Based on my bubble, vegans, vegetarians, and meat eaters that do want to decrease their meat consumption.

At this point, in Germany at least, discounter brands like Lidl and Aldi have beaten Beyond Meat at their game though. They produce alternatives that taste as good or better, for significantly less money.

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tirant 2 hours ago | parent | next [-]

I love meat and I love good hamburgers. I’ve tried those Lidl and Aldi alternatives and they were uneatable for me and my family. They have slowly disappeared from the shelves. Only a couple of products remain.

I have never tried BeyondMeat but I’d be surprised that it’s so bad.

And I have eaten many classic vegan burger alternatives based on lentils, peas and chickpeas. They didn’t aim to taste like meat and were actually edible.

	▲	k__ an hour ago \| parent [-]
		In my experience, the pea-based products are pretty good. I'm a huge burger fan and stopped eating meat at home, thanks to this wave of vegan alternatives.

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delis-thumbs-7e 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I have been vegan for 12 years. It is not that hard to make vegan burger patties at home. Or you can just cut up a block of tofu and season it to be eaten in a burger. Takes about the same time or less to cook as these Beyond grease fests. Besides there is so many cheaper alternatives these days that I very rarely buy them.

We don’t need meat alternatives. Vegan diet is cardiovascularly extremely healthy, seems to protect against most cancers, tastes good and is most importantly ethically and environmentally only viable option at this point. It’s pretty cheap as well, tofu, lentils and veggies are not exactly expensive even without all the gazillion subsidiaries pumped into meat production. [Of course your vegan diet can consist of eating only canned soda and potato chips and that is not healthy nor cheap, but the problem there is that you are a moron, not that you are vegan].

So the problem with meat alternatives is that you don’t really need them and if you want burger patties etc. you can make them at home pretty easily or these days buy cheaper alternatives sold in most supermarkets.

	▲	KPGv2 2 hours ago \| parent [-]
		> Beyond grease fests Vegans have a problem with avocados and beans now? THat's where the "grease" comes from in these fake meats.

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scythe 7 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Yeah, I never understood what Beyond's core innovation was. Impossible had that whole synthetic heme thing going on. Beyond seemed almost like opportunistic mimicry. But Impossible turned out to be pretty expensive IIRC.

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slfnflctd 6 hours ago | parent | next [-]

In my opinion as a mostly-vegetarian who used to adore burgers as a kid, the Impossible brand was by far the most realistic (and my beef-loving partner would agree, they made stroganoff with it and loved it)... but the price truly is ridiculous at this point. It started out just barely justifiable, and it's simply too high now.

I am more than a little bit outraged that animals who were raised in miserable industrial production facilities to meet an ugly end are having their parts sold for less than a decent alternative simply because of subsidies distorting the market.

	▲	Dylan16807 6 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		If I look at walmart right now, they have Impossible 'ground beef' for $9/lb and real ground beef is more than $7/lb. So the price isn't too high everywhere.
	▲	JSR_FDED 6 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		Agree. Impossible is on a different planet in terms of being very very close to the taste of real meat. Unfortunately still premium priced. It’s a pity that Beyond is getting so much attention because they’re not the best ambassadors for meat alternatives. People will try it, and then decide to wait another 5 years before trying again.

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xeromal 6 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I still eat impossible sausage as a substitute for pork and find it pretty dang good. I grew up in appalachia so we know our pork sausage and impossible seasoned well comes close.

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leodler 7 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Aldi in Germany might be very different for all I know, but I've been vegan or vegetarian my entire adult life and I think every burger alternative besides Beyond/Impossible is quite awful, though I usually don't eat meat alternatives in the first place.

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JoshTriplett 6 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Beyond was available well before Impossible was. I used a combination of Beyond and Boca as my primary substitutes for ground beef, until Impossible came along, and now I use almost exclusively Impossible.

I don't feel like they have a niche anymore, but there was a time I considered them my top choice, before impossible dethroned them.