I'm sure I'm about the millionth person to do this, but my curiosity finally got the best of me today, and I did my own side-by-side taste test of the Original and Impossible Whoppers. I've read a little bit on this to begin with, and essentially everything I read praised the patty's ability to imitate beef, but then really harped on how it is also basically just as unhealthy for you as a regular burger. Or, in some cases, did that, but also had to go out of their way to tell you how rarely they eat fast food and looked at disdain on the entire industry. To start, that Forbes article is just awful. Really just one of the worst things I've ever read. In no way should anybody have ever published Mr. Rubenstein's opinion of anything fast food, regardless of context. If I were the editor, I would have just outright rejected it. I wouldn't have even offered a chance for revision. It is just so clearly a terrible mismatch between subject and author, I don't know how it ever got assigned in the first place. Luckily for you guys, I most definitely do not have this sort of aversion to fast food. Secondly, if anybody is ever looking to eat healthy at Burger King,* you're on a fool's errand anyway. The health benefits mean very little to me. I am much more receptive to arguments that talk about lessening the impact of industrial farming practices, both on moral and environmental grounds. I haven't read any of those, but I'm sure they exist. But saying that this product failed because it is no healthier than the "real" alternative is missing the point. *Or any other fast food restaurant, to be honest. With all that out of the way, here are my take-aways. I ordered two Whoppers, both with cheese. I ate the original one first, though that was just the luck of what I grabbed out of the bag first. I could make arguments either way about the order in which I ate them, but I think I've concluded that I'm better off doing it the way I did. The goal to my mind is make a plant burger as close to the meat product as possible, so having that taste fresh in my mouth was the best way to make that comparison. My first impression was the same as everyone else's I've seen so far: Just So. Much. Salt. Fast food is notoriously salty anyway, but this was to a complete other level. At this point, it's been close to an hour since I ate the Impossible Whopper, and I still can't get the taste of salt off my tongue. Even after drinking roughly 22 ounces of water* and most of my Dr. Pepper. That alone nearly made this inedible. *As measured by my trusty Wabash Nalgene. Think one of these, but darker red and Wabash. Or, you know, I guess I could take a picture. Despite working at a major university, I have no idea if this is still a big thing with college students. I also don't know if they were ever as universally popular at Purdue as they were at Wabash. I swear at least 90% of campus owned this exact Nalgene when I was there. That major criticism aside, the rest of the patty could probably pass as meat. I would describe its texture as "meaty," quotation marks and all. It is definitely a different texture than beef, but if I had not literally just eaten a beef burger, I'm not sure I would have given it too much thought. I would notice that it is noticeably drier, but had nobody told me what I was eating, I likely would have chalked it up to a cooking error or just too-lean beef rather than "literally not beef." It melded well enough with all the other toppings.* It wasn't some foreign object in my mouth that clearly seemed out of place. It was, more or less, like eating every other burger. It did have a different color to it than beef. The patty had a bit more of a reddish-tinge to it. But, again, I'm not sure that's a difference I would have noted if I hadn't been specifically observing it for differences. *Which, just for the record, I always get Whoppers with cheese but no pickle or onion. So, upon this bit of reflection, did the Impossible Burger do what it set out to do? I think I'd have to say, largely, yes. It's not a perfect imitation, but it's close enough. If you had put a blindfold on me and told me to taste this burger, I would have probably told you* "Jesus, that's like three times too much salt." And after a bit more chewing, I would have told you "It's kinda dry." But I don't think I would have told you "This is plants." For now, I think that is the hurdle the Impossible Burger is trying to clear. I am sure there will be improvements on it. I can tell you, from working in the College of Agriculture here at Purdue, that the Food Science department is a pretty magical place. They will figure out some way to get better flavor on these patties instead of just "add salt." And they will come up with some way to make it either actually juicier or at least feel juicier. But this definitely is a base to start from that, again, largely succeeds in the "Is this beef or not?" imitation question. *Well, you know, after I got done protesting the blindfold and wondering what sort of trick you were playing on me. Is it healthier? Is it something you should be eating all the time? No. But that's not the point, and I think that's a misguided way to look at a vegetarian or vegan diet to begin with. Is it lower environmental impact, and did any sentient being have to die for this? Those seem to be better questions to ask, and until we discover something pretty shocking about soy and potatoes, that seems promising. Comments are closed.
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