japantalk1: McDonald’s Japan World Cup Menu

The soccer World Cup in Brazil will start this week and McDonald’s Japan has celebrated this great event by releasing some World Cup menu items. McDonald’s Japan is offering several burgers based on nations expected to do well at the World Cup. The nations represented are Brazil, Germany, Spain, France and Japan.

In total, McDonald’s Japan will release 14 new World Cup themed menu items starting from May 27.

The first burgers in the series are out and include the Brazil BBQ Beef Burger, the German Pork Schnitzel Burger, and the breakfast-only Spanish Omelet Muffin. The Brazil and German Burgers will remain on the menu until June 17, where they will be replaced by the Japanese Menchi Beef Burger and the French Chicken Cordon Bleu Burger.

Other World Cup menu items include Chicken McNuggets with Italian basil cheese or German curry sauce, deep-fried Italian risotto balls in either herb and tomato flavour or squid ink flavour.

They also have two special World Cup sodas based on the team uniforms of Japan and the Netherlands. The Japan Makku Fizz is Samurai Blue and tastes like ramune, which is a popular soft drink in Japan. The Holland Makku Fizz is Dutch Orange and is flavoured with both orange and mango juice.

Last of all, they have two McFlurry desserts which look really good. The two flavours are Belgian chocolate and French crème brulle.

The Brazil BBQ Beef Burger

The Brazil BBQ Beef Burger features two 100% beef patties that are topped with red and yellow peppers, shredded lettuce, cheddar cheese and a special Latin Charcoal BBQ “grill sauce”, all contained within a soccer ball shaped bun.

The Brazil BBQ Beef Burger

The German Pork Schnitzel Burger

The German Pork Schnitzel Burger features a finely coated deep-fried pork cutlet with potato salad, roast onions and a Champignon mushroom sauce, all on a pretzel bun.

The German Pork Schnitzel Burger

The Spanish Omelet Muffin

The Spanish Omelet Muffin features a spinach and red pepper omelette that is topped with cheese and a tomato, pepper and almond Romesco sauce, all on an English muffin.

The Spanish Omelet Muffin

Soccer Themed French Fries

A very cool addition is the soccer themed collectible French fry packages. There are 12 different ones to collect and each was designed by a different international artist.

Soccer Themed French Fries

The Taste Test

Japan Australia being a fan of anything new in Japan as well as a soccer fan (Go Aussies and Blue Samurai) had to head to our local McDonald's to try these interesting new creations out. We ordered the Brazil BBQ Beef Burger set for 699 yen (USD$6.80) and sat down to give it a try. The soccer shaped bun was really cool and gave this burger a distinct look. Unfortunately, the burger wasn't very good with strange flavour combinations that just didn't work together. We actually didn't enjoy it at all, especially the strange BBQ sauce which had a very unusual flavour and way too salty. Hopefully the others in the series will be a marked improvement.