To bean or not to bean?

It is Monday morning and I was wrecking my head with what to write for this week’s column. I always try to stay positive (unless I am ranting about something) and spread a few smiles along the way. But with Level 3 restrictions affecting a lot of my friends, it is hard. Thankfully, most of the restaurants and food pubs are able to provide takeaway but let’s face it, it’s not the same. And just when I thought my muse left me completely, in arrives an email from a marketing company (nothing special about that, I get loads of them) on behalf of Heinz (the ketchup and brown sauce one). It seems that Heinz is doing something different for its fans by offering to buy directly from the company and get cans of beans and tomato soup delivered to the door.

The email assured me that the company is still prioritising to supply supermarkets but it’s just in case you have troubles getting to the shop, implying that we can all live off bakes beans (or beanz as they spell it now) alone.

Don’t get me wrong, I like Heinz baked beans, nothing better on a slice of buttered toast (top it with a slice of cheddar and pop it under the grill – the best lazy Sunday morning breakfast) and some people will definitely love the idea of ordering online.

You can order different packages, the Essential Bundle is available for €12 and consists of eight cans of baked beans, four cans of tomato soup and four cans of Hoops (for anyone not familiar it’s pasta in form of hoops in a tomato sauce). Delivery costs are €3 which is very reasonable.

Doing a lazy research here, I checked Tesco’s online grocery shop (who also delivers your entire grocery shopping for €5) to see how the price stands up. Dividing €12 by 16 cans (I told you, it’s lazy research) the average price per can in the bundle is €1.33. A can of Heinz soup in Tesco is €1.45 (point for Heinz) but a can of baked beans is €1.04 (point for Tesco), same for the hoops.

Go for it if you are a Heinz fan, I have never ordered food online but will do in a few days as I am out of the excellent chilli ketchup by Chef Sham sauces. I will give ordering from Heinz online a skip as I am trying to support my local supermarket as much as I can.

Saying that, I haven’t had baked beans in a long time (I am in a muesli mood at the moment) and reading and writing about it gives me the munchies for it. While growing up in Germany, brown sauce or baked beans was not heard of and one reason we never flew to England but drove for almost two days was because of the boot of the car that was being filled with goodies.

On the way to England it was filled with German beer and on the way back it was filled with Heinz brown sauce and beans, Weetabix, cockles and so much more.

My dad loves his chips with brown sauce, something I never warmed to. If you would like to order from Heinz go to heinztohome.ie.