Why The J Balvin Big Mac Is Causing Such A Stir

McDonald's didn't break any new ground with its J Balvin meal, which hit drive-thru menu boards on October 5. The meal is just a Big Mac with no pickle, french fries with ketchup, and an Oreo McFlurry. The McFlurry is proving to be problematic, as plenty of McDonald's restaurants apparently haven't fixed their ice cream machines yet.

McDonald's is having another problem with the new J Balvin meal, and this one has to do with the main course. Whenever the famous Colombian recording artist orders his Big Mac, he makes sure it comes without pickle slices. But customers hoping to channel Balvin by ingesting the exact same McDonald's meal as him are consistently being thwarted. McDonald's employees are going off script and serving Balvin's Big Mac to the masses with pickle included.

Popular YouTube food reviewer John Jurasek jumped on the J Balvin meal the first day it was available and noted the controversy on YouTube, referring to it as "picklegate." The term hasn't really trended yet on Twitter, perhaps because picklegate is already taken and has something to do with Hillary Clinton and a pickle jar (via The Hill).

Food reviewer Jurasek, whose YouTube channel The Report of the Week has more than 2 million subscribers, got to the bottom of the pickle question by ordering the J Balvin meal and peeking inside the Big Mac. There it was, for all the world to see — renegade pickle slices. Jurasek was OK with that. He made sure he didn't lose any pickle as he chewed on the Big Mac on-camera. Rebecca Alter at Vulture was pleased that her J Balvin Big Mac came with a pickle, despite the claim in a McDonald's commercial that the burger would be pickle-free.

While some were happy to get the vinegary cucumber in their burger, others are excited that it's gone. "Just found out the J Balvin McDonald's meal is a Big Mac without pickles and I need one immediately," @Melonmarie69 tweeted. Twitter user @ash_blackghoul thought the decision to hold the pickle was a big reason why the J Balvin meal was better than the Travis Scott meal, which was a Quarter Pounder with bacon and lettuce, fries with barbecue sauce, and a Sprite. She tweeted, "J. Balvin's McDonald's meal is way better than that Cactus Jack .... The Big Mac has NO PICKLES, which is correct bc pickles are nasty on burgers AND it comes w/ a McFlurry." Here's hoping that the McDonald's @ash_blackghoul frequents has an operational ice cream machine, and employees who know that Balvin said "no pickles."