McDonald's To Resurrect Szechuan Sauce This Winter (They Really Mean It This Time)

OAK BROOK, IL — McDonald's is either really bad at planning or really good at marketing. The fast food giant announced a full-scale winter relaunch of its Szechuan sauce after customers — and let's be honest, "Rick and Morty" fans — erupted in vitriol online when Saturday's Szechuan sauce "giveaway" left them empty-handed and broken-hearted. Thousands of people waited, but each location had just 20 cups of the storied sauce.

Outraged customers took to Facebook and Twitter as the heartbreaking news broke and called for an all-out boycott of McDonald's. The sauce shortage outrage got so out of hand that police were called to keep some livid customers in check.

Sunday evening, McDonald's responded to the chaos by posting a statement on Twitter and by apparently opening "any portal necessary." It sounds so magical that you might just think they planned it all along.

If you ignore the unfortunate logistics of it all, McDonald's put some serious pre-planning into this limited Szechuan sauce release. Earlier this summer, the fast food behemoth sent a half gallon of Szechuan sauce to 'Rick and Morty' co-creator Justin Roiland and gave away three more half-gallon bottles on Twitter. One of those sold to DJ Deadmau5 on ebay for more than $15,000.

One can't help but wonder, then, whether McDonald's had dropped the ball on the giveaway or had planned to drum up this sort of frenzy by intentionally limiting its Szechuan sauce from the get-go.

An earlier tweet from the company (before their apology and miraculous portal opening) hinted that that may have been the case all along:

Will McDonald's deliver on its promised winter relaunch? Will customers have the same frenzied anticipation or did the Szechuan sauce backfire?

>>Image provided by McDonald's