I finally did it.

I did what, you ask? Sky dive? Climb Mount Everest? Run with the bulls?

No, I had a plant-based burger. And yeah, especially compared with those bucket-list items, it was anticlimactic.

Thanks to the Deli Star team, which every quarter explores St. Louis restaurants and rates different products, I not only tried a plant-based burger; I actually sampled six different versions as I tagged along recently on one of the company’s Food Quests.

I have to say, good effort, guys. Utah Station, a hip new vegan joint, really gets an A for effort, having modeled their “burgers” after those that popular real burger chains serve. Their version of McDonald’s Big Mac, two patties, three buns, was a visual dead ringer.

Problem was, like with pretty much all the others, the dressing, among so many other condiments, was necessary to mask what was an off-putting taste — if there was any taste at all — in the patty. I have to say that the Impossible Burger, as served by cozy old dive Sportsman’s Park, had the closest semblance of flavor to a beef burger — albeit an overcooked one.

By the time the Food Quest found Layla, the skepticism — and the hunger — was strong. The restaurant did well to dress the Beyond Burger in a spicy but flavorful habanero cheese sauce, but the winner by most accounts, not only at Layla but also for all three participating restaurants, was the “Jane Says” red lentil burger. A vegetarian lentil and beet burger with monterey jack, smokey mango sauce, lemon garlic mayo, flash-fried kale, tomato and sumac onions on a brioche bun, the thing was full of flavor.

And it was, well, red. It was fiery red, glowing like burning embers. It was proud of its main ingredients, vegetables.

I got to thinking. The “Jane Says” burger wasn’t pretending to be anything other than it was. To me, that’s why it was so damn good. And I felt good about eating it; I never do get enough vegetables.

States across this country now are fighting over laws to define what meat is, and spell out what those trying to imitate it can call their products on a label. The alternative meat makers say they have First Amendment rights to use terms associated with meat products derived from animals. And I’m not a lawyer, so I won’t say that they’re wrong, at least as a matter of law.

But outside of the courtroom, what really matters is a product that has a flavor that a consumer believes he is paying for.

No doubt that alternative meats represent a growing market, which is why the biggest conventional meat processors are throwing mega millions in to it. But the waters are murky.

Like Deli Star, which is exploring development of its own plant-based products, I think there is a middle grind. Yes, grind. I think a compromise, ground beef infused with vegetables, for example, is the next true market.

True, as in manufacturers can call it what it is, and consumers can feel good about getting the nutritional benefits of both meat and veggies.

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