Harry: From Croissant Stuffers to festive pizzas
to gingerbread lattes, we wanted to find out
all of the fast-food Christmas menu items
in the UK, Japan, and the US.
This is "Food Wars."
Here in the UK, we have several festive drink options
at Starbucks, all of which are hot.
We'll start with this one,
which is the very festive gingerbread latte.
I'll do a Joe and try and sip all of these.
Actually not bad.
Next up, we have this one,
which is a caramel waffle latte.
Then we have this one,
which is a fudge brownie hot chocolate.
Oh.
Ooh, I don't like that. That's bad.
We also have this one, which is a toffee nut latte.
Are toffee or nuts particularly Christmassy?
I'm not really convinced.
It's very nutty. That is nutty.
Then finally we have this one,
which is a venti eggnog latte.
I think the last time I tried eggnog
was actually our last Christmas special,
and I haven't touched it since.
I've kind of forgotten everything about it.
I'll try it again.
No. What?
This isn't a British thing.
Do people in America actually drink eggnog?
If you want to get your Starbucks fix at home,
then UK Starbucks also offer beans.
These come in the form of a Christmas roast
and also a blond Christmas roast.
So, we have lots of delicious Starbucks holiday drinks,
such as gingerbread latte.
This is perfect for winter season.
It warms me up.
Not only my body, but also my heart.
You should definitely try this.
Next one: toasted white chocolate Frappuccino.
Hm.
It's a little bit sweet, but I'd say it's very good.
Every Santa Claus would love this.
We've got toasted white chocolate mocha.
Itadakimasu!
I'd say it's totally the same as this one,
but that means it's very good.
And last one,
we've got crème brûlée latte.
Ooh, it's too sweet!
It's too sweet!
We also have the three whole-coffee-bean options.
We've got Christmas blend
and Christmas blond roast
and Christmas espresso roast.
Take a look at this.
It says, "Christmas" ...
blah, blah, blah.
But it's not Christmassy at all.
Starbucks, you should make it more Christmassy,
just like this.
This.
This is so perfect.
And in the US, our holiday Starbucks drinks
include all of these.
You know what we doing.
First one, of course, is the venti crème brûlée latte.
I like crème brûlée.
Let's make it a latte.
Yeah, that's very good.
Toasted white chocolate mocha.
Holy s---.
That might be the best one. That's the one to beat.
Irish cream cold brew.
Whoa, first miss. Mm-mm.
All right, next one.
A sugar cookie almond milk latte, iced.
I think everything settled to the bottom.
Nope, yeah, that's OK.
Chestnut pralines latte.
Does anyone know what a pralines is?
I don't.
Well, whatever it is, it's good.
Yo, Starbucks is on it this year.
They did not have a peppermint mocha
at the Starbucks we went to, unfortunately,
but that is also available.
Also at Starbucks you can get the bean blends to go.
We have the peppermint mocha blend,
have the Christmas blend,
and the holiday blend.
One holiday drink to look out for in the UK
is the venti eggnog latte.
One of these contains 476 calories
as well as a whopping 54 grams of added sugar.
Please. In the US, we have three holiday drinks
that have 60 grams or more of added sugar.
The venti crème brûlée latte rocks 60 grams of added sugar,
while the venti peppermint mocha
has 68 grams of added sugar,
and the venti toasted white chocolate mocha
has 69 grams of sugar.
69!
Careful, Santa can read your thoughts.
That means at least two drinks during the holiday season
make the fourth- and fifth-most sugary drinks
on the Starbucks menu.
Japanese Starbucks didn't tell me
how much sugar is in these Christmas drinks,
but we do have a calorie count.
A venti gingerbread latte has 488 calories,
and a venti crème brûlée latte has 497 calories,
and tall toasted white chocolate Frappuccino
is 403 calories.
The most calories award
goes to the venti toasted white chocolate mocha.
It has 669 calories.
What have you done?
Very good.
What about the food?
Well, in the UK, we have a bunch of new items,
as well as some classic favorites.
First up we have this one, the Festive Feast panini.
Next up is the 'Tis the Season turkey sandwich.
Two new additions include a
chocolate and orange s'mores toastie
as well as a blue cheese and chutney toastie.
