Why You Should Think Twice Before Buying Starbucks' Classic Sausage Breakfast Sandwich

Starbucks has a lot of options for breakfast foods, almost too many one might say, and with so many different things to make, it's hard to get all of them right. Starbucks has over a dozen pastries that range from totally forgettable to quite good, and that's before you factor in prepackaged items like granola bars, and all of its hot foods. With so many choices it can be easy to default to a classic option. Maybe a big chain like Starbucks will mess up something that takes a lot of work like puff pastry, but surely some sausage slapped between sliced English muffins will at least be decent? Unfortunately, our ranking of every Starbucks hot breakfast item showed that classic isn't always best.

When we tried Starbucks Sausage, Cheddar, & Egg Sandwich we found a limp breakfast item that barely justified its own existence. The breakfast sandwich was off in both texture and flavor, with a weirdly spongy, gummy English muffin holding in a tasteless egg and sausage combination that was more salt than anything. Furthermore, it's an eating experience that gets worse with each bite. As the sandwich cools, what little crispy texture it gets from heating completely disappears, and all the ingredients blend together into an indistinguishable, squishy mass. Since there are considerably better breakfast sandwiches at Starbucks (like our top choice: the Bacon, Gouda, & Egg Sandwich), there really is just no reason to bother with the Sausage, Cheddar, & Egg abomination.

The thing about Starbucks' Sausage, Cheddar, & Egg Sandwich is that it's not terrible, it's just relentlessly bland. The obvious culprit is the sausage. Despite being made from pork, which should be fatty and meaty, it's completely inert. Not only is there no real pork taste, but no spices have been added to compensate for the bland meat either. While it tastes primarily of salt, it is not exactly too salty — it just gives you so little of anything else that salt is all your tastebuds can find. Maybe even more baffling is the cheese, which you might not even notice if you don't peel the bun off the top. There is no cheddar flavor at all, and it contributes none of the pleasant, gooey, melty texture you get from most cheesees at other fast food options like McDonalds or Dunkin', even when the cheese is bland. It's quite a disappointment from what is supposedly a more "premium" chain where this breakfast sandwich will cost you more than most competitors' offerings.

It's tough to justify such a dull sandwich at Starbucks in particular, because so many of its drinks are so strongly flavored. Even with a more coffee-forward beverage like a cold foam cold brew, the flavor of the drink just makes the sandwich seem even more flavorless by comparison. The next time you're grabbing breakfast, do yourself a favor and consider something like Starbucks' Egg Bites instead.