In a post a couple of days ago, I explained my love of the combination of potato chips and baked beans. This post is kind of the second half of that one, since I was trying both of these items at the same time.
Somewhere between 15 and 20 years ago, I made a mid-life switch of preferred baked beans. I had grown up with Van Camp's. But my wife preferred Bush's, specifically the vegetarian variety. For the sake of marital harmony, I tried them--and liked them even better than my old standbys. If we could have agreed on other things as easily as we did on beans, we might still be married. But that's kind of going off on a tangent....
Getting back to the matter at hand: I didn't like TJ's as much as I do Bush's. They're not bad. If all other baked beans in the world disappeared and I was stuck with TJ's forever, I would eat them almost as often as I do the Bush's now. Sure, I'd be a little nostalgic for Bush's, but I'd shrug my shoulders and get on with life, and with the bean-eating.
Put another way, they're second-tier stuff. Runners-up. Perfectly acceptable, just not the best. If I had to put my finger on what's not quite right about them, I'd guess that it's not enough molasses.
Incidentally, though they don't proclaim "vegetarian" or "vegan" up front, these beans are, in fact, vegan-friendly. They're on TJ's very long list of vegan products.
Will I buy it again?
Probably not unless something happens to the availability of Bush's.
I haven't had an opportunity to try these. But given Bob's description of them as "needing more molasses" my guess is I'd like them for being not to sweet.
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