Burger v. Burger (If we Still Even Care About Burgers)
All the excitement over Popeye's Chick Fil-A-destroying fried chicken sandwich has somewhat eclipsed what had once been breathless hype over the Impossible Whopper. With filet supplies exhausted at Popeye's nationwide for at least two weeks, this seemed to be a good time, now that the broiler smoke has cleared, to revisit the Impossible Whopper and see how it stacks up against one made with, presumably (an important presumption as DQ will tell you), real beef.
 | |||||
| On
the left, the Impossible Burger, on the right the Original Whopper.
Though this photo somewhat obscures the fact, they are both piled high
with copious pickles, onions, lettuce, and tomato slices, and also
slathered with ketchup, mustard, and mayo. This served to obscure the
differences between the two patties substantially, but not completely. |
Conclusions
The Impossible Burger features what is, at this point, the best patty in the business, but the sandwich itself lacks the courage of its convictions. Consumers want to taste this amazing new protein, not strain to discern its flavor profile because it's covered up with mounds of fixings and condiments. Heme, the compound that tastes somewhat like real beef juices, is hard to detect here because of all the ketchup and mustard interference. The fact that the flame broiling process burns off a lot of the heme liquids while imparting little smoke doesn't help either. But if you're not paying attention, the Impossible Whopper tastes like, well... a Whopper, and that is worth celebrating.