Our last two sandwiches are a Toastie To Be Thankful For,
lots going on,
and then finally a Very Merry Beyond Meat sandwich.
Then we're on to some of the baked options,
starting with my favorite, South Pole Sam.
He's making a return.
He was in the last episode.
I love him. He's still my son.
Look at him! He's adorable! How could you eat this?
Come on, look at him.
Not only is South Pole Sam still on the menu,
but he's been really busy this year,
'cause he's come back with a girlfriend!
This is North Pole Nat.
Maybe supposed to be a polar bear.
Not 100% sure.
So not only is it kind of a forbidden romance,
it's also a very long-distance relationship
between South Pole Sam and North Pole Nat,
but their love is just that strong.
It carries them through.
And I for one really hope it works out for them.
In less adorable but still very delicious news,
the Christmas tree brownie is back at Starbucks in the UK.
Another returning favorite is the Cranmerry muffin.
It's basically just a cranberry muffin
with I think some either icing or custard in the middle.
It's pretty good.
Then we have two new additions,
starting with the toffee nut latte cupcake.
This is a coffee-flavored cupcake
topped with some chopped nuts and a chocolate star.
And, finally, we have a red velvet loaf cake.
As the name suggests, it's a red velvet loaf,
and then it's topped with some icing
as well as some very festive-colored sprinkles.
In Japan, we have several sweet holiday options,
which are a cranberry bliss bar
and a chocolate pound cake.
They also have gingerbread cookies and a stollen,
which are currently unavailable.
So sad.
A stollen is a classic holiday bread
with red cranberries, green pistachios,
white powdered sugar, raisins,
almonds, walnuts, orange peels, and marzipan.
And also you can get a holiday cheesecake,
baked cheese tart, and a chocolate forest cake.
But online order only.
It's a new era.
It's not like grandma's cookies.
Here in the US, get yourself a reindeer cake pop,
this little guy right here.
Turns out he's delicious.
Snowman cookie.
Personal favorite, cranberry bliss bar.
Now, you can get a slice of the bar
or the bar tray to go.
And also this year they have the sugarplum cheese Danish,
which the Starbucks we went to did not have, unfortunately.
In the UK, our KFC exclusives
are mostly focused on the gravy.
First up, we've got this gravy burger box meal.
This comes with a gravy burger, a chicken tender to dip,
a side of fries, and a side of gravy.
If you're wondering what a gravy burger is,
it's basically a chicken sandwich
with some cheese and some gravy mayo,
but then it's also got this hash brown on top,
into which they've kind of pressed a circular divot.
The idea is that you pour more gravy on top of it,
it kind of holds it in there, so that when you bite into it,
you get a lot of gravy in your bite.
So I've poured a small amount of gravy.
As you can see, it's holding it nicely in place.
But we're not here for a small amount of gravy
in "Food Wars."
Now, that is a gravy burger.
If that's somehow not enough gravy for you,
you can also get a range
of gravy bucket meals from a UK KFC.
Firstly, you can get a double gravy bucket meal,
which contains six pieces of chicken, a large drink,
four orders of gravy, four orders of fries,
one order of popcorn chicken,
and then you can choose between either eight hot wings
or six boneless chicken strips.
If you don't want to choose between the wings or the strips,
you can also upgrade to a triple bucket meal,
which contains them both for a reasonable price
of 23 pounds 99 pence.
Also, I know that's only three orders
of gravy instead of four,
but one of them exploded in the delivery transit.
Now, we're guessing that the bucket meals aren't designed
to be eaten by one person, but the box meal definitely is.
One of these box meals contains 1,075 calories,
which is 53.75% of your daily allowance.
There's also 107.8% of your daily sodium in here.
One culprit for the high sodium might be the gravy.
According to KFC, one portion of the gravy
contains 480 milligrams of sodium,
which is around 20% of the total meal's value.
KFC is very popular in Japan around Christmastime.
Ever since the '70s,
KFC has been a part of the Christmas tradition in Japan
because of a popular KFC marketing campaign called
or Kentucky for Christmas.
And now it's become so normal to have KFC on Christmas.
And also very small percentage
of Japanese people are Christians.
So Christmas is just fun event to spend with your family,
or if you're dating, you spend Christmas
with your boyfriend or girlfriend.
