Perspective: Burger King’s Impossible Whopper tastes even better than the real thing
ST. LOUIS — The Gateway Arch, that soaring stainless-steel rainbow hard by the Mississippi River, stands as a 630-foot monument to an idea that was controversial even in 19th-century America: that this Midwestern city would serve as a starting point to a new life out West, where people could escape the problems of their past.
I was there, of course, to sample the burger and decide whether Burger King has a hit on its hands, one worth replicating in stores across the land. It’s admittedly an odd, illogical task: judging whether a company should do its part to save Earth based on how good a product tastes. It’s sort of like deciding whether you should recycle plastic based on your opinion of a bottle’s design. That thing is uuug-ly. Toss it on the streets!But business doesn’t operate that way.
All this science is concealed in a patty that doesn’t look too far removed from the ground-beef version, especially after both are run under Burger King’s signature charbroiler. Both beef and plant-based patties are branded with black parallel stripes, the grill marks that are as much a part of Burger King’s identity as that royal mascot with the perpetually creepy smile.
I was reminded of this during a side trip to White Castle, where the chain sells an Impossible Slider. At a location in the St. Louis suburbs, I placed an order of four original sliders and four of the Impossible knockoffs, each slipped into a tiny branded cardboard sleeve, generating the kind of waste usually reserved for family picnics. I ordered the sliders with griddled onions and pickles only, no cheese, to better taste the patties.
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