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“It’s really hard for us to understand what spice level they want in Atlantic Canada, versus what they want in Quebec, versus the west. It’s all different,” he said. “How do we put our finger on that key tolerance that will fit a McDonald’s consumer?”

The new Spicy McChicken promotion, which starts Tuesday and runs until March 11, is the chain’s attempt to figure out exactly how hot is too hot.

To do it, Anderson has developed a kind of Goldilocks experiment, with three levels of spicy mayonnaise subbing in for the regular mayonnaise on non-spicy McChickens.

Photo by J.P. Moczulski for National Post

He refuses to refer to these sauces as mild, medium and hot, insisting that even the first tier is spicy. A pale green jalapeño sauce, the least spicy of the three, will debut Tuesday, joined by the mid-range habanero sauce two weeks later and a ghost pepper sauce two weeks after that. Aside from the new sauce, Anderson said, the “McChicken identity” remains intact.

“This will give us a great indication of where our consumer’s spice level is,” Anderson said, adding that the staggered release is designed as a gauge of consumer preference in each market around the country, with the resulting knowledge then used in future campaigns.

“We’ll be able to understand where we sold this more than we sold this, or when we brought in this, did people stop buying this one?” he said. “We want to make sure we’re fulfilling our guests’ expectations on what spicy is.”

From the start, Anderson was determined not to repeat the mistakes of 2016’s Spice It Up campaign, McDonald’s last attempt at a spicy dish in Canada, which paired an Angus burger with jalapeño and Sriracha.