A ‘bleeding’ vegan burger, from cult American brand Beyond Meat, is to make it’s debut on UK supermarket shelves from Monday.
The plant-based patty, which costs £5.50 for a pack of two, has been available in the USA since May 2016 and was billed to be coming here in August. But due to unprecedented popularity, the company struggled to keep up with demand and delayed expansion to Europe.
From today the product will be stocked alongside meat burgers in 350 branches of Tesco.
Unlike other vegan burgers, the Beyond Burger does not try to distance itself from meat. In fact it actively tries to impersonate its animal cousins in appearance, smell and even taste.
Made entirely from plant products: 20g of pea protein, coconut oil and potato starch and of course beetroot juice to achieve that ‘bleeding’ meaty red hue.
Last month HuffPost UK tried the Beyond burger at Honest Burgers, one of the only chains in the UK to stock the brand (All Bar One also stocks it).
What does the Beyond Burger taste like?
This is definitely passable as a meat burger. If you’ve ever tried a Linda McCartney sausage then you’ll have an idea of what I’m talking about: 99 per cent of the time thinking you might be eating meat (right texture, almost the right flavour) only to be reassured by the weird processed casing.
Honest serve their Beyond burger in a soft brioche bun with lettuce, red onion, some sneaky gherkins and a dollop of chipotle ‘mayonnaise’ (made from Aquafaba - the same versatile chickpea water you may recall they used to make meringue on the Great British Bake Off).
Making a ‘meat-like’ burger might not sound like a great strategy when marketing a meal towards people who actively choose not to eat meat, and for those vegans whose stomach is turned by the idea of animal flesh, I would suggest opting out. But the Beyond Burger is a great way to appeal to the growing number of flexitarians or part-time vegetarians in Britain.
Despite the arrival of the burger being long anticipated, it seems there are already people saying they won’t be buying the product because of the price.
Would you eat a Beyond burger?