BRAVO Burger King and The Impossible Burger for joining forces to create meat-from-plants The Impossible Whopper. The fast-food giant today began nationally rolling out its Impossible Whopper, which had been tested in a few parts of the country. The idea is to reportedly try it out for about a month nationally and then decide whether to make it a permanent part of the menu.
I’d be shocked if they don’t.
Yes, I read as many reviews online as I could. I read the debate about the somewhat controversial way that The Impossible Burger’s fake meat is created to trick the mouth with its texture and its taste buds with its taste.
I’m already a huge fan of Beyond Meat: I had my first fast-food burger with it at Carl’s Jr.’s and now regularly make their products that you can buy in the grocery at home.
No, I’m not a vegan. No, I’m not a vegetarian. But I am someone who likes to cut down meat and I overall feel better when I don’t eat red meat. Plus, I watch my cholesterol.
MY VERDICT
I went to a Burger King in San Diego about an hour ago. I ordered The Impossible Burger (resisting the temptation to ask for only ketchup instead of mayo, since I wanted to see how it compares with the original Whopper).
The first impression was that this burger looked almost like it did in the ads: it was NOT a flimsy, paper thin burger and it was on a nice bun with lettuce, tomatoes and pickles.
I bit into it and…
To me, it tasted exactly like the regular Whopper. No I did not have a lingering aftertaste. No, it was not a patty was was ready to fall apart. The taste, the texture was exactly like meat.
There was one difference however:
It was like a Whopper made with LEANER MEAT. Yes, it had flame-grilled flavor and has some oil or butter on it.
But it was a leaner Whopper.
So some of the Internet reviews and comments to the contrary, I couldn’t tell the difference.
It was just a leaner Whopper — which is itself a welcome development.
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Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.