Bringing the heat to hanami with habanero.

With the sakura now beginning to bloom around Japan, our appetite for cherry blossoms has grown even stronger, and McDonald’s is serving to satisfy that hunger with a new burger adorned in the petals of spring.

Called the Atsugiri Spicy Bacon Teritama (Thick-cut Spicy Bacon Teritama), the new burger is part of the Teritama burger lineup that appears at McDonald’s in Japan for a limited time every March.

An amalgamation of the words “teriyaki” and “tamago” (“egg”), the Teritama contains a fried egg and teriyaki sauce as its main ingredients, but this year, they’ve brought out the Spicy Bacon as a brand new version of the springtime staple.

▼ Regular Teritama (left), Cheese Teritama (right), and the all-new Thick-cut Spicy Bacon Teritama (middle).

Image: McDonald’s Japan

With a habanero Mayo Sauce bringing the heat to the new burger, our Japanese-language reporter Yayoi Saginomiya decided to try it in honour of the popular online hashtag “#火曜は辛いものを食べてスッキリする日”, which translates to “#Tuesday is a refreshing day to eat spicy food”.

So off she went on Tuesday, looking for a spicy hit to cleanse her palate and refresh her day, ordering a Thick-cut Spicy Bacon Teritama for 450 yen (US$3.72).

After peeling off the pretty cherry blossom packaging, she was greeted by the burger’s three main heroes: fried egg, a pork patty, and thick-sliced bacon.

▼ Though it didn’t look like it had a lot of volume, this burger was heavy to hold.

As a big fan of the Teritama, Yayoi was keen to try this, as it’s the first-ever spicy version to be made by the chain. How would the habanero mayo sauce pair with the trio of pork, egg and bacon? She cut it in half so she could get a big dollop of the sauce directly on her tongue as she took her first bite.

Yayoi’s tongue tingled immediately as it came into contact with the golden sauce, allowing her to enjoy the intense stimulation of habanero chilli.

The mayonnaise helped to impart a richness to the sauce, rounding out the heat with flavour to create a fantastic taste. Of course, there was teriyaki sauce in there too, adding a sweetness to the overall flavour profile, combining beautifully with the pork, egg and bacon to create a burger that Yayoi describes as “a masterpiece“.

Yayoi was completely satisfied with the burger, which delivered bagfuls of flavour in every mouthful. It’s a burger she’ll definitely go back for while it’s on the menu until mid-April, and next time, she’ll be adding a McDonald’s Sakura pie to her order too!

Related: McDonald’s Japan
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