The Popular Canned Bean Brand That's Way Too Sweet For Our Liking

Sure, homemade beans will probably always be better than the store-bought version, but that won't stop us from purchasing the pantry staple anyway. A number of canned bean brands are high-quality, delicious, and have a great flavor balance. However, the overly sweet Bush's vegetarian baked beans is not one of them.

The best baked beans are a little sweet with an earthy, savory taste that grounds them. This can be seen in a number of canned bean brands, but Bush's vegetarian version of its famed baked beans misses the mark. The product is far too sugary, resembling a dessert rather than an appetizer or side. The beans are made with tomato puree and brown sugar, with turmeric, paprika, onion powder, and garlic powder rounding it out. However, the problem seemingly stems from the first two ingredients. Although they are standard baked beans components, tomato puree is already a little sweet on its own. Paired with an excessive amount of brown sugar, the beans become saccharine — one 28-ounce can contains a total of 78 grams of sugar.

It's not like all of the brand's creations are a total miss. Bush's Original Baked Beans is definitely one of the best canned baked beans around. It strikes the perfect balance between sweet and savory and finishes things off with a smoky taste. Not only is the amount of sugar less than the vegetarian version, but the bacon tempers the brown sugar. However, Bush's overwhelmingly sweet vegetarian beans definitely mars the brand's line of products.

If you still want to make use of canned beans that are too sweet, you can temper them with extra ingredients. Some canned beans, such as Bush's vegetarian baked beans, are made with vinegar to give it a more balanced taste. You can stir white vinegar into the can of beans or add a zesty hot sauce for a fiery kick. To stay in line with the barbecue flavor, go for vinegar-based South Carolina barbecue sauce; it's tangy, with a decent amount of earthiness thanks to black pepper, making it the perfect ingredient to ground saccharine beans.

Mustard powder is another common ingredient in baked beans, so you can add in mustard to increase the acidity. Opt for yellow mustard or Dijon and mix it into the beans well before heating them up. You can also mix the beans with plain canned beans, like navy or white beans, so they don't taste quite as sweet.

One thing that gives some canned baked beans a proportionate flavor is the addition of bacon. To keep it vegetarian, though, you can cook your beans with portobello mushrooms. These particular types of mushrooms have a rich, meaty flavor that helps to reduce the sugary taste of canned beans. Dice them up into bite-sized pieces and saute them until they soften, then add your beans into the pan and stir well.