Product Review: Heinz Five Beanz – New, Tomatoey and Good For You?

Okay, bean lovers of the UK, have you seen this new Heinz product? (Yeah, you're probably jumping around in your seats with excitement over it! Um...) I guess if you just read the label you have a pretty good idea: it's basically baked beans, but not with the usual haricot beans involved, or not just them. No! It has a mix of five different beans! (Don't say I held back with the shock news there.) These being, or bean... haricot beans, pinto beans, canellini beans, borlotti beans and red kidney beans.

So: is this new adaptation a vast improvement upon an old classic culinary staple? Well, in terms of tastiness, I'd give it a three point five out of five. It's good. It's an improvement, even. There's something about the texture and variety and wider range of flavours that's just... more better. I can't put it better than that. How much better? Well, this exciting new product is currently on offer (in order to lure in new buyers and get 'em hooked before the price jumps up, I don't doubt.) So at the current price point – barely above that of a regular ol' can of Heinz beans – then I'd say it's well worth it.

How about when they bump the price up, as they inevitably must, though? Well, I suppose it depends on how high exactly they decide to pitch it. Although the Five Beans experience is rather nice, I really wouldn't say it's quid-a-tin nice. So, the game is yours to win or lose, Heinz, boys! Still, when you think about it, it's not as if most of us actually live on a baked bean diet or anything! (And it's probably not a tootin' good idea.) It's just a case of pushing the boat out every now and then!

What about the nutritional aspect? I kind of assume that the wider mix of nutrients in a variety of beans, rather than the mono-haricot baked beans, gives them an edge. Even if it doesn't amount to a complete protein, it must surely still be closer than the regular old greeny-blue tins. (The Heinz website, however, is rather careful to make no claims regarding them providing an actual complete protein.¹) I'll still be having a grain in the form of toast, then, with my baked beans, in search of the complete protein that's so important for vegans and vegetarians!

1. Heinz, 'What's New?', www.heinz.co.uk, 11/08/2012. Available at http://www.heinz.co.uk/ourfood/beans/whatsnew. Accessed on 11/08/2012.