There are three important features that make Burger King in Japan a very different experience: apples, booze, and couches, or ABC. Apples? Yes, Burger King has brought back their limited-time apple burgers in Japan, which feature grilled apple slices instead of tomatoes. Are they any good?
There are two burgers available with apple: The BK Ringo, a small burger that features one apple slice and cinnamon mayonnaise, and the NY Whopper, a larger sandwich with two apple slices and hollandaise sauce. “Ringo” is Japanese for “apple,” and has nothing to do with any famous drummers. The NY Whopper concept comes from the vaguely NYC-ish theme that Burger King is using to market these burgers.
Anyway, do the burgers taste any good? Yes! Cinnamon mayonnaise is not as strange as it sounds. “The cinnamon smells great, and the scent mixes with the meat and produces an almost Middle Eastern effect,” notes Casey Baseel of RocketNews24. The apple has a nice texture–not crunchy or mushy, but like a “firm apple pie,” and hollandaise sauce provides a nice creamy citrus note. The NY Whopper includes a small amount of bacon.
The cocktails? Ah, yes, you can order those at Burger King in Japan, as long as you like highballs mixed with cola or ginger ale. Beer is also available.
Maybe they should try the apples over here: tomatoes aren’t particularly good in much of the United States for most of the year, but apples keep beautifully when stored correctly. We could have fresh, tasty grilled fruit in our appleburgers year-round.