With Black burgers, Burger King Japan will walk down the dark path

It is common knowledge that Japan has weird tastes. The land of anime is now offering something very dark — black burgers or kuro burgers with black buns, black cheese and black ketchup. To be introduced in September and available for a limited period of time, these ominous sounding and looking burgers definitely have the shock value, instantly piquing your attention.

The burgers’ buns, cheese and ketchup are darkened through bamboo charcoal and squid ink is used too further blacken it. The beef patties are luckily not black but have black pepper in them. While black buns have been on the menu of Burger King for a while, black cheese is the latest addition, according to a report in Time .

Burger King has two versions of the black burger on their menu — Kuro Pearl which has black bun, cheese, dressing and patty — and Kuro Diamond which is Pearl with lettuce, tomatoes and onion additions.

Burger King is quite confident about their latest offering and have told The Guardian that their previous kuro burgers were met with favourable reception.

There are reports that Burger King will be opened in India by the end of 2014 but it is highly unlikely that the black burger might feature in their Indian menu.

What is squid ink? Cephalopod’s (Squid, octupus, cuttlefish etc) have little sacs near their gills which produce ink and release this ink as escape mechanism. The main constituent is melanin which gives it the dark colour. Squid ink is used for colouring and flavouring purposes and is used especially in making pastas. It is available in gourmet food shops.

What is bamboo charcoal? In eastern Asia, pieces of bamboo are taken and burnt inside ovens and the residue is compressed into small bricks or sticks. Usually, bamboo charcoal is used for fuel and drying purposes but Burger King has gone one step further and used it in making of its kuro buns, cheese and ketchup.