To think that a supermarket's "own brand" stuff shouldn't be crap?

[gail734]

Basically I'm here to "name and shame" one product and to ask for your similar experiences. I grew up near a Safeway store and my mum often bought their own brand stuff. When presented with Heinz baked beans, my brothers thought they tasted funny!
Last weekend I bought Tesco's version of a Magnum (choc ice on a stick) lolly. It's called Chocolatino, three for £1. Literally inedible Weirdly chalky and went in the bin. I would have taken them back if I could work out the logistics of returning an ice lolly. Maybe I was BU to expect something decent at that price? Surely their own brand stuff should almost be a loss-leader, to get you into the store?

Holly
Sainsbury's make their own stuff, they have their own factories etc.
You may also be interested to know that in fact it's not identical. When making for someone else they tend to alter the ratio of ingredients slightly, making for a slightly different taste.

Heinz are all sauce now. Aldis are much nicer, I prefer lidl beans but dh doesn't like them.

Imo you get what you pay for. Things that are that cheap are going to be made of cheaper ingredients and inferior to the leading brands. nothing to do with the fact I'm a brand snob

General consensus here is ..
Sainsbury's own brand stuff is nice, except shitty red label tea.
Tesco's is generally ok.
ASDA is very hit and miss.
Morrisions is too far away to have had a representative sample.
Coop Moroccan humus is nice, Coop is too expensive to have a representative sample.

I really like sainsbugs Red Label tea and will buy it over Yorkshire Tea.

The dcs tell me that Morrisons own ketchup (19p) is divine.

Having taken part in numerous blind tastings over the years I can tell you that own brands are often mistaken for brand leaders and vice versa. "Value" products usually get higher results than you'd imagine, except for very very cheap cornflakes, which most people mistake for polystyrene filler.

I've done a test where Tesco cornflakes came out top on thickness, crunch and the ability to sit in milk for 1 minute without going soggy, whereas Kelloggs came out towards the bottom. Sainsburys Value were bottom.

Sainsburys, Tesco and Asda beans all beat Heinz on size of beans and taste of sauce.

Did some others too but can't remember details. Milk was one and Cola I think. Made me realise that branding is just marketing. It bears no relation to actual quality.

Co op range of ice cream was like an arts and crafts paste. I did take it back. I think for all those pounds we spend and are dissatisfied we are just lining their pockets. really resent it, though have bought pricier items and they've tasted awful.

I'm pretty sure it was Martin Lewis (money saving expert man) who suggested dropping down a brand level until you get to one you don't like then move back up one.

We tried this after I was made redundant and found we could save quite a bit on the weekly shop.

I agree though its a bit hit/miss with some.

Aldi's version of Magnums are lush. It is very hard to believe they aren't Magnums to the point where DH, DM and I are convinced they are made by the same people but packaged differently. They look and taste the same right down to the vanilla seeds in the icecream.

12 mini for £1.99 - bargain!!

I once bought DH a bottle of Texco Value Vodka instead of his usual stuff as a laugh (I giggled like a school girl all the way home ). He was less than impressed and said that it tasted like paint stripper. He used it all up though. Would have been wasteful not to, and presumably the mixers made it more bearable.. to me all vodka is paint strippery

Tesco, even..

Tesco is the epitome of over priced shite IMO, so yabu to expect any different...

I think a lot of it boils down to what you're used to. I only ever buy own brand/value food, can't stand the taste of most branded stuff, and I'm pretty sure it's because I got used to it when I was dirt poor and didn't have a choice! Can't really comment on ice cream though, I don't eat sweet stuff.

Waitrose own brand stuff is usually good. I usually buy their tins of ratatouille to use as a base for curries, pasta etc.

Asda Cocoa cream biscuits are gorgeous, beats a posh biscuit any day.

We get tesco beans and now find heinz baked beans too salty & sugary. Same with the cereals, Kellogs are too salty, sugary & expensive.

Came on here to recommend Aldi Magnum equivalents, but I see someone already has. Now I want one for breakfast....

My uncle works for the company who produces a lot of M&S meat and ready meals - a fair amount just gets packaged differently for another supermarket but the difference is just the packaging.

They also do some of the celebration cakes and so wedding cake features regularly at people's houses in place of a bourbon.

Dh likes Ireland's magnums, four for a £1. He didn't like morrisons magnums though.

We had those chocolatino things and liked them. The white ones and caramel ones were lovely.

At a production level I disagree that own brand products use cheaper ingredients than branded. For both food and chemical products.

Do not waste your time with Morisons white box, crunchy nut cornflakes, vomit inducing.

Usually I don't see a difference between supermarket brand and big brand, however value is another story. It just does taste cheaper, it's not even the fact it's because I know it's value either because once DH gave me something value in a meal without telling me and I just did not enjoy it. Just lacks flavour imo. Also I really can't eat own brand baked beans, they also lack flavour and taste cheap. I think the only thing value that is fine is the dried pasta, now that truly is all the same.

I think it's what you're used to. I've always been a picky person eater in general so even as a child if my mum tried giving us a cheap version of beans or fish fingers I didn't like it. I can't handle own brand fizzy drinks either, they truly are awful. Imo I think fizzy drinks are a treat anyway so it's better to pay the £2 (? don't drink it anymore) for a bottle of coca cola or pepsi once a fortnight or month than spend 70p or whatever a week on the cheap stuff. Just my humble opinion .

I have a relative who works in a butter factory, Tesco own brand butter is exactly the same block as Country Life butter, just different packaging.

I find tons of Aldi brands are much more lush than the branded alternatives.

I though you couldn't put a better bit of butter on your knife [ grin]