The Impossible Burger Review, From Wahlburgers in Palo Alto, CA

Impossible Burger, a veggie burger

The Impossible Burger does fulfill the marketing hype in that if you did not know any better, you might not believe you just ate a veggie burger!

Let's get the publicity from Impossible Burger out of the way here:

The Impossible Burger uses 95% less land, 74% less water, and creates 87% less greenhouse gas emissions than making real burgers*. According to one statement on their website, animal agriculture uses 30% of all land, over 25% of all freshwater on Earth, and creates as much greenhouse gas emissions as all of the world’s cars, trucks, trains, ships, and airplanes combined.

They use all-natural ingredients: Water, Textured Wheat Protein, Coconut Oil, Potato Protein, Natural Flavors, 2% or less of: Leghemoglobin (soy), Yeast Extract, Salt, Soy Protein Isolate, Konjac Gum, Xanthan Gum, Vitamin C, Thiamin (Vitamin B1), Zinc, Niacin, Vitamin B6, Riboflavin (Vitamin B2), Vitamin B12.

The Impossible Burger has the health benefits of being free from cholesterol and contaminants associated with beef production. The bioavailable protein, iron, and fat content are comparable to conventional 80/20 ground beef.

But the magic ingredient that pulls it all together is heme. Heme is what makes this veggie burger seem like the real deal. (There's more about heme at the website, that I link to below.)


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This was my first time having an Impossible Burger and my first time in Wahlburgers!

Wahlburgers is set up pretty nice and the service was seriously top-notch. They have a 'dining room' experience area, a bar section that you can order lunch and a drink from and they have a 50s-like counter you can sit down at and order. Any option that takes your fancy is there for you.

But let's get down to the burger, shall we?

If you were to have put this down in front of me and not told me what it was, I would not have guessed that I just devoured a veggie burger.  I don't know how much more succinct I can get than that.

Sure, the one I ordered was slathered in all kinds of goodies, but when you eat a standard, everyday run-of-the-mill veggie burger, no matter what you put on it, you know it's a veggie burger. This burger is not that kind of burger.

On top of this, I had brought a friend who goes both ways, eats hamburgers and eats veggie burgers, and without hesitation, said that was the best hamburger, of any kind, that he's ever had. Period!

I will go back one more time and order it with fewer toppings so I can get a true testament of how much of a burger-like product this is, but for now, I'm pretty impressed too!

*Looking at all this info about how many fewer resources it takes to make a veggie burger, you would think that it might be affordable and yet most outlets this veggie burger is available at are places where you won't mind dropping $20 on a 'burger,' fries/onion and a cup water. Like I did at Wahlburgers.

BTW: Wahlbugers onion rings are the thin kind, like the giant blooming onion rings you might get at that fake, Australian place out there!

An open request to the Impossible Burger Inc folks... 


I'm guessing the market isn't quite there for less costly outlets, but it sure would be nice if say, Chili's or some other mainstream dining outlet also offered your product! That way the regular consumer who is the unknowingly devout meat eater, might get a chance to try one of these wonderful burgers too!  Just saying!

For those of you interested in more info, check out their website at Impossible Foods.

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