More often than not, some of the most innovative and unusual fast-food offerings come out of popular chains' Asian branches.
Over the years, there have been the cilantro sundae and tsukimi moon festival burger from McDonalds' (MCD) -) in China and Japan as well as Burger King Japan's King Yeti Burger made with four beef patties and six slices of Gouda cheese.
DON'T MISS: Burger King Bets on Extreme with Its Giant New Sandwich
In the summer of 2022, the Restaurant Brands International (QSR) -)-owned chain's Japanese branch even held a promotion to see who could eat the most of these four-patty sandwiches in 45 minutes.
There Is a Lot of Cheese in This Burger King Cheeseburger
But the latest over-the-top creation comes not out of Japan but from Burger King's Thailand office. As first reported by the food-industry site Chewboom, a new offering called "The Real Cheeseburger" features 20 slices of American cheese in between two sesame seed burger buns.
The cheese is the point of this sandwich as this take on the "burger" features little else besides it — there is no meat or condiments in between the bread. Instead, the 20 cheese slices are piled on top of each other in perpendicular positions to create a show-stopping "stacking" effect of a massive amount of cheese.
While available exclusively in Thailand, the "Real Cheeseburger" can currently be purchased for 109 Thai Baht or approximately $3.14 USD. It is a very limited-time promotion that will only be available from July 11 to 13.
"This is not a joke, this is for real," Burger King Thailand wrote in a post for Facebook. Not long after, the burger immediately went viral as the curious and the grossed-out all started sharing it on various social media channels.
Fast-Food Industry's Growing Trend of 'Instagrammable' Food
Translated into English, the Thai menu description for the burger describes it as "the real one, real cheese, full of flavor for those who love cheese."
"If you don't come to play, order now," the chain continues.
As with everything from Starbucks (SBUX) -)' Unicorn drink to Yum! Brands (YUM) -)-owned KFC's "Double Down", the "Real Cheeseburger" taps into food that is specifically designed to be posted and reshared on social media.
Whether people write to express disgust or intrigue, they still end up promoting the item and inadvertently doing the chain's marketing for it. This worked for Burger King as, on the day the burger launched, thousands of Thailand residents (and the occasional tourist) started ordering the burger and sharing photos of themselves holding or biting into it online.
Most often, the "no bad publicity" effect helps get the fast-food chain an immediate rush of social media attention before the item inevitably slides into the "remember when they released this wild product?" memory vault of discontinued products. There are also notable exceptions — petitions still call for KFC's "Double Down," or bacon and cheese in between two pieces of fried breaded chicken meat, to be brought back and made a permanent menu item.
"These are part of a long tradition of companies creating new, slightly outrageous, fast food and snack food combinations," food historian Ashley Rose Young said in an interview with BBC in 2019. "More cheese, more meat, more layers, adding sauces, [or] Cheetos, for crunch and a pop of flavor."
