What does your Baked Bean choice say about you?

So it's August and loads of people are on holiday or feeling the holiday spirit, especially with a heat wave promised. Something lighter to ponder then. A conversation about global baked bean popularity triggered my daughter to Google 'baked beans' which resulted in a torrent of facts! Then I brought it up at Bizmosis and it seems baked beans easily become a talking point.

Of course the big question is which do you choose? Do we all largely have a favourite and why? It turns out it is a very British thing! I shopped around town for some samples but these don't cover the full range of options. There are loads out there.

Looking around the internet the 'best' is a contentious issue, it seems we all have an opinion on the baked bean.

Ten facts about Baked Beans I found elsewhere.

1. The United Kingdom eats more cans of baked beans than the rest of the world combined.

2. In the UK we get through more than two million cans of baked beans every day. That's more than 730,000,000 per year!

3. They were originally called 'Baked Beans' because the can is first filled with blanched beans, then the sauce, then the can is sealed with a lid. The beans are cooked inside the sealed can.

4. Baked Beans were originally sold in the UK by Fortnum and Mason in 1901 as a luxury item. I've checked, there are no longer Baked Beans on the Fortnum & Mason website! Anyone think they should?

5. Apparently every individual bean is checked for colour and size before they are allowed into a can of Heinz Beanz. I wonder where the wrong colour and size end up!

6. The Heinz Wigan factory holds 36 hours’ worth of beans at any one time, and 60 days’ worth of stock is held at Liverpool docks, just in case bad weather stops beans from travelling over the Atlantic in ships.

7. Between 1941 and 1948, The Ministry of Food classified Heinz Baked Beans as an "essential food" as part of its wartime rationing system.

8. Baked beans are made using a type of haricot bean known as navy beans.

9. In 2014 and presumably meant as a joke, Labour peer Viscount Simon did ask in the House of Lords if 'smelly emissions' form the UK's high consumption of baked beans contributed to global warming! Now of course, I want to know!

10. Finally, with the UK being top of the tree for baked bean eating, who sits as the absolute elite? It's the people of Birmingham. Top level bean eaters in Birmingham.