Beans, beans, the musical fruit. The more you eat, the more you toot.
The more you toot, the better you feel, so eat your beans at every meal.
We’ve known that little rhyme since early childhood, but even as adults, we find ourselves remembering it and giggling. It’s just one of those things that sticks with you for your entire life. We’d like to find the person who wrote it and shake their hand and tell them how much that rhyme has affected our lives. Then again, we imagine that this person is probably walking around engulfed in a cloud of toots, sort of like the dust cloud that surrounds Pigpen from the Peanuts comics. So maybe we’ll skip the hand-shaking part.
Today, we’re checking out some of the musical fruit that’s described so eloquently in that piece of beautiful poetry, the Captain Ken’s Firehouse Baked Beans in BBQ Sauce with Smoked Pulled Pork and Red Peppers.
Now, we’ve talked through the story of Captain Ken’s before, so we’ll spare you the details here (though here’s a link to their official website if you want to know more.) What’s important to note is that Captain Ken was something of a bean legend, kind of like the author of the “Musical Fruit” poem. So we’re really excited to finally try these legendary beans for the first time.
These can be cooked in the microwave or in a conventional oven, but we just didn’t have the patience to wait 45 minutes for this to cook the old-fashioned way. Sorry, Cap, but we’re going to nuke these beans. (If you want to read the full cooking instructions straight off the box, check out the package scans at the bottom of this review.)
The way we see it, there are several different categories that beans can fall into. Some like their beans savory, with lots of onions and beef in the mix, while others prefer a classic chili, packed with tomatoes and spices. We tend to like a sweeter batch of beans, which means this particular offering is right up our alley.
And holy smokes, is this stuff sweet. These beans come in molasses and brown sugar already, and then they’re soaked in a super-sweet BBQ sauce that we really enjoy. That means these are some of the sweetest beans we’ve ever tasted — they’re almost like candy!
These beans are also just a tad bit spicy. We definitely wouldn’t recommend these to anyone looking to set their mouth on fire, but there’s a subtle spiciness that creeps up on you as you eat more and more of the beans. It provides a lovely contrast with the sweetness.
There’s also a little bit of pulled pork in the mix. The portion size is pretty small, but it’s enough to keep vegetarians away from this dish. On the plus side, though, it also has a nice texture, and it’s quite a good mix-in for this sweet, delicious BBQ sauce.
Now, you might look at the 170 calories and 370 mg of sodium listed on the box and think these beans are pretty lean, right? But look closer: There are three servings in a box. That means that if you make a meal of these and eat the full carton in a sitting, you’ll be up to 510 calories and 1,110 mg of sodium. That’s not the diet-friendly meal you thought it was!
The Captain Ken’s Firehouse Baked Beans in BBQ Sauce with Smoked Pulled Pork and Red Peppers show why Captain Ken was a bean legend. This is a delicious batch of beans that’s satisfying for those with a sweet tooth, while rounding things out with a little bit of spice. We couldn’t ask for a better batch of microwavable beans!
To learn more about the nutrition content, ingredients, or cooking instructions for this batch of baked beans, check out our package scans below.
