10 Bush's Baked Beans Varieties Ranked

Baked beans have achieved a status among side dishes that its contemporaries can only dream of. Favored by barbecue pitmasters, fried chicken aficionados, and fans of a full English or Irish breakfast alike, the humble can of baked beans is full of possibilities. As far as American brands of baked beans go, most of us will agree that Bush's Baked Beans are the ones we reach for when looking for the perfect convenient complement to our weekday meals.

Bush's has been in business since 1908, though it didn't start moving beans by the ton until 1969. With an ad campaign that featured Jay Bush, great-grandson of company founder A.J. Bush, and his golden retriever Duke, Bush's Baked Beans became a legend in TV spots.

Not only have Bush's Baked Beans remained a pantry staple for today's home cooks, but the brand has gotten a little creative with its variety. Its main roster of flavors has remained constant over the years, but it's not uncommon to see the brand get creative. To determine which version of Bush's Baked Beans is the best, I visited my local grocery store to pick up all the available versions, and here is my overall ranking.

As bad as this experience was, Bush's Baked Beans was a product that really understood the assignment. In a perhaps misguided attempt to merge Bush's Baked Beans with the iconic American apple pie, the result is a taste that's a little too accurate for the side dish.

From the first bite, the flavors of cinnamon and even apple were present. On one hand, you have to respect the mad scientists in the Bush's Baked Beans test kitchens for completely nailing that flavor combo. On the other hand, however, it's really hard to convince your brain that baked beans should taste like apple pie. Each bite is a jarring exercise in self-deception, as your eyes and tongue are at odds.

Perhaps the biggest flaw in this variation is that apple pie is not — and has never been — an acceptable side dish for the main course at a barbecue. Likewise, baked beans are not an acceptable dessert either. At the end of the day, Bush's putting out apple pie baked beans makes me think of Dr. Ian Malcolm from "Jurassic Park" — they were so preoccupied with whether they could, they didn't stop to think whether they should.

I am a huge fan of anything pickled, fermented, or otherwise preserved in flavorful juices. I am also a fan of pairing pickles with foods like pizza, brisket or pulled pork. That said, I was optimistic about trying baked beans with dill pickle flavoring. While I wasn't as offended by these as I was by the apple pie variation, this version was still quite an affront to the senses.

The dill pickle sauce had a greenish hue that was quite unappetizing — I knew it was part of the pickle vibe, but it didn't do the visuals any favors. Upon tasting the beans, a pickle flavor was present, but it leaned toward the sweet side of the pickle spectrum. Additionally, Bush's baked beans are known for having a robust flavor on their own, but I was really hoping that would be toned down in this variation. Unfortunately, the end result here is a slightly vinegary version of Bush's Original Baked Beans, which is just as bad as it sounds.

Kudos to Bush's for creating a version of baked beans that can be enjoyed by those with dietary restrictions, but the truth is that sucralose simply can't compete with brown sugar for flavor. I thought that the sweetness overwhelmed all the other flavors to the point where the beans just tasted a bit like Diet Shasta.

Outside of the flavor, everything else about this variation of Bush's Baked Beans works. The color is appealing, the navy beans are tender, and it works well as a low-calorie side dish. I could see this version becoming a bit more palatable the more you eat them, in the same way that diet soda does, but in this lineup, Zero Sugar Added beans don't quite make the cut.

Ever since their inception, Bush's Baked Beans have had a very important relationship with bacon. The smoky, salty flavors of sliced bacon help balance the beans' sweetness, and it's hard not to get excited when your spoonful of beans comes with its own little morsel of bacon. So, it makes sense that the brand would dabble in the maple-bacon flavor combo.

On paper, this seems like it would be a home run. Bush's does brown sugar and bacon well enough in its other variations, so you'd think that adding maple to the party would only enhance the mixture. I was disappointed, however, to find that the maple flavor was a bit too artificial for my taste. It was so distracting, in fact, that I couldn't really find the bacon. I could see a world where this combination could work, but the maple flavor in this version needs a serious reevaluation.

The Bush brand has successfully established itself as a friend to America's grills and fire pits, so exploring different smoke flavors makes sense. Hickory is among the most popular woods for smoking because of its strong flavor profile and economical price tag, both of which make sense for a mass-produced item like Bush's Baked Beans. While I could appreciate the concept of combining brown sugar and hickory, the balance here was a bit skewed toward the smoky flavors.