And now, even now,
I'm still looking for the one
who can enjoy Christmas with me.
Message me.
I'm on the nice list.
Since KFC for Christmas is so popular,
KFC requires you to reserve your Christmas specials
weeks in advance to be picked up closer to Christmas.
Unfortunately, at the time of this recording,
the food isn't yet available.
I wanted to try them.
So, KFC offers party barrels,
which are either an eight-piece original chicken
or a four-piece original chicken
with four chicken tenders.
Both barrel meals include a minced chicken lasagna,
glaçage chocolate cake,
and seasonal buckets and plates.
Wow!
And also you can get roast chicken and gravy
and roasted garlic thighs
and chicken breast with cheese sauce
and barbecue chicken.
Oh, by the way, if you haven't watched
KFC episode USA versus Japan,
you should definitely watch, watch, watch
after watching this video.
Here in the US, KFC, for a very limited time,
and it totally got past me,
has a very slick, very cool
Finger Lickin' Chicken Mitten Bucket Hugger.
Apparently you had to preorder one
by, like, before November 13.
Anyway, it's a knitted sweater, like,
I don't know, Koozie for your KFC bucket.
It has mittens sewn into it.
It is hilarious.
Couldn't get my hands on one,
but if we could have someone in graphics go ahead
and just put it on there for me.
Yeah! That's what it looks like.
Pretty cool, huh?
What is available in much larger quantities
is this, the KFC festive-design Christmas bucket.
It even has a little top there.
That fun?
[crash]
In the UK, McDonald's is featuring
two sandwich options for Christmas,
a festive stack and also a festive crispy chicken sandwich.
In the UK, the festive stack contains some beef patties,
some cheddar cheese, a white cheese sauce,
some bacon, some lettuce, as well as some red onions,
whereas the festive crispy chicken is a crispy chicken patty
with some bacon, some cheddar cheese,
I think there's some sage and onion mayo in there,
as well as some cranberry sauce.
McDonald's in the UK has one festive side,
and it's these cheese melt dippers.
These are little disks of Camembert cheese,
which are then breaded and fried,
and they look and smell really good, I gotta say.
And they also come with this tangy tomato sauce,
which also looks pretty good.
I think it's just kind of like a fancy ketchup.
And we have two dessert options,
including a Celebrations McFlurry and a festive pie.
I'll get into a little bit more detail
on Celebrations later,
but what it is, is a selection box in the UK.
It's all of the kind of Mars brand candy,
so it's things like Snickers and Maltesers.
And they put little bits of them into a McFlurry,
and it's pretty good.
The festive pie is basically the apple pie shell,
but instead of the apple filling,
it comes with a mincemeat and custard filling.
Now, for those of you who aren't versed
in stunning British cuisine,
mincemeat is not actually beef.
Please don't freak out.
We're not putting beef and custard together.
That would be weird.
Mincemeat in the festive context refers to
a mixture of fruits, things like raisins,
little pieces of apple, and things like that,
which are simmered down in some sugar
to create a kind of sweet, fruity mixture
and then added to things like this or mince pies.
Then, finally, we have two hot drink options.
We have a choco fudge latte,
and our final seasonal McDonald's item
is this hot chocolate deluxe.
In the US, our McDonald's only has one exclusive drink,
the peppermint mocha, which unfortunately was not available
when we went to that McDonald's to get it.
What they did have, thankfully, is this holiday pie.
I don't know what's in it.
Mystery pie about to be solved.
It tastes exactly like a sugar cookie.
Very disappointing.
In the US and the UK
from December 13 to Christmas Eve,
McDonald's has partnered up
with the queen of Christmas music,
that's right, Mariah Carey,
for the Mariah menu.
Check this out. See that?
Starting on the 13th,
if you spend over $1 on the McDonald's app,
there will be an exclusive free menu item you can have.
It's nice. It's kind of like a McDonald's Advent calendar.
It's a pretty good idea.
Japan McDonald's is offering
two exclusive nugget dipping sauces
from now until next year.
We've got lobster and tomato cream sauce.
In a nutshell, this is so good.
It's got strong lobster flavor.
10 out of 10.
Thank you.
Let's try kokuuma steak sauce.
So, koku means richness,
and uma is deliciousness.
And this steak sauce is a Japanese-style steak sauce
based on soy sauce.
