11 Canned Green Beans Ranked From Worst To Best

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Green beans are essential to plenty of meals, whether you're making everyday recipes or prepping for holiday celebrations. A traditional green bean casserole, for example, is a common holiday dish, but canned green beans can also be seasoned and served on their own. Because they're not particularly exciting, choosing a canned green bean brand is often an afterthought, especially when your brain is occupied with the mains (like sourcing the best Thanksgiving turkey). Nevertheless, some are certainly better than others.

In order to find out just how the most widely available canned green beans stack up against one another, I picked up canned green beans from my local Smith's (which is owned by Kroger), Albertsons, Walmart, Sprouts, and Whole Foods stores. I ended up with 11 products in total, all of which I tasted in one sitting. Based on my findings, the following is a ranking of the canned green beans I purchased from those five grocery stores, in order from worst to best. For more about my ranking criteria, refer to the end of this piece. 

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I may not have enjoyed the green beans that ranked just above these, but I was, at least, able to down a few of them for science's sake. After trying one of Walmart's Great Value brand Cut Green Beans, I chose to conclude my experience with the product because of how thoroughly grossed out I was by that single green bean.

Walmart does deserve some credit up front for the fact that one can of Great Value Cut Green Beans cost me just $0.50. Anyone prioritizing savings could find value in that fact alone. That said, other stores still sell green beans for under a dollar, and the upgrade in flavor of the following selections will be worth the cost for most. What put me off of Great Value's green beans was a taste I would liken to that of an old tomato — it activated sensors in my brain that told me I was eating a vegetable past its window of freshness. Avoid these unless picking up literally any other alternative simply isn't an option.

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The next product and those following it are all green beans that I would, at worst, not mind eating were they served to me. Landing second from the bottom, I still actively disliked Del Monte Cut Green Beans, though they weren't as bad as Great Value's.

The best thing about my can of Del Monte Cut Green Beans was its size — it was 8 ounces in volume, totaling just over half of the standard 14.5-ounce can. Allowing customers to opt for a smaller size is a plus, regardless of quality. Unfortunately, my impression of the Del Monte green beans was marred by a flavor I would liken to fermented veggies. In a sauerkraut, that characteristic would be welcome, but in a can of plain green beans, I found that funky element unpleasant. It wasn't necessarily the dominant flavor, to be clear, but its presence brought down the subtle green bean flavor that accompanied it. Coupled with a relatively high sodium content that doesn't yield any flavor, Del Monte Cut Green Beans fall short of practically every alternative.

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To represent the Libby's brand, I picked up a can of French Style Green Beans, due to a lack of either cut or whole green beans at my local Albertsons. Of course, even if the French cut style wasn't ideal for eating solo, I didn't take that factor into account in my assessment. Even if these were a more standard offering, their subpar flavor still would have landed them near the bottom of this list.

Prevalent in my experience of trying Libby's French Style Green Beans were water and salt. The green bean flavor was not entirely absent, but it was subsumed almost entirely by both a bland wateriness and an excess of sodium. Texturally, the green beans were also a little crunchier than average, which I didn't appreciate. Nothing was truly off-putting about them, but more than anything else, they lacked personality. French cut green beans — one of 14 types of green beans with their own specific use — are also available from other brands on this list that I've ranked higher, so even a recipe that calls explicitly for the style would be better off sourcing them from a different brand.

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The Whole Foods house brand 365 Organic Cut Green Beans is one of three organic, no-salt-added options featured here. However, despite a couple of qualities I enjoyed, the flavor of 365's offering was singlehandedly detrimental enough to make it the worst of the trifecta.

These green beans were large, on the firmer side, and they squeaked against my teeth. Their "natural" character was apparent, with each green bean tasting fresh and a little vegetal. But that initially pleasant freshness gave way to a bitter aftertaste. It was subtle, to be clear, but bitter enough to bring 365's green beans down a good deal. Unfortunately, I found that these fell outside of the best and ranked among the worst 365 products to buy at Whole Foods.

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I picked up my can of Green Valley Organics Cut Green Beans from Whole Foods. Like the prior can, they contain no added salt. Judging purely based on taste, I found that the no-salt-added green beans performed worse on the whole than standard canned green beans, but these still made for an acceptable sodium-free option.

One key way the Green Valley green beans diverged from their higher-ranked counterparts was that they had a softer texture, squeaking less against my teeth despite their lack of salt content. However, their taste was defined by a relatively prominent uncooked vegetable flavor. I tried a few of these green beans with salt just to see how that might alter the experience, and that sort of uncooked element still prevailed. Anyone for whom no-salt green beans are a must will likely find the Green Valley can acceptable, but if sodium isn't an important factor, these are better off skipped altogether.

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Signature Select is the non-organic counterpart to O Organics (a brand featured later on this list). I found that other brands' organic cans tasted almost identical to their non-organic versions, but here, I thought the Signature Select Whole Green Beans were somewhat inferior to their organic counterpart.

The first major factor that brought down the Signature Select Whole Green Beans was their firmness — they were noticeably skinnier and firmer than others featured here. That gave them a subtle (but nevertheless undesirable) crunch. Furthermore, I found their flavor to include a bit of an uncooked vegetable element that brought down an otherwise adequate green bean character. They still worked, and especially in something like a green bean casserole, their faults would likely end up sufficiently masked. However, there's no real reason to purchase the Signature Select Whole Green Beans if at least one of a few common alternatives is available.

