How Juicy Marbles Is Bringing The Sizzle To The Plant-Based Market
Whether it's milk, meat, or cheese, nowadays there's probably a version of these foods out there that doesn't come from animals. For example, one of Silk's plant-based milks is set out to convert die-hard dairy lovers, and customers can buy meatless Impossible burgers from multiple fast food chains.
For the most part, it looks like plant-based food products are here to stay. While alt-milks and yogurts are lined up in the dairy aisle and the grocery store meat section now sells items like soy chorizo and Impossible ground meat, higher-end meat cuts seem to be missing. The company Juicy Marbles is hoping to change that.
On its website, Juicy Marbles currently sells a filet mignon, and has plans to also offer a tenderloin, which the startup's website says is "coming soon-ish." Last year, TechCrunch reported that the Slovenian company received "a $4.5 million seed raise" to get its filet mignon out on the market. In the future, the Juicy Marbles team explained to TechCrunch they want to make filet mignon more affordable in addition to making other cuts of plant-based meat that aren't as pricey.
What's in Juicy Marbles' plant-based meat products?
Wondering what makes up this plant-based filet mignon? Juicy Marbles lists all of the ingredients of this cut of "meat" on its website, and the first three ingredients are water, soy protein concentrate, and wheat protein isolate. Soy and wheat are both common ingredients in plant-based meats, so this shouldn't come as a big surprise for people who often purchase meat alternatives.
In a review of Juicy Marbles' filet mignon, David Watsky at CNET points out that this plant-based meat has more protein than your typical filet mignon, as well as less fat. However, Watsky added that while it "cooked quickly with a nice crust," he felt this faux filet mignon tasted more like corned beef than a high-end cut.
Despite this not-quite-glowing review, FoodBeast reported that in the United States, Juicy Marble sold out of its products in less than eight hours after one of its most recent product releases. (The filet is still listed as "sold out" on the company's website.) From this, it looks like there's certainly demand for more types of plant-based meat, particularly the kinds that you can't find as easily in stores — at least for now.