Burger King has brought home a promotion it tested out in Japan last year– a hamburger with a pitch black bun. Sadly, they didn’t replicate the promotion exactly: Last year’s burgers also featured black ketchup and black cheese, giving it a truly otherworldly presence.
The burger itself is a version of the Whopper, a fairly large quarter-pounder, coming in at 650 calories with all the toppings (mayonnaise, ketchup, lettuce, etc.). Fries and a drink could add as many as 800 calories to that. The reasonable advice is that it’s not a meal you should allow yourself to eat more than once a week or so.
Seeing the bun in a picture just can’t do justice to how unnatural it looks in person. To say that one would be hesitant to eat it would be an understatement. It’s not unreasonable that someone would opt for a regular Whopper, which are still for sale.
It’s difficult to analyze the flaws in the burger because it is unclear what the source of its flaws are. Perhaps the foul taste is a figment of my imagination, perhaps it’s the A-1 steak sauce baked into the bun, or perhaps it’s simply a flaw that could be found in a regular Whopper.
How can you juice a good, deep analysis out a burger? I could hardly juice any enjoyment out of it. It tasted bland and the experience was displeasurable. It lacked any sense of artisanship or direction; any flavor the burger could have had was drowned out by the ketchup and mayonnaise blending into a generic Thousand Island sauce. The A-1 steak sauce supposedly baked into the bun was muted by the rest of it. The mediocrity of the burger is compounded by the price, which is as high as much better burger stands, such as Backyard Burger or Five Guys.
In short, it’s not worth hopping in your car with your pals and trying to get to the BK on Creedmoor Road in time to eat Halloween burgers and get back to school. Although, of course, the promotion already convinced me to eat there once– which may as well make it a success.
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