[Lucy Lou]

Originally Posted by hornbeam

PG Tips

...ah yes I have got to have good tea too!

also Nescafe Gold Blend coffee - I cannot drink cheap coffee.

[petit-pois]

Heinz Tomato Soup
Yorkshire Tea teabags
Napolina chopped tomatoes (I was using Sainsbury's Basics for ages until I used this brand and discovered it was rich and thick and full of tomatoes, unlike Basics which seemed to be 90% juice!)
Coca-Cola
Quavers
Doritos Lighly Salted (own brands tend to pile on the salt)

That's all I can think of at the moment. I shop at Sainsbury's and mostly get their own branded stuff. Their baked beans are lovely. I've always hated Heinz! Asda's own-brand baked beans are foul beyond belief. I buy Basics chocolate digestives, cereal bars, taste fine to me. My parents are strictly brand names only and the cost of their weekly shopping is ridiculous!

[SeasideLady]

Heinz tomato ketchup and mayonnaise, HP brown sauce.
Aunt Bessies oven chips and Yorkshire puds ( for when I don't make my own )
Campbell's tomato soup
Marks & Spencer ready meal cannelloni and tuna crispbakes.

Chop and change with everything else really.

[evie71]

Heinz Ketchup/Salad Cream/Soup
Hellmans Mayo (full fat)
HP Brown Sauce
Colemans Mustard

Warburtons Bread/Crumpets

Birds Eye Battered Fish
Mcains Oven Chips
Birds Eye Peas

Bisto Gravy Granules
Knorr Stock Cubes
Branston Baked Beans/Spaghetti

Coke/Pepsi

Aerial Wash Powder

[Deviant Moxie]

Twinings teabags

Heinz Tomato sauce

Warburtons Bread

[Paulie Walnuts]

There's a lot of junk food going on in this thread, and it doesn't really show the British palate in a very good light compared to our continental cousins.

Why is there such an obsession with tomato ketchup & baked beans?

[Brady12]

Dolmio spag bol sauce
Uncle Ben's chilli sauce
Hp brown sauce
Heinz chicken soup
Coke/pepsi
PG Tips
Taylors coffee

[bazzaroo]

Anchor butter
Kellogs cornflakes
Weetabix
Kronenbourg
Heinz beans & tomato sauce
Findus lasagne

[jonnyinscotland]

Originally Posted by Paulie Walnuts

There's a lot of junk food going on in this thread, and it doesn't really show the British palate in a very good light compared to our continental cousins.

Why is there such an obsession with tomato ketchup & baked beans?

The question is which brands people 'must have'. Ketchup and baked beans are items people typically have loyalty towards a particular brand which is why they show up a lot.

[NewExample]

Lions Midget Gems (not awful Maynards - too chewy and not even midget gems, not liquorice.) Can only get them from proper sweet shops or market stalls and online now, Cadburys took the brand over
And why are you referring to things like 'HP Brown sauce' 'Bisto gravy granules' 'Lurpak butter' and someone else 'Doritos tortillas'?? Everyone knows what these are they are generic names it is a bit annoying and unnecessary.

[NewExample]

Originally Posted by Paulie Walnuts

There's a lot of junk food going on in this thread, and it doesn't really show the British palate in a very good light compared to our continental cousins.

Why is there such an obsession with tomato ketchup & baked beans?

It's hardly an 'obsession', they are things that are iconic and hard to replace with cheap versions. Besides they aren't unhealthy. And you think our 'continental cousins' wouldn't have any particular brands they prefer... people eat crap all over the continent. We eat porridge for breakfast, a continental breakfast is ham cheese and croissant, most unhealthy things you could eat in terms of saturated fat! It's stereotypical what i said, I know but just making a point lol.

[Lushness]

All of my items are branded. The only store brand item I buy sometimes is bread, and I tend to prefer the M&S ones.

[kochspostulates]

Vegemite vegemite
Coke zero from Coca cola
Cauldron's marinated tofu

[purplecatz]

Warburtons bread
Lancashire Tea teabags
Kenco coffee
Napolina tinned tomatoes - expensive, but I stock up when they are on offer

[Missli]

Colman's English Mustard
Whole Earth Organic Crunchy Peanut Butter
Clipper Fairtrade Organic Everyday Tea
Marmite
Marigold Swiss Vegetable Bouillon Powder

[bowland37]

Dolmio extra spicy spag bol sauce
Pataks madras curry paste

that's about it these days.

[davor]

Ristorante frozen Pizza

HP brown sauce

Lindt dark chocolate

McVites dark chocolate biscuits.

[XxBlaKOuTZxX]

Heinz soups/beans/spaghetti.
Warburtons bread
walkers crisps
Kenco coffee
Branston red/brown sauce

We do a big shop each week and all our items are big name brands and it shows in the total price. Our weekly shopping bill has risen around £30-£40 per week. On average, we spend around £140 and seem to have nothing to show for it.

[whoever,hey]

The only brand food i do is PG Tips.

Everything else just has to be homemade.

[junnja]

Originally Posted by curvybabes

Asda own Irn Bru is good to be honest id struggle to tell the difference, its the sugar free i buy in both

Lidl used to do a Diet irn bru made by Freeway. In the run up to Christmas they ditched it and only sold Barrs. I'm sure some of these huge companies can pay supermarkets money only to stock their items. I used to like Asdas own brand spreadable butter, Either normal or light. Haven't been able to get it for months. Lurpak, lurpak, lurpak. That's all. The shelves are full of it. As much as I like Lurpark. I won't be dictated to by the big companies. needless to say Lidl's are back to stocking another diet irn bru. Not Barrs or Freeway. And it's shit. Tastes like perfume. It's absolutely horrible. And my point is the Freeway diet irn bru was amazing. I couldn't tell the difference. And I'm something of a connoisseur. And I could buy 4 x 2 litre bottles, for the price 1 x Barrs. Grrr!!

