Baked beans are a kitchen staple: quick and simple to prepare, affordable and, most importantly, they have lots of health benefits. Whether on toast, on a jacket potato or even on their own, they're an easy and nutritious everyday dinner and can be jazzed up with grated cheese or Worcestershire sauce.

I think it's fair to say that Heinz are the best-known brand of baked beans but they're far from the only option. Supermarkets do their own versions and Branston beans are widely available too. Baked beans are a staple in my kitchen like thousands of others. But I wanted to know which brand I should commit to. I decided to compare the two heavyweights to see if one was better than the other.

This is always the easiest comparison point to judge. On the day of testing, Branston baked beans were considerably cheaper than Heinz. A 410g tin of Branston baked beans cost 85p at Asda (that works out at £2.07/kg). A 415g tin of Heinz baked beans cost £1.38 at Asda (that works out as £3.33/kg).

If you buy them in a multi-pack of four, the Branston pack will cost you £3 (£1.83/kg) at Asda and the Heinz will cost you £3.50 (£2.11/kg).

Once the sauce at the top of the tins was poured off the Heinz tin appeared to be less full than the Branston tin. My instinctive reaction was that there was therefore more in the Branston tin but then I remembered that the Heinz tin was 5g heavier. so that assumption doesn't quite fit.

However, just on sight, the Branston tin appeared to have more beans and less sauce. When I poured each tin into a saucepan there seemed to be far more sauce in the Heinz beans and I worried this meant fewer beans despite the weight. I also thought the Branston beans had a slightly redder colour.

Ingredients matter. Most importantly, how natural the foods we eat are and how much has been chemically or industrially added or altered. The ingredients in the two tins are very similar but there are subtle differences. For example, the Branston tin is made up of 51% beans and 38% tomatoes, while the Heinz version has a slightly lower percentage of both (50% and 36% respectively).

Branston also contains two ingredients I would consider ultra-processed: modified maize starch and the vaguely-termed "flavourings". The Heinz beans contained modified cornflour, as well as "spice extracts" and "herb extracts". The rest of both tins was mainly made up of water, sugar, vinegar and salt.

The Branston beans came out on top here. I can't say there was a huge amount in it (I am comparing tins of baked beans, after all). But on balance, the Branston beans had marginally more flavour, though the Heinz beans might have been slightly sweeter. The Branston beans seemed to have a slightly thicker texture too (in a good way) - I wondered whether this was down to the fact there seemed to be more sauce in the Heinz tin.

For me, there is a clear winner here. Of course, it comes down to individual preference, but given the considerably cheaper price, the taste and texture I'll be sticking with Branston from now on.

After I'd done my own taste test, I looked around to see what others had said. In January, the consumer magazine Which? gathered 60 "baked bean enthusiasts" to judge several different brands of baked beans.

In this test, baked beans from the cut-price supermarkets Aldi and Lidl tied for top spot with an overall score of 77%. But Heinz came second in this test with a score of 76%. Branston came third with a score of 74%.

The testers said of Heinz: "These beans look just as baked beans should and the texture of the beans themselves, as well as the sauce, were enjoyed by most. Over half said sweetness levels were right. Their tomatoey flavour was also approved by most, though more than a third would prefer this to be stronger."

And they said the Branston beans "looked good, and the texture was another high point - the sauce was about the right thickness and the beans had a good level of bite, without being over-hard".

They added: "These beans achieved just over half marks for sweetness, with most other tasters wanting them a touch sweeter. Also, a stronger tomatoey flavour would have put them up there with the top scorers."