Irene Jiang / Business Insider
I tried burgers from McDonald's, Burger King, Five Guys, Wendy's, and Shake Shack.
- I taste-tested signature burgers from McDonald's, Burger King, Five Guys, Wendy's, and Shake Shack to see how they compared.
- The burgers were judged based on their visual appeal, meat quality, taste, and juiciness.
- Each burger brought something unique to the table.
- However, Five Guys won out in terms of overall ingredient quality and its classic burger taste.
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Like creatures of the sea, the varieties of fast-food burgers are many-splendored and manifold.
However, in a world inundated with more species of burgers than one human could ever feasibly consume in their lifetime, there are five shining burger beacons: the cheeseburger from Five Guys, the Dave's Single from Wendy's, the Shackburger from Shake Shack, the Big Mac from McDonald's, and the Whopper from Burger King.
These are some of America's most popular and iconic burgers.
Read more: I tried Chipotle's secret menu to see what's worth ordering - and what you should skip.
After the Great French Fry Showdown of 2019, the battlefield - and by the battlefield, I mean my stomach - was hungry for more. I decided to compare these burgers in another test that was again as scientific, objective, and authoritative as possible.
When I ordered my battle burgers, I selected the default option for each burger whenever available. However, I added cheese to the Whopper because all of the other burgers also had cheese. For Five Guys, I chose the "All The Way" toppings option.
The burgers were judged by their visual appeal, taste, freshness, meat quality, and juiciness, which was evaluated with a squeeze test. The first three metrics were judged qualitatively. The squeeze test was pass/fail.
Let the games begin: