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+---
+lastmod: "2021-05-21T18:23:48.0000000+01:00"
+title: Product comparisons
+author: patrick
+layout: page
+---
+
+This page is an ongoing history of product comparisons, made informally but blindly.
+
+# Fig rolls
+
+Compared Boland with McVities, 2022-04-18.
+It was pretty obvious to me in the blind testing that the McVities ones were the big-brand ones, but Boland were much nicer.
+Tasted more of fig, and had less pastry around them.
+
+# Miso soup
+
+I'm still on a quest for the perfect miso soup; I remember one that was really great from my childhood, and I don't know which it was.
+
+Clearspring Organic Japanese Brown White miso soup is really insipid.
+Their "hearty red" tastes dark and kind of a bit unpleasant to me.
+Their "mellow white with tofu and green onions" seemed oddly vegetal on the first tasting, but on re-tasting seems good. One to compare with the others. Not mind-blowing.
+Their "instant miso soup with sea vegetables" is a bit darker than the "mellow white", also perfectly adequate; should taste-test against the others. Not mind-blowing.
+
+## Clearspring Organic White Miso Instant Soup Paste vs Itsu Miso'easy Traditional Miso
+
+These were quite different from each other.
+Itsu was powerful; Clearspring was subtle.
+Initially I thought that Itsu won by a country mile, but actually I could imagine a mood in which Clearspring wins; it's not totally clear cut.
+Itsu is still the victor.
+
+## Yutaka
+
+This was actually pretty good, though I didn't have it in a comparison with any other.
+I'll buy this again.
+
+# Houmous
+
+A standard useful thing to have around when you need calories.
+
+If you want to push the boat out, Natoora Spring Herb Houmous is very nice but rather expensive.
+
+## Ocado own-brand vs Tesco own-brand
+
+There's no contest here.
+Ocado tastes of tahini; Tesco is just a bit insipid.
+Ocado is the clear winner.
+
+# Baked beans
+
+Heinz beats Sainsbury's own brand by a country mile.
+It's not remotely close.
+Sainsbury's is sickly-sweet.
+
+Marks and Spencer beans are perfectly fine. I didn't try them side-by-side with Heinz, but I'd say they're just as good.
+
+# Meat replacements
+
+Beyond Burgers are pretty good, honestly, although they are much better when cooked correctly (i.e not overdone).
+Honest Burger on Tottenham Court Road did them well; Neat Burger also do them well.
+
+I was unable to tell the difference between Impossible (in Boston, 2020) and real meat.
+However, according to the person I was with, it was extremely obvious which was which.
+So your mileage probably will vary.
+
+# Tinned tuna
+
+Sainsbury's Taste the Difference Albacore tuna is really good: meaty chunks, not flakes.
+Similarly Waitrose own-brand tuna.
+
+Princes is clearly cheap and flaky.
+
+Marks and Spencer Tuna Steaks are somewhere in between - not as good as Waitrose or the Taste the Difference Sainsbury's, but much better than Princes.
+
+# Nutella
+
+The "cocoa" one is much less sweet, though I'm not sure I'd call the taste "chocolate" - it just tastes less nutty.
+I think I prefer the normal one.
+
+# Tinned tomatoes
+
+Marks and Spencer own-brand are, bizarrely, not very full of tomatoes. I tried making the Dishoom Chicken Ruby recipe with them and it took an extra tin again from when I made the same thing with Waitrose own-brand.