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Glory Foods' Seasoned Southern Style Green Beans are the clear outlier of this bunch, given that they're flavored. Nevertheless, they're available on the same shelves as the numerous unflavored options at major grocery stores. I enjoyed eating them, but their nutritional content differed widely from the other options featured here, earning them this middle ranking.

Nutritionally, one 29-ounce can is divided into seven servings, each of which contains 520 milligrams of sodium and totals 40 calories. That latter number isn't a huge deal, even if it's higher than average, but the former is noteworthy. With that said, the key flavor ingredient in the Glory Foods Seasoned Southern Style Green Beans is bacon fat, accented by some smoke flavoring. Simply put, green beans and bacon are a classic flavor combo, and this product does a commendable job of delivering on that experience. Whether or not the nutritional cost fits into your lifestyle is up to each individual, but these green beans do, at least, taste pretty satisfying.

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The O Organics brand is the organic house label used for products at stores under the Albertsons corporate umbrella, which also includes names like Pavilions, Safeway, and Vons. The relatively high position of the O Organics Cut Green Beans continues an overall trend of store brands beating out products from outside companies. Nevertheless, I would place O Organics' beans on a lower tier than this list's top three entries.

Altogether, the O Organics Cut Green Beans don't do anything wrong, but there was likewise no quality at which they excelled. In the size department, they were smaller and skinnier than average — pretty much a net neutral. I found their flavor a little watery, though beneath that was a pleasant, albeit muted, natural green bean flavor. I happened to notice they contain more sodium than my second-place green beans, but with nothing to show for it, given a slightly inferior flavor. For committing no crimes and functioning perfectly adequately, the O Organics Cut Green Beans are worth buying, but only in the absence of a nearby Kroger or Sprouts store.

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In my ranking of grocery store hot chocolate mixes, Sprouts took the number-one spot. The Sprouts Organic Cut Green Beans almost topped this list too, but ended up in the number-three position for having a slightly lower level of versatility than the following canned green beans.

First off, Sprouts sells its Organic Cut Green Beans with no added salt — and this was also true of a few other canned green beans from health-oriented brands on this list. Without that salt component, my Sprouts green beans were a little firmer than average, even squeaking against my teeth a bit when biting into them. I liked the softer texture of the salted green beans better, but at the same time, I appreciated the fact that Sprouts' green beans still tasted good with zero sodium. They were still relatively soft, for what it's worth, and defined by what came off to me as a freshly-cooked vegetable flavor. Because their firmer texture was just slightly to their detriment, I would describe the Sprouts Organic Cut Green Beans as less versatile than their counterparts from Kroger. Nevertheless, they're among the best grocery store canned green beans all the same, and the single best salt-free product.

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It turns out that Kroger stores — also including names like Food 4 Less, Fred Meyer, QFC, Ralphs, and more — are the best grocery stores for buying canned green beans. My can of Kroger Cut Green Beans excelled for many of the same reasons as did my number one choice. The differences between the two ultimately had nothing to do with their quality.

The most important distinction between this can and the following was price: This can cost $0.89, while the next cost $1.50. So anyone for whom cost is more important than buying organic should absolutely opt for Kroger instead. Furthermore, the Kroger green beans were slightly fatter and softer. I didn't find those qualities to move the needle in one direction or another, but customers who either covet or dislike one of those factors may want to take note. Otherwise, my Kroger Cut Green Beans were perfectly salted, letting their strong, natural green bean character shine, just like the green beans in my number-one spot. For most shoppers, the exemplary flavor of either this or the following can will qualify either as the best can of green beans from a major grocery store.

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My single favorite can of green beans I tried in my field of 11 was from the Simple Truth Organic brand. Simple Truth Organic is a Kroger store label, responsible for Kroger's place among the best grocery stores to buy organic food.

On the whole, I would describe the Simple Truth Organic Cut Green Beans as an all-around great product. Texturally, I found them to be on the just slightly firmer side, but still plenty soft. They were also a bit skinnier than average. In the flavor department, they tasted just salty enough, to the extent that the salt didn't overpower but rather magnified a prominent natural green bean flavor. The non-organic Kroger brand and the Simple Truth Organic green beans were pretty comparable in taste, but because I do think there are advantages to buying organic, Simple Truth Organic ended up in the number-one spot.

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I decided on my field of 11 canned green bean brands by searching the online inventories of the major grocery stores nearest to me in the outskirts of Las Vegas. I landed on a selection of products I thought effectively represented the full variety on offer.

To taste them all, I simply opened cans one-by-one and tasted green beans directly from each can, ranking them primarily based on flavor. I tried green beans both straight out of the can and rinsed in the sink to remove excess liquid, and found the rinse didn't affect flavor one way or another. To best assess each green bean product, I would regularly return to green beans I had previously tasted in order to solidify my comparisons. That meant I ate anywhere between three and 10 green beans from each can — Great Value aside — depending on how much I felt I needed to reassess an opinion on a given brand. My findings are based solely on this experiment and not any prior experience with any of the included products.