Last week was pizza week at Papa Murphy’s, so for this week’s review, I took advantage of a new offer Starbucks Coffee told me about in an e-mail message: The Impossible Breakfast Sandwich.
The word “impossible” in the title comes from Impossible Foods, which provides the vegetable sausage patty for the sandwich. The patty is, well, sandwiched between a fried egg on the bottom and cheddar cheese on top. All this food is contained within what Starbucks calls “artisanal” ciabatta bread.
Plant-based meat substitutes have grown in quality and abundance as demand has grown. The two companies that have received the most interest and attention are Beyond Meat, which sells their plant-based meat to some restaurants including Carl’s Jr., and Impossible Foods. The latter has been more successful in placing their plant-based meat at casual and quick-serve restaurants including Red Robin, Burger King, and now Starbucks.
My Sandwich
The Impossible sausage is the star of the show in the Impossible Breakfast Sandwich. Like meat sausage, plant-based sausage relies on spices. The good news is that Impossible sausage is spicy enough to satisfy, but not quite as spicy as meat sausage in case you want a taste experience that’s not overwhelming…and an aftertaste that doesn’t linger all day.
The patty, egg, and cheese are the same width as the bun, so you get the same experience from the first bite to the last. This shouldn’t be a surprise since many quick-serve restaurants work hard at their home offices to get a sandwich just right before they start making them in bulk, freeze them, and ship them to stores. As with all their frozen food, a Starbucks barista takes out the Impossible Breakfast Sandwich from the freezer, frees it from its nitrogen-filled plastic wrapper, heats it up, and puts it in a paper bag before they give it to you.
The Impossible Breakfast Sandwich is better for you than other sausage sandwiches. It has 430 calories, 8g of saturated fat, 830mg of sodium, and 22g of protein. It’s still not as healthy as the reduced-fat turkey bacon and cage-free egg white sandwich. The egg whites drop the protein to 17g, but it also drops the calories (230), saturated fat (2.5g), and sodium (550mg). Maybe Starbucks will introduce an egg white version of the Impossible Breakfast Sandwich. I’ll talk to the barista about that the next time I go. (Yes, I’m a Starbucks Rewards gold cardholder.)
The Verdict
The spices in the Impossible sausage still overwhelms the egg and the cheese, which are there to provide weight and texture to the sandwich. The same goes for the bread, which looks like it has some spices on the top bun, but I’m not sure. I’ll have to try the Impossible Breakfast Sandwich again, and it’s good enough to want to revisit it.
Overall, the Impossible Breakfast Sandwich is a good addition to the Starbucks breakfast sandwich lineup, and I hope they’ll add it to their regular menu. Thumbs up.
Want to Try Them?
The only Starbucks Coffee in Amador County is located in the Amador Ridge shopping center in Martell next to Verizon Wireless, which is also near Little Caesars Pizza, Carl’s Jr., and Jack in the Box. You can now order in the café and enjoy limited indoor seating as well as outdoor seating, or you can order at their drive-thru. Order using the Starbucks app or by calling them at 209-257-0289.
Amador Business Ticker food reviews are adventures in local dining with Editor Eric Butow and his mom…but this time without his mom.
