A taste of the great Beyond Four Free Press writers tested A&W's new plant-based menu item Posted: 7:00 PM CDT Friday, Jul. 13, 2018

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This article was published 12/07/2018 (2360 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

On Monday, the A&W fast-food chain became an unexpected source of joy for vegetarians across the country, as it unveiled its new meatless burger.

The vegan, soy-free, GMO-free, gluten-free patty featuring 20 grams of plant-based protein comes from American company Beyond Meat, which also makes a line of “chicken” and “sausage” that are vegan.

In the U.S., the products are available at supermarkets and in a few select restaurants, but the 925 A&W outlets across the country will be Canada’s first introduction to the Beyond Meat Burger product and it’s already creating a buzz.

To find out what all the fuss is about, three lifelong carnivores and one lapsed vegetarian/one-time vegan from the Free Press Arts & Life department sat down with a greasy bag of takeout and a defibrillator.

We tasted the Beyond Meat Burger next to a Teen Burger for comparison’s sake.

The burger is served on the regular A&W sesame-seed bun and comes topped with tomato, lettuce, red onion and dill pickle. The condiments are ketchup, mustard and “chubby mayo.” (Note: this last ingredient, made with eggs, renders the burger non-vegan, as does the fact it is cooked on a grill where beef, bacon and eggs are also cooked.)

The Teen Burger comes topped white onion, tomato, pickle, lettuce, processed cheese and bacon, with ketchup, mustard and “Teen Sauce” (a disturbingly monikered mayo-based condiment).

The Beyond Meat Burger patty is made of pea protein, canola oil and seasonings that have been processed by an extrusion machine (mmmm, extruded pea protein).

It has 270 calories (170 from fat), no cholesterol and 380 millgrams of sodium. (All those numbers go up dramatically when its served à la A&W: see below.)

It’s juicy (and it oughta be, considering how much oil it contains) and ever so slightly spongy — what Food Network personality Alton Brown calls “tofu bounce” — but the edges have an appealing crispness.

Jill Wilson: Shall we start with real or fake?

Ben MacPhee-Sigurdson: Fake first.

Jen Zoratti: It looks appetizing; I actually couldn’t tell the difference between the two.

Ben: It’s supposed to have the beet in it to make it look, not like it’s bleeding, but to give it a reddish tinge, which I don’t see.

Jill: I wonder if that’s because people would be offput by that because in Canada, you can’t serve rare or medium-rare fast-food burgers. (Note: this is apparently true — the less you cook Beyond Meat Burgers, the pinker they will appear.)

But somebody online said it would fool no one because it looks orange-y, and I don’t think it looks orange at all.

Jen: No. It definitely smells like a veggie burger, though.

(All sniff.)

Jill Wilson: Oh yeah, does it ever.

Jen Zoratti: That artificial, soy-patty smell… though I don’t know what the patty is actually made of.

Jill: It’s soy-free, but that is a familiar, unappealing smell. OK, time to taste. Hmmm. It’s not bad at all.

Ben MacPhee-Sigurdson: There’s a weird texture thing going on, but I can’t tell if that’s pickle.

Jen: I want to try it on its own.

Jill: The edges of it definitely look burger-like. Probably because there’s so much fat in it.

Erin Lebar: They had to add so much fat to get the right texture.

Jen: It tastes pretty good.

Erin: But that’s because of all the seasoning. You could put seasoning on a shoe and it would taste like a burger.

Ben: Are A&W’s burgers grilled? Because this doesn’t taste grilled to me.

Erin: Maybe they’re steamed.

Ben: There is something, a chewiness, that isn’t quite right.

Jill: Shall we compare to the Teen Burger?

Erin Lebar: To me, the real one is infinitely better, but if I didn’t have an option…

Jen Zoratti: Yup, the real deal is definitely superior.

Ben MacPhee-Sigurdson: The texture is so different.

Jen: That’s the thing about veggie burgers: I don’t like when they pretend to be meat. That’s why I like the bean-based ones.

Jill Wilson: If you were someone who had forgotten what beef tastes like because you’d been a vegan for a long time, this would be an excellent, satisfying burger.

Erin: Yeah, I wouldn’t be disappointed with that one, but this (Teen Burger) does taste better, and that’s just how life is.

Ben: Tasting on its own does it a disservice. I feel like it’s better with the lettuce, the condiments, everything else. Although that’s probably the same with the burger…

Jen: And it’s not necessarily better for you, which I think is a huge deal.

Jill: It might be worse for you. But better for the Earth.

Erin: Just on a caloric basis.

Jill: It has more fat, too, the way it’s served, but not saturated.

Ben: No cholesterol.

Jill: No, but five times the sodium (of an unseasoned beef patty)!

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Ben: A different part of your heart will stop.

Jill: I feel like the Teen Burger benefits from the cheese, too.

Erin: Everything benefits from cheese, Jill. But no, I’m not disappointed by it. It tasted good, just not AS good.

Jen: For a fast-food veggie burger, it’s pretty decent.

Ben MacPhee-Sigurdson: I know back in the day, people would order a Big Mac without the patties and that was your veggie burger; that was your only option. Doing that does push some of the buttons you want from a fast-food burger, but this definitely does it better.

Jill: I do think it’s odd that vegans would want the fake-bloody aspect of it — like, meat-emulating products are weird.

Ben: And to what extent will you go to emulate meat? It looks like meat, sort of smells like meat, sort of tastes meat — and then do you want it to also bleed like meat?

Jen: That’s what I mean. I don’t like the stuff that masquerades as meat.

Ben: It would be interesting to try it versus Harvey’s veggie burger, which I used to have all the time at the old airport terminal… That was always a treat if I was flying: “Ooh, I’m going to get a veggie burger,” because it was grilled and it was spot-on.

Jen Zoratti: How long were you a vegetarian for?

Ben: Twelve years. And for a couple of years I was vegan.

Jen: How did this hold up to the Harvey’s one?

Ben: I haven’t had one in years, but it was grilled, so anything grilled is going to be better, I feel.

Jill Wilson: I do like the way the fake meat patty falls apart like a real burger. Other ones are just a solid block. I just pieced up a piece and put it in my mouth, which I would not do with an Yves one, because I want it all masked in a bun — more for mouth-feel than for flavour.

Erin: My friends are all very into the black bean burger from Costco.

Jen: Those are very good, but again, they’re not trying to be meat.

Jill: And for fast food, that’s not going to fly.

Jen: Plus you can actually identify all the ingredients in them, and you can see them when you bite into the patty — like, chunks of red pepper.

Jill: I would say that if you’re vegetarian and you’re craving fast food, the Beyond Meat Burger would be a great choice; however, be warned that you’re getting the full fast-food experience, which is also tons of calories and fat and sodium.

Ben: I would say it’s good to very good.

Erin Lebar: It’s worth giving it a shot. It will help them a lot that the Beyond Meat brand is so well known in the vegetarian/vegan world. And because you can’t get those products anywhere in Canada.

Jen: Also, what I think this is good for is, I know when people who are vegetarian or vegan are on road-trips situation, they are often met with a desert of options, so this is good when fast food is the only option.

Ben: More than just fries.