McDonald's South Korea Just Added An Unexpected Burger To Its Menu
International menus aren't always the same as what customers find in the United States. Per CNN, this is called product localization, which means catering to the audience you're serving. Domino's Pizza locations in India have offered "ground lamb and onion" (keema do pyaaza) as a topping option. China's KFC locations have sold seasonal vegetables such as bamboo shoots and lotus roots, and Dunkin' in South Korea has kimchi-filled croquettes and rice doughnuts among its menu items.
In a similar vein, there are fast food options that people would be hard-pressed to find outside of the United States. Chick-fil-A, for instance, said on its website that "for the foreseeable future," its expansion plans will be limited to Canada and the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico. Even within the States, there's a chance that customers will find items that a chain only serves in certain locations. In Hawaii, McDonald's localized its menu by adding haupia pie, a dessert with sugar, coconut milk, and pia filling (via Khon2). McDonald's just launched another menu item with a localized twist. But that twist might be hard to find outside of South Korea.
The secret is the green tea
McDonald's added a new burger to South Korean menus. Dubbed the Boseong Green Tea Pork Burger, the sandwich is made with a Boseong nokdon patty, bacon, spicy cheese sauce, red onions, mayonnaise, and Korean cabbage (via Chew Boom). According to a 2018 message by Mayor Kim Cheol-Woo, Boseong is a county in South Korea known for its green tea fields (via the Boseong website).
The blog Lost with Jen, which documents the travels of an Ohio native living in Korea, said in a 2020 post that close to 6 million tea trees were planted at the Daehan Tea Gardens in Boseong. In 2009, the LA Times reported that Boseong residents add green tea leaves to almost everything. So it would make sense for McDonald's locations to incorporate that ingredient as well. Per Chew Boom, the burgers themselves don't contain green tea. Rather, fermented green tea was fed to the hogs that were used for making the pork patties. The burger will only be offered for a limited time for 6,300 South Korean won. For perspective, that equals about $4.81 in United States dollars.