CRAWFORD SMITH..........
Of course, fast food burgers aren't supposed to help me out with my diet — they're designed to taste good, and the Peanut Butter Bacon Cheeseburger certainly succeeded on that front. I already knew I liked peanut butter and bacon together, but I thought peanut butter and beef would be a weird pairing. I was proven wrong. The peanut butter enhanced the savory flavor of the beef patty, which was perfectly seared and had a satisfying charred taste. At the same time, the sugary notes of the peanut butter combined with the burger's mildly sweet bun to give me hints of PB&J.
I don't always love bacon on burgers, as it can be kind of redundant (a burger is already salty, savory, and fatty, so adding more of those flavors doesn't always do much), but in this case, it was very necessary. The smokiness helped make the peanut butter make sense, and the bacon's crispiness gave the sandwich some much-needed texture. The grilled onions tied everything together, reinforcing the sweet and savory aspects of the burger. The only ingredient that wasn't carrying its weight was the American cheese. It's not that this ingredient was bad, it's just that it didn't even register on my palate because it couldn't compete with all the strong flavors going on. This was one of the most interesting fast food burgers I've tried in a while, and it's definitely worth a visit to your nearest Sonic.