As far as other branded items are concerned. I'm afraid budget dictates what I can buy. I won't just buy the cheapest. But neither can I afford the most expensive. Which IMO isn't always the best anyway.

However, if you like crumpets. OMG!! Warburtons are easily the best. If they don't have them, I don't bother. If you haven't tried them. I cannot recommend them enough. Mmm!!

[Fio Montoya]

Anchor butter, though I don't buy it often.
Coke. It's the real thing.
Branston small chunk pickle.
Coffee. I do buy Sainsbury's or Tesco's own brands as they aren't too bad, but prefer a named brand.
Tea. Same as with coffee. I do like Sainsbury's So Organic tea bags, but they are pricey nowadays.

Most other things I can easily do without named brands. I like Sainsbury's basics Tomato sauce, though it got slated recently. And their own brand beans (not basics) are really nice, as is their Spaghetti. Never buy branded pasta, too dear. I buy Sainsbury's olive spread too, though with the massive price hike they just gave it, I won't be for much longer. Jam or Honey, own brands are fine, though sometimes I'll go for a more expensive one as a treat. And the National Trust shop does this gorgeous Raspberry curd which I love, but at £3 a jar that's definitely a treat.

I do prefer to buy Hovis best of both or Kingsmill 50/50 bread, so that's another name brand. If I were buying wholemeal I'd buy an own brand, but my son refuses to eat it.

[Brady12]

Originally Posted by NewExample

Lions Midget Gems (not awful Maynards - too chewy and not even midget gems, not liquorice.) Can only get them from proper sweet shops or market stalls and online now, Cadburys took the brand over
And why are you referring to things like 'HP Brown sauce' 'Bisto gravy granules' 'Lurpak butter' and someone else 'Doritos tortillas'?? Everyone knows what these are they are generic names it is a bit annoying and unnecessary.

HP do at least one other sauce, Bisto also do ready meals, Doritos also do dips. Lurpak, you can have that one.

[Mrs de Winter]

Originally Posted by rumpleteazer

Diet Coke and Heinz Ketchup are the only things I won't budge on, everything else is up for negotiation.

I was going to post the exact same two items!

Also Twinings teabags - Earl Grey and English Breakfast

[tortfeasor]

Originally Posted by Chief_Wahoo

And do you buy any store,value,or 'like' brands for any items? Amongst my must have name brands are....

Lurpak spreadable butter
Colman's English mustard
Hellmans mayonnaise
HP brown sauce
Heinz baked beans/spaghetti
...

... Some of the store brands I find perfectly acceptable though.I regularly buy Morrisons value coloured cheddar cheese,Morrisons mixed fruit jam,and Morrisons value peanuts...

All of the above. I've tried other brands of tinned spaghetti and have hated them so it's Heinz all the way. I prefer Heinz baked beans, or beanz as they're now called, too.

Other must have brand food items for me are:

Marmite
Hartley's jelly with fruit
Knorr Ragu sauces
Kenco or other brands of coffee like Dowe Egbert (I've tried supermarket own-brand coffee and it is ok for one cup but it's horrid if you're drinking it for a week like we did at work for a while).
Diet Coke or Diet Pepsi
I always buy branded beers and spirits
Pukka herbal and fruit teas - their 3 mint is delicious


Warburtons or Kingsmill crumpets
Warburtons sliced bread
Birdseye Fish Fingers (don't eat them a lot but tried own-brand once and left my dinner that evening!)

I'm quite good for buying own-brands. Whenever I have sausages I always buy Tesco finest. The pork and caramelised red onion ones are my favourite. Own-brand cheese can be really nice too. The same goes for things like pickled onions though bizarrely I'm fussy when it comes to pickled red cabbage. I like Haywards, Heinz or Asda's own-brand pickled red cabbage.

I like own-brand fresh pizzas and fresh/chilled soups too. I prefer some of the flavours of the supermarket fresh soups to the similar ones by brands like New Covent Garden.

As for peanuts: I tried Tesco's own brand dry roasted peanuts a few years ago and have not gone back to KP or other brands. They taste better in my opinion. I'd buy their own brand peanut butter too - the crunchy one is very nice.

I've found that supermarket own brand crisps (the ones that look like they're rivalling Walkers Sensations) are nice as well. ASDA's own-brand crisps and tortilla chips are pretty good.

Tesco have also started upping their game with own-brand popcorn too. They offer so many different varieties but I read last year that popcorn has become a bit of a trendy snack again.

I used to buy Colman's mint sauce as well because I'm a fan of a lot of their condiments. However, more recently I've been buying Tesco's Everyday Value mint sauce. It's only about 24p and I was very impressed with the taste.

Finally own-brand 450g low-fat yoghurt pots are great.

Own-brand pasta, always but I always buy Tilda rice.

[tortfeasor]

Originally Posted by junnja

...
However, if you like crumpets. OMG!! Warburtons are easily the best. If they don't have them, I don't bother. If you haven't tried them. I cannot recommend them enough. Mmm!!

Just read your post after putting my choices. Funnily enough I put Warburtons crumpets down too. I can't recommend them enough either. They're easily worth the extra pennies if you like crumpets. This comes from somebody who used to eat crumpets as an after school snack every day and they would have always been a supermarket own-brand.