Nichola Beckford/Contributor

With Christmas comes the extra demand for food, one specifically, ham. Wendy’s has been one of the few fast food entities to take advantage of this seasonal increase in interest with its Hamtastic sandwich. It’s back again for Christmas 2022, with a few modifications. Get ready for a spicy take on this one.

What is it?

This year — we’ll get to that, the Hamtastic is an add-on to two items on the Wendy’s menu, the Dave’s Classic and the Spicy Chicken Sandwich. The Dave’s Classic is their Burger King, McDonald’s fighter, using a quarter-pound of beef topped by a slice of American cheese, lettuce, tomato, pickle, and an onion. Ketchup and mayonnaise are the condiments. All of this between a toasted bun. The Spicy Chicken Sandwich, uses the same ingredients, switching out the beef for a chicken breast marinated and breaded in what Wendy’s calls their own fiery blend of peppers and spices. These are regular items that can be had on the everyday menu, until Christmas, when the want for ham allows customers to add a slice of Black Forest Ham and a Pepper Jelly sauce. This creates a Dave’s Hamtastic and Spicy Chicken Hamtastic.

Does it live up to the pictures?

You should know by now that fast food promotional photos are the equivalent of profile photos on a dating app. In the case of either Hamtastic, when they are blessed with ham — we’ll get to that too, they are actually pretty close to the photos. It’s like that one girl who looks pretty depending on who does her makeup. Both the Dave’s Classic and the Spicy Chicken Sandwich are rather simple looking to begin with, so as long as the person doing the order takes enough care, it appears close enough. Otherwise it can swing from Cinderella to Cruella.

How does it taste?

These two items vary significantly because of their own base tastes. Whether fans of either will enjoy the addition of ham will be a very personal decision. For the Dave’s Hamtastic, it all works, that’s because we’ve been here before — we’ll get to that soon, noticing a trend here. The ham and the beef combine quite well, with the Pepper Jelly sauce adding a very sweet flavour to each bite. Outside of that, it goes down like a normal Dave’s Classic. The Spicy Chicken Hamtastic is where things get interesting. This doesn’t work in my book. The spices on the chicken breast overpower the sweetness of the Pepper Jelly sauce, and the breaded texture of the chicken itself doesn’t jell well — pun intended, with the ham. Eating the Spicy Chicken Hamtastic is a contrast of flavour and physical feel. Beef and ham? Bueno! Ham and thick breaded spicy chicken? No Bueno!

Problems?

Whoa boy, there’s plenty here. The Hamtastic began life as its own sandwich, basically a modified Dave’s Classic, with a chunk of ham, red onions and the Pepper Jelly sauce. A wonderful start. Each season the formula was altered. On top of having the Hamtastic sandwich, the ingredients could be applied to several other menu items, including two of the chicken sandwiches, the spicy and the grilled. Yes, two chicken options, of which the grilled nature of the chicken breast went much better with the ham. This no longer exists. Not sure why, but okay.

Problem two. There is no standalone sandwich, only two possible Hamtastic sandwiches, both of which have reverted to a combo only purchase, at minimum. In earlier incarnations, it was combo only and for whatever reason that has returned here. Not everyone wants a drink and fries Wendy. This is not technically an issue for those who want the value, but that goes out the window due to the other purchase option for the Hamtastic, the Biggie Box. Following their base menu items, the Dave’s Classic and Spicy Chicken Sandwich, both Hamtastic versions can be had as a Biggie Box, adding four chicken nuggets to the proceedings. On the surface the prices of the Hamtastic combos are very near the prices of the non-Hamtastic Biggie Boxes. The unsuspecting may believe that the value move is to upgrade to a Hamtastic Biggie Box. Don’t.

Problem three. This was rather troubling as it has to do with consistency of the product. The pictures promise a large slab of ham, and when properly prepared that’s what was delivered. However, in several cases the ham was more like the scraps left over from cutting a larger piece. Even more disappointing was not receiving any ham at all. Those ordering the combo can easily check, but for Biggie Box lovers it’s a pain in the butt to open and have to check that tightly packed order.

Final verdict

The beef works. The grilled chicken works which is irrelevant as there’s no longer any grilled chicken, just the Spicy Chicken Hamtastic that is best left to more left field tastes. Someone must like it, they make it. Then there’s the problem of paying for ham, getting a small piece like a child at Christmas dinner with adults, or potentially not getting any at all after spending all that extra money. The Dave’s Hamtastic is good, just make sure to check the order.