We've just got word that McDonald's Quarter Pounder with Cheese — a burger consisting of a juicy beef patty, two slices of cheese, sliced pickles, slivered onions and ketchup — has on Wednesday, Dec. 6, been discontinued.

We first learned about this in a Reddit thread:

Potentially confirmed by this photograph of a card, uploaded early on Monday morning to Facebook:

Naturally, quarter pounder lovers were in shock:

"Are they mad? I always order double quarter pounder!"

"So where's the petition to stop this nonsense from happening... I want my double quarter pounder back!!!!"

But... it's still available on UberEATS

Sure enough, on the McDonald's Delivery app, both quarter pounder burgers were listed as "temporarily unavailable":

:(

But interestingly, it was available on UberEATS:

And I successfully ordered it and had it delivered to my doorstep:

(Yes, I took all of the photos against a wall.)

[related_story]

So is it gone or not?

Probably yes — and the Quarter Pounder I managed to have might well have been my last.

In response to a question on McDonald's Facebook page on December 4, the fast-food chain posted this reply:

"Hi Tommy, thanks for your inquiry. We have discontinued the Quarter Pounder with Cheese. This is because we will soon be introducing a similar burger with 100% Angus Beef — and hope you will give it a try soon :)"

Fans speculate

Why did this happen? There are two pretty convincing-sounding explanations:

1) Its heftier-than-usual price tag

"The franchisee for McDonald's is local (Hanbaobao Pte Ltd). It's more likely that it just doesn't sell very well in the Asian region, and they made a similar (but separate) decision to discontinue.

I guess that most Asians in this region wouldn't pay the extra for the larger burger? Or the portion of the peopple who would pay for that are just throwing in the extra dollar or so and buying the "premium" beef burger thing that they've been pushing."

2) Tougher to cook, has an exclusive patty, and rarely ordered

"Insight from an ex-McDonald's employee,

• The hamburger, double cheeseburger, cheeseburger, McDouble as well as the Big Mac all uses the same meat, the flat one you know and love.
• The quarter pounder has its own exclusive meat which is the thick meat that you know and love, but it has literally 0 uses for anything outside of the quarter pounder or the double version. It comes from exactly the same cut of beef patties as the normal ones, except thicker and uses the same spices while cooking.
• The cooking time is significantly higher compared to the flat ones (duh it’s thicker) and you could only cook a maximum of 12 at a time while you could cook about 32 meat patties within the same time (16 per batch).
• The number of people who orders a quarter pounder is really, really little at least for my branch, because everybody would opt for 2 double cheeseburger or a Big Mac if they were hungry. Even the kitchen staff know how rare it is for someone to order a quarter pounder that they only start cooking the patties when it is ordered at the counter. Any more cooked are usually kept way past their shelf life in the heater. We did try to serve a few, but customers always complained it became too dry or hard because it was sitting in there for some time.

All in all, any other beef burger at Mac outshines the quarter pounder for both the customers as well as McDonald’s themselves in terms of costs, maintenance, efficiency in the kitchen as well as affordability and appeal.

Edit: I totally forgot about the classic Angus beef menu which they have permanently in most stores now (used to be only in stores with the self help stations). They have it to satisfy the need for thick burgers, and the Big Mac to satisfy your hunger. It’s only logical that the quarter pounder no longer have any place on the regular menu."

But all that said, whatever the reason, the Facebook comment from McDonald's suggests that the fast food chain will be introducing a "similar burger with 100% Angus Beef".

We believe it's this one they're teasing in this video right here:

What can replace the Quarter Pounder with Cheese?

There is still the McDouble, BBQ Beef Burger with Egg, Big Mac and the mysterious Angus beef burger that will be introduced on Dec. 7.

Our unsolicited advice: Just don't remove the McSpicy, that's a deal-breaker right there.

Until then, RIP Double Quarter Pounder with Cheese. You'll be missed.

Top photo by Fasiha Nazren

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