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Marking Japan’s unofficial “Banana Day” celebration of bananas, McDonald’s Japan offers us a sneak preview of its upcoming summer exclusive McFlurry flavor.

Holy crap, you guys. It is hot in Tokyo. Like, I just saw a guy burst into flames and run screaming down the street hot. I would have helped the poor guy, but I was too busy enjoying McDonald’s Japan’s delicious, refreshing new banana tart McFlurry. A man’s gotta have priorities.

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August 7 was unofficial “Banana Day” in Japan – one of the many, many (oh god, so many) pun holidays in Japan that typically are celebrated when the digits in a particular calendar date can be manipulated to form some kind of play on words. January 5, for example, is “Strawberry Day,” as the digits 1 and 5 are pronounced “ichi-go” in Japanese (for “strawberry”). Some pun holidays get a little more fun with their number associations, such as “Beard Day,” on August 8, so named because “88” kinda looks like two beard bros kickin’ back with a couple of craft beers and talking about flannel and manbuns or whatever.

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Anyway, I digress. Seeing as August 7 was official Banana Day, McDonald’s offered a limited early release of their brand new, summer edition McFlurry special, the “Banana Tart McFlurry,” at the chain’s Harajuku Takeshita Street location, with the first – you guessed it – 87 customers getting to try the new flavor on the house.

Obviously, we went and got our hands on a few.

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Like any of McDonald’s selection of McFlurry desserts, the banana tart flavor starts with a soft serve ice cream base, but this version ups the ante with a generous helping of banana sauce and a crumbled graham cracker topping. We found the banana sauce, the ice cream and the graham cracker all really combined to faithfully recreate the taste of a banana tart and provided a refreshing, summery snack on one of the hottest days of the year so far.

The location was offering a double topping option (which we also gladly indulged in), but we found the regular version to have a perfect balance of flavors anyway, and for whatever reason the double topping option will not be available when the Banana Tart McFlurry officially rolls out today (August 10).

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The limited treat will remain on sale until the beginning of October.

Finally, if you’re living in Japan, we’d be remiss not to point out that McDonald’s is holding a giveaway that will see one lucky customer per day receiving 87,770 yen (US$857). To enter the giveaway, just follow McDonald’s Japan’s official Twitter page, hunt down your favorite tweet about the Banana Tart Flurry, and retweet it with the caption “おすすめコメント” and “#マックフルーリーバナナタルト”.

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Images: RocketNews24
[ Read in Japanese ]