Limited Supply of Szechuan Sauce Travels Through Time To McDonald's

OAK BROOK, IL — Does your mouth water at the mere mention of Szechuan Sauce? Are you inexplicably driven to pursue a taste of the elusive elixir above all other things in life? McDonald's is bringing its Szechuan Sauce back, but before you sit back and bask in this fact, keep one torturous thing in mind: it'll only be back for one day and there's only a very limited supply.

Ready yourselves, sauce lovers. On October 7 at 2 p.m. local time, select McDonald's throughout the U.S. will be just giving away cups of the sauce that recently went for more than $15,000 a half gallon on ebay. The little edible miracles will materialize at just 1000 McDonald's locations throughout the U.S.

Some Szechuan sauce fans have already prepared to stake out a spot across from the Art Institute in Chicago for a chance to savor the storied sweet-and-sour nectar, a McDonald's spokesperson told Patch. The sauce will be doled out (one cup per customer) until the frighteningly limited supply runs out. And we're serious when we say frighteningly limited.

If customers don't get their hands on any Szechuan sauce, they can take comfort in snagging a limited edition screen-printed poster or sticker for one of the nine sauces (including Szechuan and a new Signature Sauce) designed by artists from Chicago's Delicious Design League.

The sauce launch is part of a push to promote the new buttermilk chicken tenders at McDonald's, which are made with 100% white meat and no artificial flavors, colors or preservatives. The four-piece tenders option joins McDonald's signature sandwiches, straight-off-the-runway onesies, and the erstwhile "frork" as a way to rebrand the decades-old fast food company.

If you're itching to dip your tenders into some Szechuan Sauce, check this list of participating McDonald's locations. Then, get in line before the sauce heads back in time to that now idyllic year of 1997.

>>Image provided by McDonald's, designed by Sean Dove