McDonald's Exports 'Taste of Korea' Menu to Taiwan Amid Korean Wave

McDonald's has brought its Korean-inspired "Taste of Korea" menu to Taiwan, responding to the surging global popularity of Korean food and culture driven by the Korean Wave, known as Hallyu.

McDonald's Taiwan introduced two new offerings on Wednesday — the Korea garlic beef burger and the Korea garlic chicken burger — industry sources confirmed Sunday. Both items are based on the recipe of McDonald's Korea's Changnyeong garlic burger, which was the first product created under the Taste of Korea initiative. Taiwan has emerged as one of Asia's most receptive markets for Korean cultural content, with K-pop and K-drama viewership ranking among the highest in the region, making it a natural early destination for the menu's international rollout.

McDonald's, the world's largest fast-food restaurant chain by revenue, launched the Taste of Korea project in 2021 to deepen its foothold in South Korea, Asia's fourth-largest economy. The initiative has since produced six localized burgers, each inspired by regional agricultural specialties from across the country. The project also aligns with a broader push by global restaurant chains operating in Asia to source from domestic agricultural suppliers, a strategy that has helped strengthen government relations and consumer goodwill in host markets.

The full lineup includes the Changnyeong garlic burger, the Boseong green tea pork burger, the Jindo green onion cream croquette burger, the Jinju pepper cream cheese burger, the Iksan sweet potato mozzarella burger, and most recently, the Chungju glutinous corn cheese croquette burger and muffin.

Changnyeong County in South Gyeongsang Province is one of South Korea's most prominent garlic-producing regions, while Boseong in South Jeolla Province is renowned for its green tea plantations. The other featured regions — Jindo, Jinju, Iksan, and Chungju — are similarly known for their distinctive local ingredients.

McDonald's intends to roll out additional Korean-inspired menu items in other Asian markets, contingent on local consumer demand. The move comes as Korean cuisine and cultural exports — including K-pop, K-drama, and Korean film — continue to expand their influence across global consumer markets, prompting major international food and beverage brands to incorporate Korean flavors into their product strategies. The South Korean government has separately promoted Korean cuisine, known as hansik, as a pillar of its cultural export policy, contributing to the growing visibility of Korean food trends worldwide.