This is so good.
I could eat rice with this.
Like, forever.
These new exclusive sauces, Santa Claus love them.
In the UK, Pizza Hut only has one festive offering,
and it's this one, the hog roast pizza.
This is topped with pulled pork, red onion,
a sage and onion stuffing, and an applesauce drizzle.
I'm really intrigued by the applesauce drizzle,
so I'm going to have to give this a try.
Honestly, I'm kind of impressed by this.
I thought the applesauce would ruin it,
'cause I don't normally want sweet things on my pizza,
but, yeah, it kind of all works.
Hog roast pizza. Does what it says on the tin.
Our Pizza Hut in the US
is offering this very festive triple treat box.
Now, what this is, is a box, obviously,
with two medium one-topping pizzas,
five breadsticks, and Cinnabon mini rolls.
A-plus for presentation with Pizza Hut.
Wait a second. What?
Aw!
This is not what's on the website!
There was a thing that had, like, shelves and stuff!
Show what it looks like on the website.
And this is just, like, three pizza boxes.
I am so mad that this is what they did.
This is not at all what I thought this was going to be.
So everyone can see how disappointing this is.
Oh, this looks all beat up and stuff.
The whole point was it was supposed to be a fun box!
This isn't that fun! This is regular.
Bah humbug.
We have a special deal based on Pizza Hut's mascots,
Kazu and Mook.
Kazu is one of the most famous comedians in Japan,
and also,
Mook is one of the most famous characters in Japan.
And recently they have been appointed
as Pizza Hut's ambassadors.
And this Christmas, you can get
Kazu and Mook's Blissful Half and Half pizza.
Ta-da!
One half is for Kazu's favorite,
Camembert and mozzarella,
and another half is for Mook's favorite,
meat sauce, thick-sliced Ibérico, and margherita.
And also you can get a family side set with this pizza
that includes a chicken combo set.
Wow!
Festive.
In the UK, Domino's has one Christmas pizza,
and it's called The Festive One.
This one comes with sage- and onion-marinated
turkey breast, some bacon,
some sausage, and some onion.
Let's try it out.
A little bit dry maybe.
Maybe Domino's can redeem themselves
with these After Eight cookies.
For those of you who don't know,
After Eights are a chocolate and mint combination
which are generally kind of eaten
at the end of dinner parties.
That was the marketing back in the day.
Obviously we are filming this before 8 p.m.,
so it's not a strictly enforced rule.
Let's give these a try.
OK, yeah, these are actually really good.
It tastes exactly like the After Eight filling,
as I guess I'd expect.
And yeah, just a really good dark chocolate and mint cookie.
Our Domino's offer the Christmas premium quattro,
which is separated into four sections.
We have smoked chicken with basil sauce,
charcoal roast beef,
Italian juicy roast pork,
and shrimp and scallop with crab sauce.
For dessert, we've got a cool mille crepe.
This is what it looks like.
Hm. It's actually a huge one.
Not only these, but also Domino's will be offering
premium roast chicken soon.
It's gonna be festive!
Subway in the UK is featuring something
called a Tiger Pig sandwich for Christmas this year.
It's basically a giant pig in a blanket in a roll.
So, a pig in a blanket in the UK
is not the same as it is in the US.
In the UK, it is a sausage wrapped in bacon.
Whereas in the US, I think it's, like, a hot dog in pastry.
That is correct, Harry.
In the US, our pigs in a blanket
are normally tiny hot dogs wrapped in croissant dough.
And they're usually hors d'oeuvres
or what picky kids eat at holiday parties. So.
That looks real gross.
Another festive sandwich filling from a UK Subway
is Brie cheese.
And then finally we have a festive
dessert option at UK Subways,
which is a chocolate orange cookie.
Chocolate and orange are a really popular combination
around Christmastime in the UK.
I'm not really sure where it originated from,
but there's a brand called Terry's Chocolate Orange,
who do these kind of balls of chocolate and orange.
Those are super popular around Christmastime.
I think this is Subway's attempt
to kind of get in on the act there.
Now, one Christmas tradition we have in the UK
when it comes to sweets are selection boxes.
These are little tubs filled with small sweets,
usually all from one brand.
