Irene Jiang / Business Insider
- I taste-tested signature burgers from McDonald’s, Burger King, Five Guys, Wendy’s, and Shake Shack to see how they compared.
- The burgers were judged based on their visual appeal, meat quality, taste, and juiciness.
- Each burger brought something unique to the table.
- However, Five Guys won out in terms of overall ingredient quality and its classic burger taste.
- Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.
Like creatures of the sea, the varieties of fast-food burgers are many-splendored and manifold.
However, in a world inundated with more species of burgers than one human could ever feasibly consume in their lifetime, there are five shining burger beacons: the cheeseburger from Five Guys, the Dave’s Single from Wendy’s, the Shackburger from Shake Shack, the Big Mac from McDonald’s, and the Whopper from Burger King.
These are some of America’s most popular and iconic burgers.
Read more: I tried Chipotle’s secret menu to see what’s worth ordering — and what you should skip.
After the Great French Fry Showdown of 2019, the battlefield — and by the battlefield, I mean my stomach — was hungry for more. I decided to compare these burgers in another test that was again as scientific, objective, and authoritative as possible.
When I ordered my battle burgers, I selected the default option for each burger whenever available. However, I added cheese to the Whopper because all of the other burgers also had cheese. For Five Guys, I chose the "All The Way" toppings option.
The burgers were judged by their visual appeal, taste, freshness, meat quality, and juiciness, which was evaluated with a squeeze test. The first three metrics were judged qualitatively. The squeeze test was pass/fail.
Let the games begin:
WENDY’S — DAVE’S SINGLE. Wendy’s prides itself on its fresh, never-frozen beef patties. Where’s the beef? In the Dave’s Single, supposedly. I paid $5.98 with tax for the burger at our local NYC outpost.
Irene Jiang / Business Insider
VISUAL APPEAL: The most appealing elements of the burger were the roundness of the onions and the shininess of the bun, but the burger was just kind of flat overall. There was no visible tomato, pickle, or ketchup, so the burger was fairly monochrome. However, the cheese was nicely melted onto the patty.
Irene Jiang / Business Insider
MEAT: Tasted a little dry and a little old. It was lean and had a gritty texture. Although unmistakably made from real beef, the quality of it was questionable. Despite the chain’s slogan of "fresh, never frozen," the beef didn’t taste very fresh.
Irene Jiang / Business Insider
See the rest of the story at Business Insider
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SEE ALSO: I tasted french fries from 8 major fast-food chains, and the winner surprised me
Source: Business Insider – ijiang@businessinsider.com (Irene Jiang)