Nearly everyone in the office agrees!

Listen, we here at the SoraNews24 office have eaten a lot of food. Actually, we’ve eaten a lot of really, really good food–so much that we’d ordinarily be hard-pressed to pick a favorite. But in spite of that, you have to believe us when we say that 7-Eleven’s Cheese Buns are almost too delicious to be real.

Now, those who have lived in Japan may already know the value of food from 7-Eleven, which the makers are constantly working to renew and improve. You may even already be aware of the existence of their Cheese Buns. But please, allow us to proselytize for a moment, because if we can spread the gospel of the Cheese Bun to all, 7-Eleven may one day decide to keep them as a standard product, instead of a limited-time-only thing.

7-Eleven’s Cheese Buns are actually based on a Brazillian type of cheesy buns called “pão de queijo” (literally “cheese bread”). These buns are different from other types of cheesy bread in that they’re soft and chewy as opposed to fluffy, and that’s because they’re made not with flour but with tapioca powder. With a crispy outside and chewy inside, these buns provide a fresh texture as well as a delicious flavor.

The pão de queijo sold at 7-Eleven is officially called “Pão de Queijo for Those who Love Cheese (3-pack)”, and, true to its name, comes in a pack of three for 192 yen (US$1.42) (and is packed full of cheese).

But here is the secret to really enjoying 7-Eleven’s Cheese Buns: never eat them straight out of the package. It is 100 times better to toast them first.

The package even has toaster instructions written on it! However, we recommend you go beyond the recommended two minutes in a 1000-Watt toaster oven. Instead, you should leave them in until it looks like they’re going to burn.

With a crunchy exterior and melty soft interior, this will provide the most sublime experience. It’s happiness in a bite, full of cheesy flavors that, coupled with the delightful texture, could make this the best product available at 7-Eleven. We could seriously eat ten of them!!

At least, that’s what our Japanese-language reporter P.K. Sanjun said when he tried them for the first time. Naturally, though, everyone has their own tastes, so we had five other people in the office try one to see if they felt the same way.

Yoshio, our boss, said, “Mm!! Oh, this is really good.”

Foodie otaku Seiji Nakazawa said, “This isn’t like any bread I know but it’s delicious! (laughs) Why is it so chewy?”

“I’ve had these before,” said beauty and travel guru Mariko Ohanabatake, “But they’re much tastier toasted, aren’t they?”

Our Amazon product tester Masanuki Sunakoma said, “This is so good!”

“Yeah, it’s really good,” said shameless experimentor Ahiru Neko. “This is from 7-Eleven?”

Right?! It’s so good, especially toasted to a crisp. In all honesty, if eaten untoasted it only gets about 40 out of 100 points, and toasted, it’s worth about 90 points. But toasted almost to the point of burning, it earns a whopping 120 points. (Though if we’re being honest, just about everything is better toasted, as we’ve recently learned.)

So if we’ve managed to sway you in any way, please consider going to your nearest 7-Eleven and buying as many packages of Pão de Queijo Cheese Buns as you can afford. Maybe that way 7-Eleven will realize how much we love them, and they won’t ever stop selling them, like the “phantom” cream doughnuts that only briefly appeared last year.

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