Such a bargain for can of baked beans! (Asda Smart Price Baked Beans)

Member Name: UK1981_female

Product:	Asda Smart Price Baked Beans
Date:	17/05/09 (97 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Low cost, great flavour

Disadvantages: No major ones

Many years ago when 'no frills' products first started making an appearance on our shelves, my family used to buy budget baked beans from most supermarkets where they were available. I remember that they used to cost as little as 9-15p at that time! However I got completely put off them when for whatever reason, every tin of budget baked beans we bought contained beans which were small, hard and dark. I decided I would eat nothing but Branston baked beans (as soon as they came on the market) as I knew I would be guaranteed a great tin of beans each time. However recently the price of Branston's beans has been extortionate, and I felt that after all these years it was time to give budget baked beans another go, maybe things had changed.

I was not disappointed by the Smart Price baked beans sold at Asda. They cost me 29p per tin for a 420g can. Therefore in terms of the price I was very happy as it means a big saving for me, an avid baked bean lover.

In terms of visual appearance the packaging is nothing special although the design has changed somewhat from the picture that DooYoo displays above. Instead of the white and orange theme, the smart price colours are green and white and are generally still very basic, but that's what this is supposed to be, a basic budget product.

The most important thing to me is the taste as like I said, I do love my baked beans. Now Branston's baked beans are my absolute and to be honest I wasn't expecting these smart price beans to be as good as Branston's but I was hoping for something decent. When I opened the tin, the first thing I noticed was that the colour of the sauce was nice, a creamy, tomatoey colour that looked just like regular tomato sauce that baked beans should come in. The smell of this was also nice, they smelt like regular baked beans! I was happy so far.

In terms of the consistency, I did notice that the sauce-to-beans ratio was a little higher than I would find in a typical can of Branston's baked beans. This may not bother a lot of people who like their beans a little more 'saucy' however as the taste of the sauce was just fine and did not lack anything in terms of flavour. For me though I tend to be a bigger fan of dry foods, than wet ones and therefore I would have liked to have seen more beans in the tin. But on the whole this was probably the only negative thing I felt about these beans.

To conclude I would say that these baked beans are worth a 4/5 because they are excellent value as they are one of the cheapest baked beans on the shelves, they taste very good and not too different from what I would say is the leading brand, and they look and smell delicious. They have a slightly more saucy consistency than Branston's baked beans but I don't think most would mind as there seems to be no compromise on the flavour.

Summary: Try these.