Burger King’s summer of wacky-sounding menu items continues with the news that the not-quite-a-burger-not-quite-a-burrito hybrid it had been testing in certain markets will be expanding nationwide next week.
Burger King, which unveiled the Whopperito at several locations in Pennsylvania in June, says it will begin selling the pseudo-Tex-Mex item at stores across the country starting Aug. 15, Bloomberg reports.
The Whopperito won’t be a permanent addition to the BK menu, but will be around for three to four months.
As one might expect, the Whopper-burrito hybrid is just the contents of the burger — flame-grilled beef, American cheese, tomatoes, lettuce, ketchup, pickles, and white onions — shoved into a tortilla.
Bloomberg notes that the traditional mayo on the burger is replaced with a queso sauce in the burrito.
“It’s certainly one of the first times that we’ve tapped into the Tex-Mex category,” Alex Macedo, North American president at Burger King, tells Bloomberg. “It’s one of the fastest-growing categories — consumers like the freshness of it, they like the mix of flavors.”
This, of course, is just the latest mash-up Burger King has unveiled in recent months. Back in June, the chain began offering a macaroni and cheese-Cheetos snack — Mac n’ Cheetos. Before that, the company branched out from burgers to hot dogs, including one that puts all the fixings of the Whopper on a hot dog: the Whopper Dog.
Bloomberg notes that earlier in this year, the fast food chain also began selling a breakfast burrito.
The new Whopperito is thought to be Burger King’s attempt to draw in customers still put off by Chipotle’s recent string of food borne illness outbreaks.
Still, it’s hard to see someone who is attracted to Chipotle’s burritos — which don’t include burger patties — seeking out a Whopperito regularly.
Burger King Takes Aim at Chipotle Devotees With Whopper Burritos [Bloomberg]
by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist
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