I ate Whataburger's Avocado Bacon Burger and all you get is this lousy review!

Avocado Bacon Burger (Whataburger)
Price: $5.29
Calories: 960
Fat: 63g

My first review for this blog was for Whataburger's 5-3-1 Burger, and while they've had quite a few limited-edition items since then, nothing has quite piqued my attention as this Avocado Bacon Burger. One of my favorite pairings in fast-food history has got to be guacamole and bacon. It started with Quiznos' glorious Turkey Bacon Guacamole sub and continued with Carl's Jr.'s Guacamole Bacon Six Dollar Burger.

But while both of those sandwiches have guacamole, Whataburger is using just straight-up avocado, which ends up working better here than either one of those.

Here's the description from Whataburger's website:

Attention avocado lovers: We’ve got delicious news for you. Avocado has arrived at Whataburger. To celebrate, we’re cooking the Avocado Bacon Burger. A 100% pure beef patty with crispy bacon, fresh avocado, onions, tomatoes, American cheese and creamy pepper sauce piled up on Texas Toast.

(Actually, here in Texas, we just call it "toast.")

Apparently, this item, which was added this month to the menu (for a limited time only) has appeared due to numerous customer requests. "Our customers' feedback is really important, and they have asked us for avocado," Rich Scheffler, Whataburger's vice president of marketing and innovation, recently told reporters. I think if this proves anything, it's that the Latino voice can really make things happen in this country.

As I was saying, the avocado in this burger works better than the guacamole on both Quiznos and Carl's Jr. for two distinct reasons:

The first is that while both guacamole sandwiches use a type of seemingly processed, preservative-tinged guacamole, Whataburger uses fresh avocado. You can always tell when guacamole has been made fresh without preservatives because it turns brown pretty quickly. One thing that is noticeable with Quinzos and Carl's guacamole is that you can put your sandwich in the fridge, take it out 24 hours later, and the guacamole will be the same color as when you ordered the thing. (Believe me, I've used enough "buy one, get one free" coupons to know that this is the case.)

The second is a textural thing. While the processed guacamole in the aforementioned sandwiches has a mushy consistency, not unlike a thick sauce, Whataburger's avocado is cut into chunks of varying sizes and smashed into a sort of spread, which works really well with the other ingredients, texturally and taste-wise. Not to mention, with the diced onions and tomato slice, it's only a few ingredients away from proper guacamole.

From what I can recall, the pepper sauce could very well be the same pepper sauce from the aforementioned 5-3-1 Burger that I last ate over two years ago; that is to say that it has just the right amount of kick to spice up the burger. It caps off the whole thing nicely, along with Whataburger's always-fresh ingredients, and the bacon, of course, which is applied in a relatively generous fashion.

Naturally, it sits in your stomach like a sack of nickels afterward, but it's Whataburger, so that comes with the territory. Either way, this one's certainly worth your while if you happen to have a Whataburger in your area.

(Image appropriated for demonstrative purposes from Whataburger.com)