This might look like brown bread, but there’s nothing savoury about it.  Japan is famous for its fruit sandwiches, which traditionally pair slices of crustless white bread with a cream-and-fruit filli

**This might look like brown bread, but there’s nothing savoury about it. **

Japan is famous for its fruit sandwiches, which traditionally pair slices of crustless white bread with a cream-and-fruit filling. Over at 7-Eleven, though, the chain is rethinking the fruit sandwich as we know it, by adding cocoa-flavoured bread to the mix instead.

Called “Fruits Mix” in Japanese, this new-look sandwich contains three different fruits – strawberries, pineapple and yellow peaches – to create a fruity, summery snack with a slight air of decadence.

▼ The English name “Strawberry, Peach & Pineapple” is a significantly more descriptive moniker.

What really stands out is the rich brown colour of the bread, which to Western eyes might look like wholewheat or rye, but don’t be fooled – it’s flavoured with cocoa for subtle sweetness and a chocolatey accent.

▼ 7-Eleven says the new bread helps to balance the gentle sweetness of the whipped cream with the natural tartness of the fruit.

With white bread dominating the convenience store sandwich scene, this dark-coloured bread certainly sets the sandwich apart from its neighbours on the shelf, and the contrast between the white cream centre makes it stand out even more.

After bringing out a couple of sandwiches with pink “sakura” bread recently, 7-Eleven really is doing its best to reinvent the fruit sando as we know it. Priced at 518 yen (US$3.55), the new Fruit Mix Sandwich won’t be available nationwide, sadly, but it will be rolled out at 7-Eleven stores in Tochigi, Gunma, Saitama, Chiba, Tokyo, Kanagawa, Niigata and the Kansai region from 15 July.