McDonald's McPlant is coming for Beyond Meat's crown

The day has arrived at last: McDonald’s announced plans to introduce its own plant-based burger option to the menu in select markets as soon as next year. The company made its plans public this morning at an investor meeting, Business Insider reports.

The McPlant — the McPlant! — uses a fake-meat amalgamation of McDonald’s own creation, rather than partnering with an existing plant-based company like Impossible Foods or Beyond Meat, as other chains have. “McPlant is crafted exclusively for McDonald’s, by McDonald’s,” McDonald’s international president Ian Borden said at this morning’s meeting.

The reveal is a pretty drastic reversal of McDonald’s public-facing strategy around plant-based options. If Borden’s initial announcement is to be believed, the company doesn’t just see it as a single menu option — rather, McDonald’s hopes the McPlant will prove successful enough to extend to a full plant-based menu.

UPDATE: A Beyond Meat spokesperson told CNN that "Beyond Meat and McDonalds co-created the plant-based patty which will be available as part of their McPlant platform."

Bow down to your new god — The McPlant is coming to snatch every plant-based crown known to man (and then some). While we obviously haven’t tasted it ourselves yet, there’s a good chance the McPlant will be very, very tasty.

Hear us out on this speculation. McDonald’s has held out on offering a plant-based burger on its menu for a long time now, even after watching the success of direct competitor Burger King’s Impossible Whopper. The company took that extended time to pour resources into creating its own meat alternative from scratch.

There’s no way McDonald’s would have expended so much money and effort on this only for it to be a flop. I mean come on: it’s McDonald’s.

McPlant?! — Okay, so nothing’s perfect. The jury’s still out on whether or not “McPlant” was the best name McDonald’s could’ve gone with here. It sticks to the company’s classic branding in some sense, but it’s also a bit jarring to the ear at first.

When McDonald’s first introduced its Beyond Meat-based burger in Canada last year, it went for the less-crass “P.L.T” (Plant Lettuce Tomato) as its name of choice. McPlant sounds like a fake product — but maybe that’s a good thing. “Egg McMuffin” must’ve sounded unreal at some point, too, and now it’s a classic.

Do the fries next, please — Borden said at the announcement this morning that he hopes the McPlant’s success will extend to plant-based chicken substitutes and breakfast sandwiches, too. We’re also wondering whether or not McDonald’s will extend that courtesy to its potato products, seeing as its french fries and hash browns are still made using animal byproducts in the United States (though this has been changed elsewhere in the world). All I’m saying is the McPlant would be even better alongside some hot fries!

The McPlant will make its debut in “select markets” next year. Go ahead and send the news to your vegetarian friends. They deserve it.