I Punch My Sandwich And So Should You

This is how to take your sandwich-making skills to the next level!

Hi, my name is Ben, and for as long as I can remember, I have been punching my sandwiches.

Ben Armson / Via Instagram: @ben.armson

Now I know this might sound a little crazy, but trust me, this little trick will actually make your sandwich taste so much better. I am very serious about this — I genuinely believe that to make a sandwich taste as good as it possibly can, you need to punch it repeatedly before eating it.

A few nights ago, I took to Instagram to innocently share my sandwich-punching quirk.

Ben Armson / Via Instagram: @ben.armson

I was amazed by the amount of reactions and comments I received. Sandwich punching has always been a very normal part of my life, so I really wasn't expecting everyone to be so perplexed by it.

But some people were shocked and even worried, asking if I was "okay".

Ben Armson / Via Instagram: @ben.armson

In fairness, I kind of get it. Sandwich punching is obviously not your everyday activity, but to me an un-punched sandwich just doesn't cut the mustard.

In general though, a lot of people were on board with the idea of it. Some even said they were going to try my technique to see if it works!

Ben Armson / Via Instagram: @ben.armson

This was a huge win for me and for sandwich punching!

At work the next day, my colleagues were all talking about me going HAM on my sandwich.

Ben Armson

After the initial shock and comments of me being a psychopath, there were a lot of questions. People seemed genuinely intrigued (as well as little scared) as to my reasoning.

I decided that instead of trying to argue my case, I would let the fists do the talking and get everyone to punch and taste their own sandwiches.

Ben Armson

The taste test rules:

1. Everyone will make two versions of the same sandwich.

2. Everyone will first take a bite of the regular sandwich.

3. They will the proceed to punch the second sandwich and then eat the punched sandwich.

4. They will then compare the sandwiches to see if the punched sandwich is in fact tastier.

Disclaimer: This test is not about the quality of the actual sandwich. It is about comparing the two sandwiches: unpunched vs punched.

First up was Josie, and it wasn't good news.

Ben Armson

As you can probably tell from my reaction, Josie did not think the punched sandwich tasted better. I'll be honest: I was livid, I was confused, I didn't know what to think. Was I really just a weirdo? Does punching your sandwich really not affect the flavour?

Josie did have some interesting points though.

"Unfortunately for Ben, I didn’t see much of a difference. I think using the ends of the loaf was a bit of a mistake, since the bread seemed to bounce back to its original thickness pretty quickly."

All was not lost. I still had Ayesha and Hanifah to try the punched sandwich...

Ben Armson

A lot was riding on these two. Not gonna lie — I was pretty nervous.

...and as I predicted, THE PUNCHED SANDWICH TASTED BETTER!

Ben Armson

You heard it right! Both Ayesha and Hanifah felt the punched sandwich tasted better than the unpunched. Here's what they thought:

"This meal has it all: an enjoyable activity that allows for some stress relief, but a tasty sandwich to eat afterwards. Skeptics, I implore you to try this for yourselves." —Ayesha

"SO MUCH BETTER! Who knew that beating up a cheese sandwich would make it taste so good. Adding crisps is the cherry on top of a punched sandwich. Moving forward, I’ll be sure to punch all my sandwiches." —Hanifah

There was one more test to come. A wild card, if you will...

Ben Armson

Tristan, BuzzFeed's resident Tasty producer, was very keen on the idea of eating a punched egg-mayo sandwich. Although I highly recommended against this, he was pretty insistent, so I let him get on with it.

And lo and behold, even the squishy egg mayo sandwich was a punched success!

Ben Armson

"It just felt right," said Tristan.