Szechuan sauce became a nationwide phenomenon, thanks to the premiere episode of Rick and Morty Season 3. And when McDonald’s briefly brought the sauce back on October 7, the gesture of goodwill almost backfired. They only had about 20 packets of sauce per participating location, and people who waited in line for hours for the treasured sauce were devastated (and really angry) when the stores ran out so fast. McDonald’s tried to assuage concerns by promising to bring back the sauce sometime this winter. But now we’re partway through January, the weather is really cold, many states have already seen their first blizzards of the season, and there is still no Szechuan sauce to be seen. Is McDonald’s still planning to keep that promise, or are fans everywhere going to be crying out, “Wubba lubba dub dub”? UPDATE: McDonald’s is bringing back the Szechuan Sauce as early as February 26. See Heavy’s new story here for all the details on how to get it.

ORIGINAL STORY BELOW:

The day after Christmas, McDonald’s said it still planned to release the Szechuan sauce everywhere and would be serving it again “soon.” But the company hadn’t given out an official date for the sauce’s release yet. On Christmas Day, an alert Rick and Morty fan noted on McDonald’s original tweet promising the Szechuan sauce’s return that no one had seen the sauce yet. McDonald’s responded: “We’re still moving sauce through portals, but we’ll be finished soon! We won’t make you wait nine seasons for Szechuan Sauce.” That’s one of the last times we’ve heard officially from McDonald’s, so it looks like they plan to keep their “winter” promise, but we don’t know any more than that.

We're still moving sauce through portals, but we'll be finished soon! We won't make you wait nine seasons for Szechuan Sauce. — McDonald's (@McDonalds) December 26, 2017

On January 2, McDonald’s confirmed again that it was on the way, but not ready quite yet:

Hi, Graves! It doesn’t take a mad scientist to know how awesome our legendary Szechuan sauce is. Give us a bit more space-time to get it ready for distribution. Coming soon to a McDonald's near YOU! — McDonald's (@McDonalds) January 2, 2018

Their original tweet on October 8 read: “Szechuan Sauce is coming back once again this winter. And instead of being one-day-only and limited to select restaurants, we’re bringing more — a lot more — so that any fan who’s willing to do whatever it takes for Szechuan Sauce will only have to ask for it at a nearby McDonald’s.” It’s unclear why it’s taking McDonald’s so long to get this Szechuan sauce ready for nationwide release. McDonald’s Szechuan sauce was originally only offered temporarily during a promotion for Mulan in 1998.

We still have some time for McDonald’s to meet its winter promise. Winter officially didn’t begin until December 21 and doesn’t officially end until March 20. So we could still be waiting for a while. If you’re not sure why this sauce is so popular, here’s the clip from the Season 3 premiere that started it all:

Rick and Morty – Szechuan Sauce (Season 3 clip)To be fair, you have to have a very high IQ to understand Rick and Morty. The humor is extremely subtle, and without a solid grasp of theoretical physics most of the jokes will go over a typical viewer's head. There's also Rick's nihilistic outlook, which is deftly woven into his characterisation – his personal… 2017-04-02T03:02:48Z

Unfortunately, some fake McDonald’s social media accounts are trying to claim specific dates for the Szechuan Sauce return. This fake account below, which looks real until you see the Twitter handle is @RealMcDonolds, claimed the sauce was coming back on January 12. So if you’re searching “McDonald’s Szechuan Sauce” on a site like Twitter, beware fake accounts like this one, which even had me fooled just like a Jerry for a minute:

McDonald's Szechuan Sauce is ready for distribution. Coming to a McDonald's near you 1/12/18! pic.twitter.com/bGgq57bX4M — McDonald's (@RealMcDonolds) January 5, 2018

If you don’t want to wait for the Szechuan Sauce, here’s a copycat recipe you can try today, by Redditor OliverBabish. He tasted the actual Szechuan sauce, saw a photo of McDonald’s recipe, and tried to copy it as best he could:

Binging with Babish: Szechuan Sauce Revisited (From Real Sample!)Last round, my efforts to recreate the fabled McDonald's Szechuan Sauce were wild, flailing shots in the dark, pathetic and meager attempts to recreate a long-lost condiment out of scanty information and back-alley sources. But now, thanks to a very kind man named David Wasman, I have procured a sample of the genuine article. Follow… 2017-09-12T15:17:47Z

If you want to relive that crazy day in October when the Szechuan sauce was released for a limited time, check out these stories below: