Gardein Product Review

I have a quick product review for y’all on some veggie mock-meat products I got to try when I was in Florida for the holidays.  When I first went vegetarian, I ate a whole lot of boca burgers and chick’n patties as a substitute for meat, but these days I’m not the biggest fan usually.  That being said, I had heard gardein brand products were pretty good, and figured I would give them a shot.  I found them at Publix in St. Petersburg, and picked up the Classic Style Buffalo Wings and the Beefless Tips.

I first tried the Buffalo Wings.  I baked them in the oven per the package directions, and my initial reaction was that these looked nothing like they did on the package.  They looked pretty disgusting, actually.

Appetizing presentation?  Definitely not.

Great taste?  Eh.  The texture was great, but they were unbelievably spicy, and that comes from a girl who pours Sriracha and Frank’s Red Hot over everything.  I could barely handle the heat, and my guess is that most people would find them too spicy.  The sauce just wasn’t good.

I don’t have a photo of the Beefless Tips, but they were much better looking and tasting than the wings, perhaps because they didn’t come with a sauce.  The texture was great, and the flavor was neutral enough that they tasted great both in a stir fry that my sister made and a “beef bourginon” that I made for myself for Christmas dinner.

Overall, C- on the wings and B+ on the beefless tips.  I probably won’t buy them very often, but I might pick them up every now and then.