So, for example, you have Heroes,
which are owned by Cadbury,
or you have Celebrations, which are owned by Mars.
I'm not sure where the association between Christmas
and selection boxes started in the UK,
but I know it's been going on for years,
because I think Quality Street and Roses in particular
have been around for decades.
One last thing to check before I hand over
is the contents of the Quality Street tin.
It's become quite a divisive topic in the UK recently
because people feel shortchanged
when they don't get enough of the good ones in there.
I think the good ones are generally considered
to be, like, the purple ones, maybe the green triangles.
So let's count them out
and see how many we're actually getting.
So, we got four green triangles,
five of the orange chocolate crunch,
six of the caramel sticks,
six of the toffee pennies,
seven of the orange creams,
eight of the fudge,
five of the purple ones,
five of the milk choc blocks,
eight of the caramel swirls,
six of the coconut eclairs,
and seven of the strawberry delights.
Make of that what you will.
In the US, just about every candy brand
has a Christmassy-themed candy flavor,
shape, and/or package.
There are too many to name in this video,
so I just went ahead with some of the hits.
We got a Reese's peanut butter snowman,
Reese's holiday lights.
How do we think this is?
Do you think it's actually on a string?
It's not!
What?
What?!
Correct me if I'm wrong, but they're connected
by a string like lights, right?
They just gave me these!
They're just chocolate eggs! Thank you.
Reese's, you are on the naughty list.
Reese's peanut butter trees.
This is kind of like a Rorschach test.
What do you see?
I bet nobody said tree.
This is sooner to be my parents fighting than it is a tree,
as far as what I see in here.
Nutcracker shape. I mean, everything's suspect now.
OK, they actually did it.
Congrats, you got one right.
They also have white trees.
One exclusive is Reese's peanut butter cups, peanut brittle.
I just saw these at Target on the fly.
They got gingerbread cookie KitKats here in the US.
Oreos, Oreos, Oreos.
You can get yourself a white-fudge-covered Oreo.
So I guess that's supposed to be snow.
Gingerbread Oreos.
M&M's, M&M's, M&M's.
So, M&M's has, this year they're doing snowballs,
which looks to be white chocolate pretzel M&M's.
Pretzel M&M's are so good.
Before I had them, I was like, who cares?
They're so good.
And this one is just a white chocolate sugar cookie.
Holy s---.
I know it sounds stupid,
but it tastes exactly like a sugar cookie.
These are really good.
This caught me by surprise.
I'd never even heard of this. I saw it at Target.
I had to get it and show it to you guys.
Sour Patch Kids Xtreme cookie chalet.
Cookie house? No, sir.
Chalet. Look at this thing.
This is either delicious or terrible.
Either way, I love it.
Good call on this one, Sour Patch Kids. I love it.
So many other candy brands
are featuring various holiday specials.
We couldn't cover them all.
So a few others you might want to check out
are York Peppermint Patties, Dove,
Hershey Kisses, Blow Pops, Tootsie Rolls,
Rolos, Cadbury.
They're all doing something for Christmas.
There's also a few holiday sodas.
Two specific holiday sodas are this,
the Mountain Dew Gingerbread Snap'd soda,
and one I could not get my hands on
was the spiced cranberry Sprite.
Cranberry Sprite sounds actually pretty nice.
Gingerbread Mountain Dew does not.
It's not bad.
I'm not gonna lie. It's growing on me.
Yeah, so it's just OK.
My adorable kids right here.
Look at this.
A famous Japanese chocolate brand called Tirol Choco
has two Christmas exclusives.
Ooh!
And this one too, open it up.
Ooh!
All right, so this is Tirol Choco,
and it's so Christmassy.
Look at this.
How cute! You are so adorable.
It's got white chocolate.
Mm!
Not only white chocolate, but they've got milk chocolate,
strawberry chocolate, coffee chocolate,
and white chocolate and something else, yeah.
And merry Christmas for you.
Thank you for watching.
Happy holidays.
Christmas jokes with Harry.
Why did the turkey join the band?
He already had the drumsticks.
What do polar bears like to eat?
Iceberg-ers.
Who hides in the bakery at Christmas?
Mince spies.
Hello, guys. I'm George Japan.
Thank you for watching,
and I wish you all merry Christmas.
That's it, guys.
Merry Christmas.