I know Summer doesn’t officially end for another two weeks but here in the United States Labor day is pretty much the announcement that Summer is done and fall is coming. Summer and school supplies go on sale and Halloween and Thanksgiving items appear again. Rumor has it the pumpkin spice latte is already back at Starbucks! Labor day is also the last holiday before Thanksgiving and tends to be the final BBQ ‘event’ of the season, so today I’m sharing our recent experience and review of the Beyond Meat Beast Burger.
Beyond Meat Beast Burger – Is it worth the hype?
I’ve been seeing the hype for the Beyond Meat Beast Burger on the vegan forums for a while now and just never found them locally. Friday we went for pizza night at Follow Your Heart and Bob happened to see them in the freezer section while we were walking through the store so we snagged a box to try. (Friday Pizza night at FYH is da BOMB btw!) The first thing that didn’t live up to the hype was the price! These suckers are $6 a box!!! Yep they are $3 per freakin’ burger….
One thing I hear over and over from people thinking about making the switch to plant based is “oh it’s too expensive”. Usually I’d disagree but these Beyond Meat Beast Burgers ARE expensive. More expensive that their animal counterparts. Now on the flip side they have a TON of protein. Yup 23g grams of protein per burger! Yeah where do vegans get their protein? That protein by the way is non-gmo, soy-free, wheat-free and fully plant based. Say what? Now these suckers are BIG. Quarter pounders in fact. A little bigger diameter than your standard burger bun (or your sandwich thins) so you won’t have any gaps in your bun. (btw remember you can freeze your sandwich thins)
They didn’t take long to cook at all 4 minutes each side on the grill or in a skillet and DONE. Bob had a bun but I prefer something less ‘bready'(yes that’s a word I made up, don’t judge me!) so I use sandwich thins, I’ve bought other brands before but the one below is from Trader Joe’s, yup Trader Joe’s does their own version now. Plus at 1/3 the calories it means I get extra fries right? Ahem, anyway the Beyond Meat Beast Burger fit well on the sandwich thin, busting out the edge around 1/4″ all round.
The burger had: Lettuce, tomato, vegan cheese slice, and ketchup, on a wheat sandwich thin. I paired this with dry baked potato fries and homemade mushy peas. Now don’t get me wrong it was truly delicious. But the whole time I just kept thinking: This is a freakin’ THREE DOLLAR burger. I could have eaten out for the price of this meal. Ok not really, but almost, like I need an excuse? Plus that means no dishes to wash. Seriously though this burger was over double the price of other vegan burgers I’ve tried…. and I couldn’t tell the difference! It didn’t taste any different to the bags of vegan burgers you get at Ralphs (which I’m convinced are the Gardein ones) which are half the freakin’ price of the Beast Burger. And they certainly weren’t better tasting or better value for money than the Boca vegan burgers. So are we really just paying double the price for double the protein? But wait… do we NEED that much protein in one meal? How much total protein did my plant based meal have? A whopping 38g!!! To put that into perspective the minimum I need per day is 45g! I was getting that in ONE MEAL here. Yeah where DO vegans get their protein? Um… plants?
So in all would I buy the Beyond Meat Beast Burger again? Sorry but unless it was a special occasion and I wanted someone else to try them, then nope. I don’t need 40g of protein in one meal, yep this is a vegan saying I want LESS protein please. And I definitely don’t think they are worth the $3 per burger price tag.
So tell me:
What’s your favorite vegan burger?
Have you tried the Beyond Meat Beast Burgers?
Do you prefer buns, sandwhich thins or bunless burgers?
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