American fast food giant McDonald’s has started selling its first-ever vegan burger, but you need to travel to Scandinavia to enjoy it. The aptly named McVegan is only available in one city in Finland and only for a short period of time. We hopped on a plane to try and see if the future of fast food could be meat free.
The McVegan looks just like any other McDo burger
Tampere is a relatively little known city about two hours north of the Finnish capital Helsinki. Until recently it was mostly known for having the world’s only Moomin museum, the adorable fairy tale characters by Finnish illustrator Tove Jansson, and for being Finland’s hi-tech research and development powerhouse. Now, the city is also known for being the only place in the world where you can walk into a McDonald’s and order a vegan burger. From early October until the end of November, the fast food company with the famous golden arches is trying out its McVegan in the city, and based on the results one would assume it may be rolled out permanently in Finland and maybe even further afield.
The McVegan is currently available at all McDonald’s branches in Tampere and will cost you EUR 3.00 / P180 a la carte, or EUR 6.95 / P420 as a menu. Finland is quite expensive, so these prices may seem high by Manila standards but are quite normal there. The 100% vegetable-based burger contains a soybean steak topped with tomato, salad, pickles, and what McDo calls ‘Vegan McFeast’ sauce. On the nutritional side, it packs 448kcal, 22 grams of fat, 11 grams of sugar and 2.5 grams of salt, which doesn’t make it super healthy, but also places it well against traditional burgers with meat in the middle.
The most important question is of course: how does it taste? The simple answer is: good. It tastes just like you’d expect a McDonald’s burger to taste. In fact, it tastes almost like a BigMac and definitely has that McDo mainstream taste to it that could help it become a global success. If you handed it to someone to try without saying it’s a vegan burger, there’s every chance it would pass as just another burger, and that’s the great thing about it.
The McVegan is only available in Tampere, Finland
While there is no official word yet from the company on plans to roll it out in other locations, I sincerely hope they will consider it. Finland seems to be a good market to try vegan and vegetarian products, but other countries – including the Philippines – also have ever increasing numbers of people who value a lifestyle that is healthier and kinder to the planet. A global rollout of a vegan burger by a company that sells millions of burgers every day could have a massive positive impact and that’s something worth hoping for.
Would you want the McVegan burger in Manila? Share your thoughts in the comments!
