Bavarian Butcher Turns White Sausage Green

Bavaria's weisswurst, a white sausage made with finely minced veal, is a famous and dearly protected local specialty, but one butcher has turned that on its head turning his sausages green.

According to The Local, lecturer Werner Gropp discovered matcha, Japanese green tea powder, on a trip to Japan and brought some back with him. Interested in creating a type of German/Bavarian fusion product, he approached his friend Markus Hinterberger, a butcher, about combining matcha and weiswurst.

"At first he thought I was crazy," Gropp said. "He just thought 'My God, Weißwurst is sacrosanct, we can't touch it.'"

But Hinterberger came around to the idea, and after trying an initial prototype of the matcha weisswurst, which turned bright green from the tea, they decided they were really onto something.

"Matcha has a slightly tart note to it," Hinterberger said. "But it's about the mixture of flavours between the weisswurst and the matcha. You just have to try it."

Reactions to the green sausage have been mixed.

"Some people said it was disgusting and were very negative," Hinterberger said. "But we also got positive comments. Some people said it was a great thing – a new discovery."

Gropp and Hinterberger are optimistic that the second group represents the majority. They've patented their recipe and Gropp is looking to sell the rights to manufacture their green sausages around the world.