I know Bush's doesn't use liquid smoke in its baked beans, but there was an artificial undertone to the flavors that was hard to ignore. Since the smoke flavor was so pronounced, it made it difficult to pick up on the brown sugar sweetness. I could see this variation being popular with other smoked mains whose flavors might even out the beans' hickory notes, but it's not the best choice for your basic weekend meal.

Bush's Country Style Baked Beans are billed as thicker, richer, and sweeter than the brand's Original Baked Beans, but I didn't find them to be exactly that. While I did notice a slight difference in flavor and texture, there wasn't much that separated this version from the Original. While I struggled to discern any distinguishing factors in Country Style Beans, I did appreciate that they tasted better than several other bean varieties on the list.

Much like the Original Baked Beans, there was a good balance between sweet and smoky. Texturally, the sauce had a bit more body than the Original, which I liked — maybe that's where the country started to come through. My final verdict on these is that they are in the upper tier of Bush's Baked Beans, but they don't really bring anything unique to the table.

At some point, you have to wonder if the Bush's team was simply trying to pursue every possible avenue when it came to sweetening their beans. Thus far, we've seen brown sugar, regular sugar, maple, and sucralose sweeten things up, so it was only a matter of time before we came across a honey version. The Honey Sweet variation cracks the top five because it tastes like a sweeter version of the original recipe, which isn't necessarily a bad thing.

The reason Honey Sweet isn't higher on the list is the taste. Sure, there is sweetness aplenty in this can of beans, but I failed to detect any actual honey flavor. It's a shame, since the idea of adding honey to the original baked beans formula sounds quite nice — it works wonders for canned corn, after all. When given the choice between Bush's Honey Sweet and Original Baked Beans, I'd suggest sticking with the latter.

My biggest gripe with Honey Sweet is that the sweetness tends to compound with each bite. While there's nothing wrong with all that sweetness — especially when you're pairing them with a more savory main course — a bit of flavor variation is always welcome. That's exactly what Bush's Sweet Heat Baked Beans provide. They maintain the brand's signature brown sugar sweetness, but a surprising amount of spiciness in each bite keeps the flavor from becoming one-note.

Given the popularity of creative uses for hot honey in dishes, the combination of sweet and heat is a good bet for Bush's Baked Beans. I was admittedly impressed with how spicy this version of beans was. It's the kind of heat that builds upon itself with each bite, which contrasted nicely with the sauce's signature sweetness. As I'm also someone who likes a bit of spicy kick with his barbecue, I would definitely pick these up again for a side dish that packed a little punch.

It's tough to beat Bush's Original Baked Beans — a recipe refined over nearly 60 years. While Bush's has expanded its lineup with plenty of new flavors and variations, the original has remained remarkably consistent, becoming a staple in American pantries. The brand's success may start with its sweet, brown sugar-forward flavor, but it's the nostalgia and reliability of the original recipe that keep us coming back.

Beyond the sweetness of the sauce, the navy beans are always cooked to the right texture. Canned beans don't always strike that balance, but every Bush's variety I tried for this ranking had a pleasing consistency. They're soft, but never mushy or mealy. Despite the flaws in some of Bush's flavor offerings, that consistency is worth a lot.

Every time I gather my subjects for a ranking, I can't help but guess which of them will be on the high or low end of my overall assessment. In this case, I had pegged the Vegetarian Baked Beans at dead last. I was definitely shocked when they ended up being the best of the bunch. It's time to rethink my biases when it comes to foods labeled as vegetarian or vegan, I guess.

Throughout the entire ranking, I've maintained the gripe that Bush's Baked Beans were too sweet. After trying the Vegetarian Baked Beans, however, I realized that it wasn't so much the sweetness but the smokiness in the others that was bothering me. As difficult as it is to say this, the smoky bacon element may have been the problem all along. I'm not quite sure how this worked, but I could taste more tomato flavor in this variation, which balanced the sugary sweetness. In a surprising turn of events, Bush's Vegetarian Baked Beans will be the ones that I add to my shopping rotation.

It can be tricky to rank items that are so similar, but I did stick to my original methodology. My first criterion for ranking the different bean variations was overall flavor. Bush's Baked Beans share a similar flavor profile across varieties, but some flavor combinations worked better than others.

I also evaluated the options based on their balance between sweet and savory. Bush's Baked Beans lean into the sweetness, so varieties that showcased more balance were ranked higher on the list. Since baked beans are a quintessential side dish, I kept their spot on the dinner plate in mind when ranking them. I ranked each variation by how well it would pair with a main dish, and varieties that were more mindful of their supporting role ranked slightly higher than others.