A couple months ago, Burger King revealed the Mexican Street Corn, Fried Pickle Ranch, and Maple Bourbon BBQ Whoppers in a press release covering the Million Dollar Whopper Contest. In summary, people from across the United States proposed their own ideas for special Whoppers, and the top three recipes actually went into production so that customers can vote for which is the best.

I’ve always been more of a McDonald’s person than a Burger King person, and I actually don’t even remember how many years it’s been since I’ve last been at a Burger King (before this trip, obviously), but I like trying out new foods and innovative dishes, so I decided to try four Whoppers—one of each of the new Whoppers, plus one classic Whopper as a baseline.

In central Las Vegas, each of the new Whoppers costs US$6.99 for the entrée (i.e., just for the sandwich, and not as a meal or combo), but there is a special digital-exclusive deal called the “Million Dollar Whopper® Flight” that lets you buy all three at a discounted rate of US$18.99, saving US$1.98, if you order ahead online. A regular Whopper comes in at US$5.89, which brings the total to US$24.88 before taxes. Note that this is region-specific pricing, so your Whoppers may be more or less expensive than mine.

In order to give as balanced of a review as possible, I followed a controlled methodology for taste testing. I split each Whopper into fourths. I ate one quarter of each fresh Whopper, one after another, then ate another quarter of each fresh Whopper, again, one after another. Afterwards, half of each Whopper remained. I took the leftovers and refrigerated them for eight hours, and once I was no longer satiated, I retrieved and microwaved them all together for two minutes. For the second half of the taste test, I repeated the cycle—two rounds of eating a quarter of each Whopper per round until I was done.

In no particular order, first up is the Fried Pickle Ranch Whopper with a quarter-pound flame-grilled beef patty, fried pickles, pickle ranch, bacon, lettuce, and Swiss cheese.

This burger was unbelievably salty to the point where it felt like the inside of my mouth itself was getting pickled. I think a lot of the sodium might have been concentrated in the Swiss cheese, but either way, it made for a pretty unpleasant experience.

I’m generally fine with fresh pickles and will sometimes even request pickles on sandwiches that don’t usually come with pickles because I think they add a nice kick to the flavor profile, but these fried pickles were something else… in a not-so-great way. This Whopper might be great for someone who likes fried pickles, but I think they just aren’t my thing.

This Whopper was the one that had the sharpest decline in quality after refrigeration and reheating. I didn’t really want to finish the second half of this Whopper after microwaving it, but for the sake of not wasting food, I removed all the fried pickles and scraped off as much Swiss cheese as possible, which made it a bit more palatable for me.

Overall, the Fried Pickle Ranch Whopper was my least favorite out of the four.

Next is the Mexican Street Corn Whopper with a quarter-pound flame-grilled beef patty, Southwest seasoned tortilla crisps, Mexican spicy queso, street corn spread, lettuce, and tomato.

The most straightforward and easy way to put this is that this was like a ground beef taco in the form of a burger. Upon my initial bite, I was going to say that it basically tastes like a normal Whopper but with Fritos® inside, but after I started recognizing more of the flavor of the sauces, I realized it was definitely a distinct and unique Whopper, and not just a regular Whopper with one extra topping on it.

Out of the three new Whoppers, this one was my favorite.

Last but not least out of the new Whoppers is the Maple Bourbon BBQ Whopper with a quarter-pound flame-grilled beef patty, bacon, American cheese, crispy onions and jalapeños, maple bourbon barbecue sauce, and maple bacon seasoning.

This most resembled a menu item that I would expect to see on a fast food restaurant’s permanent menu. I can’t really think of any specific menu items or restaurants off the top of my head, but this was basically the same as a Texan-style BBQ cheeseburger that I’d find at a burger joint. The components of the Whopper worked well together and formed a cohesive and complementary flavor profile.

The reason why this wasn’t my favorite Whopper was because the barbecue sauce was way too sweet. I also don’t think the sauce was applied to the burger in the most effective way. Instead of splitting it so that it makes direct contact with both the toppings and the base of the patty, it was only spread on the top bun. This meant that the sauce wasn’t really absorbed by the beef patty, but it was extra absorbed by the bacon and crispy onions, so the bacon tasted like candied bacon and the crispy onions were a bit soggy.

And finally, serving as the control group, I also ordered a regular Whopper with a quarter-pound flame-grilled beef patty, tomatoes, lettuce, pickles, sliced white onions, mayonnaise, and ketchup between a toasted sesame seed bun.

I don’t know if this was just the nostalgia kicking in from when I would eat Whoppers once in a while as a kid, but in my opinion, this was overwhelmingly the best Whopper.

This had the most vegetables, which gave the sandwich the most refreshing overall flavor profile. I love raw onions, and if it wasn’t for the fact that I was trying to do as unbiased of a review as possible of these unmodified Whoppers, I would’ve asked for extra onions. Mayonnaise is my favorite condiment, but I haven’t had much of it over the past few years since I found out that I have high cholesterol and need to minimize my saturated fat consumption; that fact might’ve caused tasting the mayo in this Whopper to be extra satisfying.

As a disclaimer, even though I go to fast food restaurants somewhat often, I usually order basic and straightforward sandwiches with either beef, chicken, or fish as the meat and a balanced portion of vegetables. I try to avoid fried foods, I don’t like bacon, and I think most cheeses smell like mold and sometimes make me want to vomit. Thus, I think it’s reasonable to say that I have a “cleaner” palate, and my opinions on these Whoppers would probably align closer with people in similar situations as myself, as opposed to people who might be more used to foods with more intense and explosive flavors.

I’m glad I tried the Million Dollar Whopper® Flight, not only because it was nice participating in a limited-time event, but also because this reminded me that I am most compatible with and should probably just stick with chicken and fish sandwiches like I usually do.