There is an insane plant-burger war going on: the Impossible Whopper verses the Beyond Burger. The two companies, Impossible Foods and Beyond Meat, are going head-to-head in the battle to provide the most beef-like burger, that actually has no beef whatsoever. Who will win this battle? Will it be the Impossible Whopper or the Beyond Burger?
I'll be honest, I was skeptical about both of these burgers. You only have to try one too many vegan cheeses to know that vegan alternatives don't always hit the same, but I was hopeful. Imagine a world where plants taste like burgers! That is a world I want to live in! So I decided to give them a chance. I was definitely going to try them, until I had an even better idea.
I decided to put both burgers to the test: a blind taste test. I would put on a blindfold and try them at random to see which is best. This way, I could have a completely unbiased opinion of which burger is better: the Impossible Whopper or the Beyond Burger. And on top of that, I decided to add in an actual beef burger into the mix to see if there was any noticeable difference between all 3 burgers.
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To start, I had to pick up all the ingredients. The beef burger patties can be found in the refrigerated meat section of your local grocery store. Surprisingly, raw Beyond Burger meat can also be found at most grocery stores by the refrigerated meat section. The Impossible Foods meat was not easy to find in the raw form. However, Impossible Foods recently teamed up with Burger King to bring Burger Kings nationwide, the Impossible Whopper. Basically, it is an Impossible Foods meat patty with every other typical Burger King burger ingredient.
So, I headed to my local grocery store for ground beef and Beyond Burger meat patties, and a nearby Burger King for the Impossible Whopper.
For the blind taste test to work, I needed to make sure all ingredients other than the meat (or meat-alternative) patty were the same. To do this, I dissected the already made, Impossible Whopper as seen in the video above. This way I could know exactly how I would have to make and put together the other two burgers. The Impossible Whopper had the patty, of course, as well as lettuce, onions, tomato, pickles, and mayo, all on a sesame seed bun.
Within minutes, I had grilled the Beyond Burger patties and the beef patties, and assembled them just like the Impossible Whopper. Now I was ready to put them to the taste test.
As seen in the video above, with the help of my sister, I put on a blind fold and had her place one of the three burgers in front of me at random. Now was the time to find out which burger really was better: the Impossible Whopper or the Beyond Burger.
Taste Test Results
I had guessed every burger correctly; even without having ever tried the Impossible Whopper or Beyond Burger before! But that's because there was one dead give away.
When making the Beyond Burger, as soon as I opened the packaging, I noticed an incredibly potent smell from the burgers. They had a strong smell of medicine; something similar to cough syrup. At first I thought the burgers had gone bad. But a quick google search showed me that I wasn't the only one experiencing this. It seems it is a common complaint from people who have tried the Beyond Burger. Problem is, the smell was just an oracle of the taste.
The Beyond Burger tasted smokey and developed a nice crunchy texture on the outside. However, the medicine-like flavor remained pungent even after cooking. Also, even thought the outside was crunchy, the inside texture resembled a sponge. On top of that, it definitely did not taste like a beef burger. Clearly, it was not the best burger I had ever tasted. I gave it a score of 5/10 in the hopes that the other two would score much higher.
The next one was immediately obvious. This one tastes familiar and boy, was it delicious. It had a deep, earthly, meaty flavor, and that familiar bouncy texture. This burger had to be the beef burger. It tasted amazing. But I had to be real with myself. I'm not the best burger maker. So it certainly wasn't the best burger I've ever had. I gave it an honest 7/10.
The third and final burger....I already knew what it must have been. I was about 99.99999% certain I had guessed correctly for the first two, so this one had to be the Impossible Whopper. After a big, hopeful bite, I was pleasantly surprised. But also, I was left wanting more. It was delicious, don't get me wrong. It tasted smokey, but it didn't have that same depth of flavor as the beef burger. And there was no chewiness to the patty, so it felt as though I were just eating smokey-flavored bread. Good, but not great. I gave it a 6.5/10.
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Overall Rating
1st Place Winner: Beef Burger
2nd Place: Impossible Whopper
3rd Place: Beyond Burger
But if we are comparing the two plant burgers: the Impossible Whopper or the Beyond Burger, in my opinion, the Impossible Whopper definitely took the crown! But maybe you'll feel differently. Try both out and see for yourself. Either way, you can't go wrong: burgers are delicious whether they're made from beef or even a bunch of plants!