It’s Wednesday morning, which means the em-bean-go has lifted on Bush’s Apple Pie Baked Beans, Bush’s Dill Pickle Baked Beans and Bush’s Rocket Pop Baked Beans.
Yes, these flavors are real. And yes, Snackology agreed to embargo in order to cover them the day the news went live. This is serious journalism, folks.
Bush’s Baked Beans describes this launch as “dessert-inspired and pickle-obsessed, these unexpected flavors offer an unexpected twist to this classic cookout side dish, inviting fans to relive summer nostalgia one bite at a time.”
I’m all for adding some beans to my plate alongside a hot dog or two, but should those beans be flavored like apple pie or rocket pops?
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But putting these flavors into a can of beans feels different.
I was impressed at how well each can of beans mimicked their intended flavors in terms of how they smelled when I cranked each one open. Apple Pie is warm and cinnamon-y. Dill Pickle leans heavily on, well, the dill notes that have become strongly associated with pickle when it comes to the food as a flavoring. (This was the same with those Dill Pickle Oreos and a pickle beer that I’ll tell readers more about later this week.) And Rocket Pop absolutely nailed the smell of the melted remains of a patriotically hued frozen treat.
Taste-wise, all three flavors get pretty close.
The Apple Pie Baked Beans are probably the flavor that’s closest to one you’d eat at a picnic. As a Rochester native, I’m very familiar with the cinnamon-y meat sauce that’s a key component of a garbage plate. The idea of adding that warmth to baked beans isn’t that big of a stretch for me. The hint of apple at the end of each bite did throw me off a touch.
The fate of the Dill Pickle flavor is probably going to depend on how much you love dill — and whether you want that flavor mixed in with your baked beans.
And despite racking my brain to think of an occasion or food pairing that would suit the Rocket Pop flavor, I just couldn’t come up with one.
I’m giving the Bush’s Baked Beans summer flavors a Snack Score of 3.0 because while I don’t think I’d seek them out again, they do such a good job of capturing each flavor, they kind of have to be tried to be bean-lieved.
Snack Score
3.0
Out of 5
Bush’s Apple Pie Baked Beans, Dill Pickle Baked Beans and Rocket Pop Baked Beans
Bush’s Apple Pie Baked Beans, Bush’s Dill Pickle Baked Beans and Bush’s Rocket Pop Baked Beans were provided to Snackology for this independent review.
Snackology is a publication of The Omnicosm.
Issue No. 237
Snackology is written and produced by Bill Kuchman. Copyediting by Tim Kuchman.
The Omnicosm founder. Snackology, Popculturology and The Cold Open writer. A Rochester, N.Y., native now living in the Washington, D.C., area. Won’t pass up a Genny Cream Ale.
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