Much like with baked beans and tomato ketchup, Heinz is undeniably the brand everyone thinks of when it comes to spaghetti hoops. And four 24 years, they’re the only one’s I’d eat.
But as the prices of practically everything continues to rise, we’ve been looking at cheaper alternatives to big name brands to help you shave a few pence off your weekly food shop, without compromising on quality and flavour.
Anyone with kids will know how handy having a tin of spaghetti hoops in the back of the cupboard is when a quick and easy tea is needed - but is there a supermarket brand out there that’s worth swapping Heinz out for?
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I visited Morrisons, Sainsbury’s, Asda, Tesco, Aldi and M&S to pick up each of their cheapest own brand spaghetti hoops and the winner wasn’t Aldi or M&S.
To decide on a winner, I took a number of factors into account, including price, texture and, most importantly, taste. And here’s what I found.
Price and size
After checking a few different supermarkets I found that a tall tin of Heinz Spaghetti Hoops costs approximately 85p. In general, supermarket own brands are half the price, some even six times cheaper than the big name brand.
The cheapest brands I found were Aldi’s Everyday Essentials and Morrisons Savers, both coming in at 13p. Sainsbury’s, Tesco and M&S were all priced at 40p, while Asda was slightly cheaper at 38p a tin.
And while all the tins look the same size, they do vary up to 15g in weight, with Asda coming in lightest at 395g, Sainsbury’s at 400g, followed by M&S, Aldi, Tesco and Morrisons with heavier 410g tins.
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Appearance and texture
Speaking of tins, I noticed that Morrisons and Aldi’s tins had no ring pull, meaning I had to dig the tin opener out of the back of the kitchen drawer. In fact, it’s probably the first time I’ve ever had to use a tin opener to open anything, as most things come with the handy rings.
I laid out six bowls to pour a small amount of spaghetti hoops, loops, or rings into - each brand has opted for slightly different names for their own versions.
Morrisons was the first to be poured, and seemed to offer a good pasta to sauce ratio, perfect for dunking toast into. Sainsbury’s sauce was slightly runnier, but not nearly as thin and watery as Aldi’s.
Tesco and Asda were on par with each other in terms of texture, with a thick sauce and decent amount of pasta, though Tesco’s pasta looked slightly chunkier, while Asda’s sauce appeared richer in colour.
They say you eat with your eyes, first, and for me M&S’s tin was off-putting before I’d even put the bowl in the microwave. I pulled back the lid and tipped the tin upside down and nothing but water ran out. I heard a suction noise and noticed that the spaghetti hoops were all in one big lump and needed breaking up. The tomato sauce was extremely thick and jelly like, which I only hoped would look better after a spin in the microwave.
Taste and verdict
Taste was the absolute deal breaker for this one, because Lord knows that children under 10 know when they’re not Heinz. Morrisons’ offering was pretty bland with no real tang or tomato flavour, however Sainsbury’s were better, but not quite ‘there’.
With spaghetti hoops, because the pasta itself is so flavourless, you really need that tomato taste to come through in the sauce, otherwise it’s just sad pasta loops on bread.
M&S’s hoops looked better after a blast in the microwave but were still thick and stodgy, and quite hard work to eat, but they were nowhere near as foul as Aldi’s, which had an offensively metallic aftertaste.
Tesco’s offering was pretty good in terms of flavour, with thick pasta pieces for a substantial meal. But it was Asda that took the top spot with a rich, tangy and tasty tomato sauce. For 38p, these were the real winner for me, and while they haven’t got a patch on Heinz, they were the best cheaper alternative from the supermarkets by far.
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