Not Heinz, Not Bush's: This Is The Best Baked Beans Brand According To Brits

If there's anyone we trust with recommendations for baked beans, it would be the Brits. We may poke fun of them for their food, which is known as boring and bland (for reasons both fair and unfair), but anybody who likes beans on toast in the morning should be considered at least a moderately trustworthy source when it comes to saucy legumes. That's why it's worth noting that, when the question of the best brand of baked beans was raised on the r/AskUK Reddit thread, the answer was nearly unanimous: Branston.

"Branston are miles above everything, case closed," said one Redditor. Another commenter elaborated a bit on what makes Branston so special. "The sauce is just so much better seasoning-wise," they said, before going on to praise their structural integrity. Heinz, incidentally, came out as the biggest loser from that post. 

Some Redditors had praise for Marks & Spencer-branded baked beans. "Like many I'd changed from Heinz to Branston, saw a post on here about M&S beans being great so tried them and they've now replaced Branston in the cupboard, and less than half the price too!" shared a fan of these store-brand beans. Others called out the great value of Waitrose Essential, but virtually no one had a kind word to say about Heinz. "So sweet, watery, and an alarming colour," said one person.

Just as Heinz started life as a condiment company before getting into baked beans, Branston didn't sell beans when it was founded in 1922. Its signature product was (and remains) Branston Pickle, a sweet-and-savory vegetable chutney that's a popular addition to sandwiches all across the United Kingdom (including the ploughman's lunch, an age-old British tradition that was actually made up). 

Heinz was the one that actually introduced baked beans to Britain, localizing its recipe to make it less sweet for the British palate. Branston only got in on the bean game in 2005, by which point Heinz was the undisputed market leader. Branston's initial campaign was aggressive in challenging Heinz, touting a blind taste test that showed Branston beating the bean champion the majority of the time. It was undoubtedly a success: Branston became a serious competitor to Heinz, and Heinz went ahead and modified its recipe. The timing was suspicious, but Heinz claimed the change was unrelated.