Hacker News Reader

Comment by novok | Hacker News Reader

I really don't get how people think impossible burger tastes like meat. It has the texture of a lentil patty with blood flavoring added.

View on HN

In a blind taste test put on for friends people thought the Impossible was actually the real deal and the beef burger was the fake "meat" product.

Both burgers were made with the same spices and were grilled on a charcoal grill.

People are happier to replace their hamburger meat with Impossible instead. Beyond Meat has slightly different flavor that people were able to pick out as "fake meat".

What were you using for the "real deal" though? If it was a frozen patty that included textured vegetable protein and other things alongside beef, as so many do, I can understand. I can't understand mixing up an Impossible burger with a decently cooked 100% beef patty.

70/30 beef from a local butcher. No additives.

Why put something else than meat though? I never understood this.

That's not what 70/30 means. It's the lean to fat ratio. So 70% lean, 30% fat beef went into the hamburger.

It depends what you are comparing it against. I've had the Burger King meatless Whopper and found it was no worse than the normal Whopper. If you didn't tell me and I wasn't paying attention might not even notice. But eaten 'naked' side by side with a real high quality meat patty, there is no way you can confuse one for the other.

I mean, so do garbage fast food burgers, so maybe that's the bar they are comparing against?

My personal example was a $15 restaurant where I tried out the impossible burger. Maybe it wasn't an actual 'impossible' burger or some early version.

I didn't care for the first iteration of the Impossible burger either. I thought it tasted just like a Morning Star Farms Grillers Prime, making it nothing special in veggie-burger land.

However, it seems to have improved significantly, to the point that twice now I've thought they accidentally gave me real beef, had a meet-eating friend confirm, and after talking to the waiter and cook and taking a much closer look decided I was wrong.

I love Beyond burgers too, but they are more distinct from real beef as far as my >10yr vegetarian tongue can tell.

Maybe give it another try, at least in some contexts. These days it's gotten into fast food, and IMO? I can tell the difference between an Impossible Whopper and a regular one, but both are about as good to me. I wouldn't miss it if the regular one went away.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com