The Fast Food Chain With The Absolute Worst Breakfast Sandwich

Breakfast sandwiches are a quintessential item on fast food menus across the country — but no single one is made the same. Our taste testers took it upon themselves to try as many of them as possible, comparing the breakfast sandwiches on the menus of everywhere from Taco Bell to Panera, and while there were a few shining stars, they found one to be the absolute worst: Starbucks' bacon, Gouda, and egg sandwich.

Starbucks has a few different breakfast sandwiches on its menu, all of which Tasting Table's taste testers compared individually in their ranking of every hot Starbucks breakfast item. But, while the bacon, Gouda and egg might be our top pick if you're going to buy a breakfast sandwich at Starbucks, it pales in comparison to your options from other fast food chains — which says a lot about what little you can expect from Starbucks' other choices, too.

Even despite being your best pick on the Starbucks menu, the bacon, Gouda, and egg breakfast sandwich will be to served to you on a tough, chewy, miniature-sized roll, and the rest of the ratios will be all off. For $6 and some change, the bacon is thin, soggy, and virtually nowhere to be found. To make things worse, the chewiness of the bread only over powers both the Gouda and eggs, which are essentially the only two things this sandwich has going for it.

One of the major things that's holding Starbucks' bacon, Gouda, and egg breakfast sandwich back is the texture of the ciabatta roll. A lot of that can be handed down to the fact that it –- and all of Starbucks' other breakfast sandwiches, for that matter -– are pre-made. Rather than being assembled fresh on the spot, Starbucks' breakfast sandwiches are constructed in a bakery in California and shipped to them frozen. So, not only does that mean that your barista isn't to blame for skimping on the bacon, but it also means that instead of being toasted fresh they're simply thrown in a hot oven for a few minutes, which could explain the toughness of the bread.

Another drawback that's inherent to Starbucks' breakfast sandwiches being pre-made is that you're very limited to how much you can customize them. Generally, you can only ask the barista to remove certain items from your sandwich, and you can't add or substitute them for anything else. While that does mean you can't do anything about the ciabatta that comes with your bacon, Gouda, and egg sandwich besides remove it entirely, it doesn't by any means mean you're strictly limited to Starbucks' breakfast sandwiches. Instead, get your coffee or iced latte and take it with you to get another, more highly ranked fast food breakfast sandwich.