Few canned foods are quite so versatile, healthy, or downright delicious as baked beans. Whether you’re planning on cooking up a British-style beans-on-toast breakfast, making a bean sandwich, looking for a simple side for a full-blown barbecue or cookout, or just want to stock up on hearty, non-perishable, and easy-to-make foods in case you can’t make it to the market, this is one item that no pantry should be without. To help you choose the best among the many varieties of baked beans on the market, in this article we’ll introduce you to our top 5 picks.
We reviewed dozens of baked beans to identify the best of the best. We examined a range of factors, including taste, ingredients, fat and sugar content, cost, and average customer reviews. All of these top-rated baked beans can be purchased online at Amazon.com.
Having considered a wide variety of options, we chose the B&M Original Baked Beans as our top pick. These beans are 99% fat free, rich in protein and fiber, sweetened with molasses and cane sugar, and slow-baked in brick ovens to make the beans wonderfully tender and bring out the deep flavors other cooking methods just don’t deliver.
The 5 Top-Rated Baked Beans
| Editor's Picks | Brand | Rating |
|---|---|---|
| Best Baked Beans Overall | B&M Original Baked Beans | 4.5 |
| Best Organic Baked Beans | BUSH'S BEST Organic Baked Beans | 4.5 |
| Best Budget Baked Beans | VAN CAMP'S Original Baked Beans | 3.7 |
| Best Unflavored Baked Beans | Grandma Brown’s Baked Beans | 4.5 |
| Best Vegetarian Baked Beans | B&M Vegetarian Baked Beans | 4.4 |
*Ratings are from Amazon at the time of publication and can change
Best Baked Beans Overall: B&M Original Baked Beans
Whether you’re looking for the perfect accompaniment to a family barbecue, or a hearty, filling, and nutritious stand-alone snack, B&M Original Baked Beans are the ideal pick.
These beans are made using a recipe perfected by makers B&M over 150 years ago and in accordance with the age-old, traditional New England method of slow-baking beans in brick ovens to maximize tenderness and bring out the best of the beans’ warm and robust pork and spice flavors.
Like most baked beans, the B&M Orginals are an excellent source of protein and fiber and very low in fat. These days, B&M is the only brand that uses the aforementioned traditional slow-cooking method, meaning they deliver far more in the way of flavor than any other beans out there and trump the best of the rest in the taste test by a large margin.
B&M Original Baked Beans Key Features:
- 16-ounce cans (pack of 12)
- 99% fat free
- High in protein and fiber
- Slow-backed in brick ovens
- Sweetened with molasses and cane sugar
- Pork and spice flavoring
Best Organic Baked Beans: BUSH’S BEST Organic Baked Beans
The BUSH’S BEST Organic Baked Beans are a great choice for buyers looking to stock their cupboards or pantry with a classic family comfort food that packs all the flavor and goodness of regular baked beans but is made without the use of man-made fertilisers, pesticides, growth regulators, or additives.
These organic navy beans are slow-cooked with fine brown sugar and a signature blend of spices that comebine to make them one of the tastiest non-perishable pantry-fillers out there. While the flavor profile in these beans is slightly different to Bush’s Best’s Classic Baked Beans, most buyers find them every bit as delicious as the originals, if not more so.
With zero grams of fat and only 220 calories per can, these beans are also among the best options out there for those keeping an eye on their weight. The ingredients used in these beans, moreover, are 100% organic, gluten, dairy, and casein-free, and also a great source of plant-based protein, fiber, and potassium.
BUSH’S BEST Organic Baked Beans Key Features:
- 100% organic
- 16-ounce cans (pack of 12)
- 7 grams of plant-based protein
- 5 grams of fiber
- Gluten-free
Best Budget Baked Beans: VAN CAMP’S Original Baked Beans
VAN CAMP’S Original Baked Beans are a great choice for buyers looking to stock their pantry with as much tasty, non-perishable, easy-to-prepare food as possible without breaking the bank.
This pack containes twelve 15-ounce cans of VAN CAMP’S Original Baked Beans, which are slow-cooked with brown sugar and a secret blend of seasonings, and are lightly garnished with pork to provide a uniquely sweet and tangy flavor profile that’s the ideal complement to the smokiness of grilled meats such as chicken breasts, hamburgers, cheeseburgers, pork chops, and even bratwurst.
As with the other items in our review, multiple cans of these baked beans can be heated up easily either on the stovetop or in the microwave to provide a hearty, low-fat, high-protein, and flavorsome feast for all the family.
VAN CAMP’S Original Baked Beans Key Features:
- 15-ounce cans (12 pack)
- Less than $1.50 per can
- 0 grams of trans fat
- 300 calories
- Sweet and tangy taste
- No preservatives of artificial flavors
Best Unflavored Baked Beans: Grandma Brown’s Baked Beans
If you’re loyal to hometown brands and a lover of simple but delicious flavors, Grandma Brown’s Baked Beans are an exellent choice of baked beans for your food cupboard.
Dubbed “The Pride of Mexico, Oswego County, NY”, these beans have something of a cult following on their home turf and are becoming ever more popular nationwide. And with good reason…
These baked beans don’t come in a host of different flavors but use a simple, wholesome recipe that let’s the flavor of the beans do the talking for itself. Whether served as a side dish to your proteins, eaten in a bean sandwich, or served up in a casserole next to your platters of grilled corn and barbequed meats, these beans offer a long-lasting and great-tasting meal option that is cholesterol-free, low in fat, high in fiber, gluten free, and a good source of potassium.
Grandma Brown’s Baked Beans Key Features:
- 54 ounces
- Low in fat
- Higher in fiber, potasstium, and protein
- Cholesterol-free
- Ingredients include navy beans, brown sugar, bacon, salt, and baking soda
Best Vegetarian Baked Beans: B&M Vegetarian Baked Beans
If you want all the flavor of original varities of baked beans without the meat content, the B&M Vegetarian Baked Beans are a great choice.
Like the Original B&M Baked Beans featured above, these beans are slow-cooked in rich sauces in large brick ovens, a method that helps to bring out all the beans’ flavors and makes them far more tender than the vast majority of their closest competitors.
These beans come in a 12-pack of 16-ounce cans, each of which provides 14 grams of protein and contains only 320 calories, 1 gram of fat, zero trans-fats, and 16 grams of dietary fiber, making them a very healthy, filling, and nutritious choice whether eaten as a side dish along with your main meal or as a stand-alone breakfast or lunch.
B&M Vegetarian Baked Beans Key Features:
- 16-ounce cans (12-pack)
- Vegetarian
- Zero trans fats
- 16 grams of dietary fiber
- 14 grams of protein
- Sweetened with molasses
If you’re in search of tasty, non-perishable foodstuffs to stock the shelves in your pantry with, these top-rated baked beans are a great choice. For more useful kitchen products, check out our reviews of the Best Electric Can Openers and the Best Pour Over Coffee Makers.
