Bush's Grillin' Beans - Steakhouse

Beans, in my opinion, are indeed a magical fruit. And normally, nobody is as fruity as the Bush Brothers and Co. bean company, or as you'd more likely know it, Bush's Beans. You know, the guy with the Golden Retriever in the commercials? Duke? That dog's crazy, always trying to sell the heavily-guarded family recipe. It seems that I can't blame him in this instance, though; Bush's Grillin' beans are certainly nothing to write home about.

Bush's beans have accompanied many a-party throughout my lifetime, whether it's a birthday, cook-out, graduation, holiday, etc. Bush's beans are usually fantastic. That's why it's disappointing that an idea like Grillin' beans, combining two of the most amazing concepts in American history, grilling and beans, fails to impress. Just thinking about the flavors they could've pioneered is enough to make me dump this bowl in the trash.

First of all, they taste too brown. There's a severely overriding flavor of molasses, which is kind of bitter and very strong. It drowns out most of the other flavors, which is quite counter-productive in a can o' beans. Secondly, when I was successful in fighting off the molasses flavor in an attempt to grasp some of the other more subtle nuances, what I found was strangely familiar: it tasted much like any other can of Bush's beans, which I guess shouldn't be too surprising. But it is certainly disappointing. The only discernible flavor I could make out was a very weak hint of barbecue. I can't imagine these beans doing a better job of complimenting anything grilled than any other type of Bush's beans. In fact, I probably wouldn't want to eat these even on their own, and maybe accompanying them with some food would make them a bit better. They're far too rich and dark on their own. In fact, maybe dark is a good way to put it. A good analogy for it, I think, is beer. Imagine Bush's baked beans as your choice of light beer, like a Heineken or something, where Bush's Baked beans are to Heineken as their Grillin' beans are to Guinness, or something equally dark and rich. If you're cool with that, by all means, grab some Grillin' beans. As far as the "Steakhouse" label, I can't taste any connection to anything having to do with steak.

In essence, Bush's Grillin' beans are too much, and not enough at the same time. They're distinctly more masculine, and the only demographics I could see eating this more than once are cowboys and Golden Retrievers. These beans are definitely not what I expected, and I don't think Grillin' was the right choice of word under which to market these.

3/7