i have been wondering about this. the cafeteria at my office sells impossible burgers for $3 and all-too-possible meat burgers for $3.50 (all our food is at cost). and no, those numbers aren't backwards. so clearly the cafeteria is able to buy bulk hempy impossible soystuff cheaper than beef. (OR they are eating a loss to encourage vegetarianism, which is the kind of directive our CEO might issue) (OR the beef they use is free range, organic, privileged, multicultural diverse beef from all backgrounds and walks of life, which drives the cost up, so the impossible burger only seems cheap by comparison) but the fact remains that it is a) cheaper, b) healthier and c) assuages my conscience to buy the impossible burger, so that is what i do. it tastes almost like beef, but still tastes good, so i don't mind the difference.
I had my first taste of the Impossible Burger on Friday at Cheesecake Factory, of all places. It was good, but it wasn't a hamburger. I'd be happy to order it any time, but not when I wanted was a hamburger. (I'm a carnivore so have no compunction or need to eat a beef alternative.) The 2.0 is supposed to be even better. I look forward to trying it!
I love burgers. I have had some great ones and I have had some awful ones. The impossible burger was every bit as much a "hamburger" as some of the frozen, flat freezer burned ones I have had at shitty places. From the hype, it sounds like 2.0 might rise to the ranks of the "actually good," burgers I've had. Excited to check it out.
Something to note is that it might be that leghemoglobin (the I-can't-believe-it's-not-heme thing they use) might cause some, uh, adverse reactions in some people. I went to a place that had the v1.0 burgers (somewhere in SF, can't remember where) and I and a couple of colleagues tried one. Me and one guy got diarrhea afterwards, and it turned out that he'd actually had the same happen the first time he tried one (he originally chalked it up to something dodgy he ate before/after, not the burger.) I did find some anecdotal accounts of the same happening to other people, but didn't dig any further. And I mean it's not like I was like primed to expect something horrible, or stomach upsets or anything. I've been a vegan for quite a while so I don't get the "eek there's no meat in this, it must be disgusting" reaction that some men seem prone to. It's still a protein, so it's always possible it can cause adverse reactions in some people