Review: Baked Beans
How do you like your beans? Basic or with a little pizazz? This is the first time I've used the word pizazz.
I’ve never really had a strong opinion about baked beans because I’ve only ever used them to serve a simple purpose; to enhance another meal or to be poured liberally over (well done) buttered toast for a satisfying, comforting hit. There was a time I had a sandwich maker, which I regularly used to make baked bean toasties with, which apart from the piping hot pocket of air that engulfed my mouth each time I took that first bite, something I never learned my lesson from, they were one of my favourite sandwiches. Plus protein and fibre etc.
A full English breakfast is great because of the sum of its parts. Much like a roast dinner. Baked beans are vital and while I occasionally make my own (if I have the time and inclination), if I’m buying a tin I don’t want it to overpower the other items on the plate, they need to be uninteresting enough so all the elements complement each other harmoniously. The rare time I enjoy a deviation is when I’m eating out and the flavour of the beans is clearly listed on the menu so I’m prepared for my tastebuds to be tantalised (the best restaurant baked beans I’ve had were at a plant-based cafe in Belfast which I can’t remember the name of). Others may disagree, preferring a more exhilarating flavour, something with a little more pizazz. But I want unremarkable beans that shut up, keep quiet and make my food wet.
My thoughts…
Sainsburys
Cost: 43p
Sugar/Salt per 1/2 can: 8.5g/1.05g
Thoughts: A substantial layer of juice was covering the beans so I was apprehensive and for that my expectations were low. Being the first tin I tried they were pretty non-descript and almost immediately after trying I’d forgotten them. Perfect.
Rating: 3/5
Would I buy it again?: Yes. These were cheap, the beans were soft, the sauce familiar and they were adequately unremarkable.
Aldi (Bramwells)
Cost: 45p
Sugar/Salt per 1/2 can: 9.8g/1.1g
Thoughts: The sauce was thicker than expected which momentarily put me off and lots of the beans had split which was marginally disappointing. The sugar was also the highest of the tins I tried but for 45p I still ate them.
Rating: 3/5
Would I buy it again?: What it costs in petrol/bus fare/leg exertion for me to get to Aldi it wouldn’t be worth it, but if I lived next door? Absoloutely, they taste fine.
Co-op
Cost: 49p
Sugar/Salt per 1/2 can: 8.3g/0.95g
Thoughts: The Co-op should feature more in my life as they have some great produce. The beans were firmer than I anticipated which took me a moment to get used to but the flavour was well balanced enough for me not to complain.
Rating: 3/5
Would I buy it again?: I would. They were perfectly inoffensive.
M&S
Cost: 50p
Sugar/Salt per 1/2 can: 8.2g/ 1.06g
Thoughts: I couldn’t see any beans for all the surprisingly watery sauce that hadn’t bothered me until now, despite buying them weekly for over a year. When I did eventually find the beans after wading ¼ of the way through the tin, I realised they were saltier than I’d noticed before and of the others I’d tried so far.
Rating: 2/5
Would I buy it again?: I buy these beans as part of my weekly Ocado shop and was thrilled to find another staple in M&S so cheap. So much so I was convinced, naively, that they would’ve been some of the best on the market. They are not. But will I buy them again? Probably, yes. They’re 45p and serve their purpose perfectly well, despite being loose. Â
Waitrose Essential
Cost: 55p
Sugar/Salt per 1/2 can: 8.7g/0.92g
Thoughts: You could use the sauce to seal cracks in walls it is so thick And the beans were so hard you could use them as weapons. I hated them.
Rating: 0/5
Would I buy it again?: No.
Branston
Cost: 90p
Salt/Sugar per 1/2 can: 9.6g/1.24g
Thoughts: The second highest sugar and joint highest salt content. Not that it did anything for the overwhelmingly acidic tomato sauce which distracted me from how thick it was. I found these beans exhausting.
Rating: 1/5
Would I buy it again?: Not if you paid me.
Sainsbury’s Organic
Cost: £1
Sugar/Salt per 1/2 can: 9.5g/0.93g
Thoughts: There was a time when I worked full time, had disposable income and no dependents (dog included), that of the food I bought, as much of it as I could justify was organic. In a desperate attempt to heal my body I became obsessive in my quest to remove as many toxins from my life as possible. And that included thing in tins. I can confirm, dear reader, that in my opinion organic baked beans are unnecessary and did nothing to cure me from my endless agony. That being said, I do really like these. Although there is a lot of sugar I thought the flavour was deliciously familiar and they didn’t elicit any extreme reaction. I suppose the fact they were organic is a bonus but because of that come at a higher cost.
Rating: 4/5
Would I buy it again?: Yes. Pricier than some but delicious.
Heinz
Cost: £1.40
Sugar/Salt per 1/2 can: 8.9g/1.3g
Thoughts: The benchmark for all beans, or so we’re lead to believe thanks to their unforgettable branding, numerous variations, clever marketing team and high advertising spend. Despite this I couldn’t tell you the last time I bought Heinz and have no regrets. The audacity to think their beans are so special that £1.40 is an appropriate price to pay for a staple you can get for less than a third of the price that tastes just a good is beyond me. The fact they come in so many variations make me wonder who buys ‘vindaloo’, ‘jalfrezi’ or creamy ‘tikka’ beans with a straight face. Let alone how authentic those flavours actually are. Do the straight up beans taste good? Yes. Are they better than the rest? No. Â
Rating: 1/5 purely for the audacity.
Would I buy it again?: Heinz can shove their little snap pots, ‘no added sugar’, vegan/non sausage, organic, peri peri, generic curry flavoured tins and their fridge pack where the sun don’t shine. No.
Incidentally I found this amazing woman on Instagram after I wrote this rant and she confirmed how I feel.
Mr Organic
Cost: An eye-watering £1.65
Sugar/Salt per 1/2 can: 7.6g/1.38g
Thoughts: I very much wanted to enjoy these beans as I really like the brand but this tin has the aforementioned pizazz that I don’t care for. They were very spicy, though which spices I will always wonder as they aren’t listed. I want to know that my beans are going to be a subtle variation of the standard flavour and if not I’d like that to be stated clearly. Others may have a more adventurous palate for beans and appreciate these more than I did.
Rating: 2/5
Would I buy it again?: These baked beans put me off baked beans for a solid 24hours so sadly, no.Â
To summarise;
I think it’s clear that my baked bean tastes are simple. Not only do I want my beans to be nostalgic, these days I’m conscious and grateful for the fact that half a tin of beans is also around 9g of protein. (Less for M&S 😒). With the majority of these tins you can’t go wrong in flavour. Aldi, Sainsbury’s (both standard and organic) and the co-op are FINE. I’ll even keep buying the M&S ones because they are adequate. The majority of the beans were relatively transparent with their ingredients, listing the spices included, though some just state ‘flavourings’. Unsurprisingly Heinz don’t list which they use, only claiming ‘spice herb extract’ presumably for fear that other brands will be able to recreate the similar flavour that they have successfully been doing anyway for a long time and at a fraction of the price.
Two other brands that people have mentioned but that I didn’t manage to get my hands on are Suma and Biona. Both more expensive and I’m suspecting offer even more pizazz than Mr Organic.  Also shout out to Tesco who do an unremarkable and perfectly acceptable tin for 50p that I forgot to officially review.
What brand is your favourite and are there any others I’ve missed?