The beyond burger

**The beyond burger** was the 5th post on the peace. love. zen. blog.

## Content

I first found out about this burger several months back, whilst aimlessly scrolling through instagram. It got my attention because it was a "veggie burger", but it was packaged in the same way as traditional hamburger meat. The patty even LOOKED like raw hamburger. But that's not the craziest part! The store had this veggie burger displayed in the meat case- right next to the real beef. I had never seen anything like it. Needless to say, I was intrigued.

Fast forward to now, I've finally gotten my hands on it. It's called The Beyond Burger, and it comes from leading plant-based "meat" company, Beyond Meat. Beyond Meat is truly doing some amazing things. I mean, you know they're doing something right considering that Tyson, one of the largest food production companies on the planet, recently purchased 5% of their stock. The future is looking more and more vegan. What a time to be alive.

Initially, some people may be freaked out by this. They may say things such as "this is fake and gross." But let's be clear- there is nothing fake about a patty made from blended veggies. And if you ask me, eating the corpse of an innocent animal is what's gross. You just really have to take a step back to see the truth- we've all been programmed to have some pretty strange definitions of what's "normal."

But last week, I finally fired up the grill and put this burger to the test!

I was very amused at the texture of the burger; it is freakishly similar to real ground beef. I couldn't believe it. The only issue that I had with it was that didn't quite grill as nicely as real beef. But this seems like an obvious struggle, considering that it doesn't have bits of fat in it to coat the burger as it heats up.

I topped my burger with the ultimate veggie cheese (Chao), then proceeded to dress it in my absolute favorite style: thousand island dressing (Follow Your Heart), pickle slices, lettuce and tomato on a pretzel bun. PERFECTION.

But alas, the real test- the taste. I haven't had beef in nearly four years, but to me, this tasted very similar. It was soft, juicy and even managed to have a "meaty-taste". I'm not sure how else to explain that. I thought it was REALLY GOOD. Not a 5/5 good, but I would dare say a **4.5/5** good. Maybe that's just because I'm a wee-bit grossed out by the realness. However, in a blind taste-test I would certainly still be able to tell the two apart. But it is BY FAR the most convincing mock-beef burger out there. I also think it's worth mentioning that my boyfriend (who has only been vegan for 6 months) REALLY enjoyed this. It's definitely worth trying!

This burger is offering something wonderful to the world. It gives people the taste of a traditional beef burger without any of the costs. And no, I don't mean from your pocket. I'm referring to a much greater cost- the cost of environmental destruction. Most people don't tend to care about the health of the environment because it's not something that is directly affecting them- YET. But the effects are becoming more and more apparent with each passing day. We only have ONE HOME. We need to be a PROACTIVE nation and help this planet heal before we allow it to get too far gone. Livestock rearing/processing is one of the biggest contributors to climate change, deforestation and water usage. It's very tragic because this is something we can easily put a stop to. We do not need beef to survive. We could give it up right now and the planet would start healing immensely. Be part of something big. Give up beef and consider options such as The Beyond Burger whenever you get a craving.

The Beyond Burger is currently only available in VERY select locations. Check this list to see if they are available near you!

Cheers to a vegan future!

### -kalel

**Disclaimer:** Beyond Meat gifted me this product when I attended their LA launch party. However, I pride myself on always providing honest feedback and my opinions on this burger were no exception to the rule.