There's a new baked bean on the block - and it's proving so popular we decided to put it to the test in a tasty bout with on old heavyweight.

A million housewives every day pick up a can of beans and say: "Beanz meanz... Branston". Branston? Yes, there's a new bean on the block. Branston beans, launched at the end of last year, are already taking a large share of the market - one in ten of all cans of beans sold in Britain.

So much so that Heinz, market leaders for over a century, are said to be thinking of changing their recipe.

Beans might be a cheap and cheerful supper for you, but they represent £230m a year for the manufacturers - which is probably why Branston were so pushy. At one stage around Christmas it seemed that everyone - including The Northern Echo - was giving Branston beans away. And once we'd tried them, it seems we were prepared to go out and pay money to eat them again.

But are they so very different?

We put Branston and Heinz head to head. And then set our testers trying some of the other beans on the shelves.

THE BIG MATCH

On our right, in the blue corner, Heinz, the daddy of them all, baking beans for over a century.

On our left, in the red corner, Branston, a cheeky newcomer.

Weight: Branston weighs in slightly heavier - 420g against Heinz 415g.

Price: Branston are cheaper - 41p against 44p for Heinz.

Ingredients: Branston has slightly more beans (50 per cent as against Heinz 49 per cent) and tomatoes (30 per cent against Heinz 27 per cent).

Colour: Branston are very red, Heinz more of a pinky red.

Taste: The deciding factor. To be honest, there wasn't a lot in it. Our testers tasted, tasted again, ummed and aahed. Said both varieties were clearly a quality product. But in the end, every single one came down, just, on the side of... Branston.

And as they are cheaper and you get more beans for your money, it's clear that The Champion Baked Bean is Branston, a newcomer that packs a knock out punch and could prove a real rival to Heinz.

WHILE we were full of beans, we tried a cross section of some of the many other baked beans on the shelves.

Most expensive: Heinz Organic 59p for 415g.

Cheapest: Sainsbury's Basics, Morrisons Bettabuy, Tesco Value: all 15p for 420g.

Most horrible: Tesco Value. Their greatest ingredient was water and it tasted like it. Weak, watery, very little flavour.

Best buys: probably Aldi and Lidl. At 17p and 16p, they are more expensive than the supermarkets' basic lines, but much better quality - comparable with the supermarket's own label range, selling at around 28p.

Healthy versions: Heinz Reduced Sugar and Salt and their Weightwatchers range (44p) weren't very nice.

Organic: Heinz (59p), Sainsbury's (55p) and Co-op (53p) were very good. But the price difference is a lot to pay for your principles.

OUR FAVOURITE: Turned out in the end to be neither Heinz nor Branston, but HP Healthy Baked Beans. Reduced salt and sugar mean they have fewer calories, but they had a really good tomato flavour and, at 38p for 420g, were cheaper than either Heinz or Branston.

TEN THINGS YOU NEVER KNEW ABOUT BEANS

1 Baked beans were originally considered a luxury.

2 They first went on sale in this country in 1901 and were only available at Fortnum and Mason's.

3 They cost 9d - about £1.50 at today's prices.

4 Up until the Second World War, cans of Heinz baked beans were produced with a piece of pork. This was removed because of rationing and never made it back again.

5 Britons eat more baked beans than anyone else in the world - 16 cans per person per year.

6 The baked bean is a type of haricot bean known as the navy bean.

7 The Heinz plant at Wigan uses 1,000 tonnes of navy beans a week.

8 The advertising slogan, Beanz meanz Heinz was coined in 1967.

9 Only four people in the world at any one time know the recipe of Heinz baked beans tomato sauce.

10 But we don't know how many know the Branston recipe.

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Celebrate Fairtrade Fortnight with some goodies from The Body Shop. More than half their products contain at least one fairly traded ingredient - look out for "Community Trade" on packs.

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