The Beyond Burger 2.0 that you can now get shipped to your home

This is the 2.0 burger which I have don't believe I've had yet. So let's see how this goes. [MUSIC] Unless you've been living under a rock lately, you know that Beyond Meat had one of the brightstar IPOs, probably of all of 2019. Tene and there's something going on in the whole sector that is really starting to bubble up. It's a fascinating kind of a wetware technology. Even if you don't care about the business angle, you got to admit, at least someone you know says that's, that's pretty good. Let's find out how they make it that way. And what's next? Come on, let's go behind closed doors. Now I know what you're thinking. Beyond's made a pea protein and mung beans and brown rice. I could whip that up in my kitchen at home. Probably not. This is the analytics lab at Beyond Meats headquarters. Let's walk through some of the stages you definitely can't do in your kitchen. Department we've got a couple of patties here. Correct. And then we've got something that you call the mechanical mouth. What is this? We colloquially call it the email. It's a, it's I've been called the email sometimes this is good. It's it's a texture analyzer, it's going to measure the force at the burger is exerting when you try to compress it or feel when you try to chew it. Alright, so the burger is gonna go in here, correct. Let's stick it in there and see how this works. Cuz everyone talks about does it chew? Right, you know? And here we go. Although that was not just one so it's actually chewing. Yeah, essentially. And then you gather data from this on the graph right here that shows every bite it looks exactly. Okay? That's the analytics lab where they make things taste good. But they also know that if something doesn't look like it's going to taste good, it kind of doesn't in your mind. That's why we have the color lab. [MUSIC] They are the only things in this lab I recognize. Yes. Those are beets, okay. And beets are Key to your color. Yes for a hamburger. If you notice one important thing about a hamburger is when you pick it up. And everybody knows that and that is how people know how to cook hamburgers. Yeah, right. Right. And when we eat also the look of something is very important to our taste and so, we choose the In particular, because of all the natural colors is the most heat sensitive, and will in fact change color. So by using the beat color, I get a burger that looks like a Robert or at first and looks like I took burger when it's good. Yes and not every color. It's natural colorant would do that. No, in fact, most event albums don't and that kind of makes sense because never do people want something that will You know, change color. You want to be the color that I want Mountain Dew to always look like uranium waste. Yeah, That should never change. Right. Exactly. And if this is different, This is different. See the pattern is like powder building up right there.>> Yeah,just that fast. Yeah. And. Juices draining out. Yep. And so this is a small benchtop machines to do this. To do this for actual commercial these machines are much, much bigger. Sure we just made instant beet powder for coloring. Yes, I didn't take long either. No So Julie, you've got the most fun color palette I've seen so far here beyond here. There's like a paint box, but I don't think you're, Playing around. No and also not only with fruits and vegetables and edible flowers and These are All natural ingredients. I would drink this. You could, I might have some bugs, but I would drink. She's very good. These are from fruits, vegetables and flowers. Just, Okay, so what is this telling us about your process? So what this seeks to look at is a lot of color blending. So just like you can have different varieties that gives you specific colors when you mix them together, you create very subtle cues and all of that plays to cueing our minds that what we're seeing is neat. Plants don't really look like hamburgers. That's kind of my job is to create those subtle hues, the colors, make it vibrant, just like an animal meat products would be nice. So that one's actually rounded.>> It's very dark. That one almost couldn't describe. I don't even know what that is. It's orangey but not really it's really interesting, but not really. Yeah, right? I think a good starting point. Little bit of rust in there, and then this is, well, that's very blue? Then you mix it all together. And now, what you're gonna see here is if you hold it up to the light, not only is it almost incredibly red, hopefully, be bloodlike. Yeah, yeah. But as it gets thinner, and as the light plays at different angles- Right. There's almost like an orange hue that can come out. I see it and we see that a lot. And so you guys have done the research to say What does red meat what makes red meat red to our eye, and now you replicate it. With colors we wouldn't expect you add some dark blue, add some dark brown, to orange and red but that's how you get here. That's how you get there. Gotta say it looks like a blood pipette right there. That's, That's how we're going for That's it, right? Okay, we've seen a lot of lab stations. Now we're color