caramel Apple Cheesecake Cup tastes pretty great.

Just like the cheesecake cups that Popeyes has offered in the past, the Caramel Apple Cheesecake is softer than the more common style of cheesecake often served by the slice. Its flavor, though, adheres closely to the sort of rich cream cheese typical of a standard cheesecake. That soft, sugary, and indulgent cheesecake component is very much at the forefront of this dessert. It incorporates caramel apple predominantly in a tan flavor swirl mixed in with the plain cheesecake. Caramel is its prevailing flavor, though there do appear to be small pieces of soft, slightly crunchy apple scattered throughout — albeit sparingly enough that I'm not entirely sure whether or not this is the case. These components combined are akin to an apple pie flavor layered on top of a softer-than-normal cheesecake base. Overall, it's not quite like anything else in the fast food world and a super solid autumn-y indulgence.

In order to review both promotional Popeyes desserts, I ate about 2 ½ Chocolate Chip Biscuits from an order of four as well as an entire Caramel Apple Cheesecake Cup. I finished both servings in one sitting. For the sake of assessing them as comprehensively as possible, I alternated between one biscuit, about half of the cheesecake cup, another biscuit, and the remaining half of the cheesecake cup. All items remained as-is with no alterations. My assessments are based entirely on their tastes, given the subjectivity of value.

Everything was delivered to me courtesy of Popeyes. This was organized through a third-party delivery app with no indication that the food was for the sake of a review. All opinions are entirely my own.