Black Is the New Burger
The Diamond edition Burger King Japan black burger
The last limited edition product to be associated with Burger King that we spotted was the Buffalo Crunch Donut. While it certainly didn’t seem like the healthiest menu option, it made sense given that it came from a franchisee of the Tim Horton’s chain which was recently acquired by the company, and for the fact that a junk food x junk food super junkfood mashup from the two fast food chains wouldn’t be all that out of place.
Not sure this latest burger will make its way onto menus near you anytime soon.
Burger King Japan is rolling out another “Kuro Burger” (“Black Burger”), with buns made from bamboo charcoal, an onion and garlic sauce made with squid ink, beef patties made with black pepper, and black cheese, which is also apparently made with bamboo charcoal. {Kotaku}
The squid ink, onion and garlic sauce doesn’t actually sound so bad, but black cheese? Charcoal buns? Did product developers look at a group of coal miners and go “Yes! That’s what people want to taste in a burger!”?
We can’t be sure that coal miners are having a culinary moment, but inspiration to try this commercially could have actually come from a limited edition burger offered in France more than 2 years ago.
Quick’s “Dark Vador” burger, was actually one of the first to include black buns.
Quick, the French/Benelux equivalent of Burger King, offered a burger with black buns more than 2 years ago (officially the “Dark Vador,” though everyone recognizes it as the Darth Vader burger). {Buzzfeed} The bread is as far as the monochromatic food coloring went, but it generated enough publicity that someone in Japan may have taken note.
If you’d like to taste a charcoal burger, have always looked at bleu cheese and thought “I really wish there were a darker colored cheese,”and have money for a ticket to Japan, the Kuro burger goes on sale for a limited time this month. It is available in a Diamond edition (pictured at top) with normally colored tomatoes, onions and lettuce; the Pearl edition dispenses with any attempt at burger normalcy and eliminates those things for odd-colored food purists.