and structure and chemistry and all kinds of the science are abstractly investigated. Now we're gonna go to the test kitchen and see where they verify how this stuff works. Cooks up and actually handles. [MUSIC] This is the most conventional looking part I've seen so far beyond this looks like a restaurant kit. Absolutely. This is one of the advantage that we have here at beyond meat is you see in our culinary kitchen to be able to see how behavior works on our plant based burgers. We come over here and we see things that behavior on our buggy bone so under burger buns. We also see how the consumer is going to take our product once it goes home as well. So when it comes here to the culinary room, we want to see how that behaves. And your plate and your regular home consumer and see how you cook it out as well. I noticed I see a bunch of condiments behind me here I see the mustard I see the pickles you guys make meals here. You don't just make abstract pieces of sausage and beef. That is great. That is great. We are 100% involved on how our product tastes the whole time. We want to see when it's cold when it's hot when it's mid temperature, we want to see out there resting for five or 10 minutes. How is that going to produce later on for when you consume that as well. Okay, now I get to look a little less like Santa Claus. Drop that part of the neck. Do the fun part Have a taste of this perfectly prepared beyond burger. This is the 2.0 burger which I have don't believe I've had yet. So let's see how this goes. Definitely more rustic. You can see in here. Notice how well the texture looks more rustic alongside the other relatively coarse ingredients, the condiments of lettuce. That's so interesting, because everything else in tech, this is basically a tech company is about consistency and find precision. And here a win is almost going the other way. You can use all the high tech machines you want to chew on something examine its color, look at its microscopic texture, but you don't know you've got a winner with consumers until consumers tell you you've got a winner. And that's where you bring them into this. This is the beyond meat sensory lab where real people are given blind sample tastes. They tell the real story is good or not [MUSIC] [SOUND] 241 and 415 so blind tasting numbers here. I'm going to be dainty and get my napkin. Try a piece of 415 first because that's where you cook [MUSIC] Okay, got it. Because we're near the wine country. Let's use the proper technique and clear our palate. Now, let's go to the mysterious two for one sample and see if I can tell the difference and what it is. Why do I feel like I'm gonna flunk this test So what did you think about those two samples? First off, which one did you prefer? I kinda like to form one more because it tasted slightly greasy or it was more satisfying Respect, I thought. And texture like as far as chew the bites the kind of cohesiveness that you'd expect from a burger. Which one do you think? One five tasted a little more coarse. Maybe a little more, have more opposition to chewing whatever you guys call that in the business. So 241 in 415 differ how what am I What am I tasting here? A 241 there that's actually our beyond burger 1.0 then the second sample there, right? Our newest offering the beyond burger that is due out in stores. So that's what we've been developing as the level And that's the one that I thought was more like animal meat and had a little more of a course random animal texture to it, where this one I thought had a little finer grind, I think and also tasted a little, a little greasy, a little fattier. So it sounds like you guys are going in the right direction. You'd be pleased with these results, I think, right? Absolutely Yeah. And again, consumer facing brands, getting consumer feedback about them. So you totally get our demographic and gather feedback from so many people as possible. And that's what we do here, the sensory lab. We've been talking a lot about what a burger or a sausage should look like when it's cooked. It has to look right when it's not cooked because people don't buy cooked burgers at the grocery store in a package. They're buying a raw product, if you will. So they've also changed how the [UNKNOWN] presents before it's cooked. See these white spots here. This is analogous to the kind of marbling That you get in traditional animal ground meat, whereas in the 1.0 the ingredients in there but it's more finely dispersed, you don't see it here. It's the visual cue that says you're buying something that is more akin to an 8020 these white flecks Of animal looking plant fats are the 20. [MUSIC] of all the interesting categories in technology right now, this one around plant based meats is particularly fascinating because to win here, you don't only have to taste good you have to have good tastes. You've got an emblemize some kind of a movement that people want to be part of. It's different than selling someone a phone or a tablet. And that's what makes this one so variably interesting to watch in the years ahead. To stay on top of what's next in all of technology, make sure you subscribe to the CNET channel here on YouTube.