To celebrate our love for Heinz Beanz and our Heinz Beanz Sock collection, we have decided to share a bit of the history behind one of the UK’s most recognisable household names! We have also included a few facts about the product like the where they came from for example, don’t know? Perfect!
The beginning
Heinz first arrived in Britain when the family was making a tour of Europe, Henry took his stack of baked beans along with him during this. In 1886, during a stop in London which only lasted 2 weeks, Henry decided to visit Fortnum & Mason, at the time they where already a very well established and highly esteemed food outlet in London.
Here, Henry would promote his products to great success with the Head of Purchasing deciding to buy up all the baked beans he had. This was the spark which set of Britian’s love with Heinz products, and persuaded Henry to open up a London Base for his company!
The First Tinned Beans
The H.J.Heinz Company, first based in Pennsylvania, started to mass produce the canned goods around 1895 in Pittsburgh. Originally marketed as a luxury brand, changes only began to be made in the 20th century as the brand became a huge hit in the UK market. Its original price was set at ninepence a can, which in todays money would be roughly the equivalent of £2.15! Compared to today where you can buy a tin from the supermarket for £1.39 the price has dropped significantly.
The Tinned beans began to be sold at other, less exclusive stores, making it slowly become more accessible to more of the public.
Becoming the Brand we Know and Love Today
The road to becoming as iconic as Heinz is long, and it was no different for them! So let’s have a look at some key moments in Heinz’s history which brought them up to be one of the faces of the Full-English Breakfast!
Heinz Beanz in Antarctica?
That’s right the iconic beanz were taken on the Terra Nova expedition in 1910. Heinz was one of several businesses who provided supplies for the expedition during this tragic expedition where tragically Robert Falcon Scott and 4 others passed away.
This is the iconic photo of one of the team members taking a break on a crate while enjoying a tin of quality baked beans!. Was this what started the tradition of having cold baked beans?
Beans on Toast, Classic
If your British, the likelihood is you have had this staple meal at least once. Don’t have time or can’t b bothered to cook? Beans on toast. Nothing in the fridge and don’t want to go to the shops? Beans on toast. This truly remarkable yet simple dish has an air of mystery as no one truly know who kicked of this UK staple.
Heinz, understandably, claims that an executive came up with he dish as a marketing ploy back in 1927. This may or may not be true, one theory on the other hand is that the dish is still around and known today due to it being cheap protein for WWII, breakfast, lunch or dinner it didn’t matter.
Today it’s a go to breakfast meal for broke university students, cash-strapped travellers and for those who simply enjoy the meal (which is quite a lot of us, if we’re being honest).
The Slogan
Beanz Meanz Heinz, by know most if not all of you have heard or seen this slogan in tv commercials, on promotional cans, billboards, posters… you get the idea. But when and where did it come from?
Born in 1967 the iconic slogan ‘Beanz Meanz Heinz’ has stuck with the public ever since. In fact, it is so popular that in 2012, it was voted ‘Best Advertising Slogan Of All Time’. So, we know its popular but where did it come from? Well it wouldn’t be British if it didn’t originate from the pub, now would it? Maurice Drake was the man responsible for having the eureka affect, and since then their has been iterations, but it has never changed.
Thank you for reading through our tribute to the UK culinary juggernaut, as we thought it was only fair considering we have new additions to our Heinz Beanz Sock Collection which you can buy here!