Sainsbury's Basics good/bad items

*zippy*

Its funny we don't mind the mint sauce, but even though I drink my tea like gnats pee I didn't like the teabags, i'm wondering if I had a bad box as everyone here seems to like them, I'll have to try again.

London_Town

I'm going to have to revisit the Basics tea bags as so many people on this thread rate them. I tried the Sainsbury's Economy teas bags that came out about 10 years ago. They were horrendous and tasted like someone had dropped a fag in my cup. However, the recipe or blend may well have changed and as tea has rocketed in price, it's time to re-appraise!

The Basics I can recommend are as follows;

sponge/scourers - 15p for 3 is amazing and they're good.
Pickle is absolutely fine.
Tuna is too.
Hair shampoo - Very nice to use, brilliant value and with a price that belongs in 1982!!
All the Basics biscuits are lovely, I'm munching some of the Basic's Nice while I type!

Ones I didn't like include the following;

Pasta - it looks "dirty" very irrational I know! More importantly it was pretty tasteless. Also, it seems to have lost it's original price adavantage.
Cornflakes/rice crispes - I gave these to the pigeons on the lawn who didn't complain, but I thought they were awful.

1carminestocky

London_Town wrote: »

I'm going to have to revisit the Basics tea bags as so many people on this thread rate them. I tried the Sainsbury's Economy teas bags that came out about 10 years ago. They were horrendous and tasted like someone had dropped a fag in my cup. However, the recipe or blend may well have changed and as tea has rocketed in price, it's time to re-appraise!

The Basics I can recommend are as follows;

sponge/scourers - 15p for 3 is amazing and they're good.
Pickle is absolutely fine.
Tuna is too.
Hair shampoo - Very nice to use, brilliant value and with a price that belongs in 1982!!
All the Basics biscuits are lovely, I'm munching some of the Basic's Nice while I type!

Ones I didn't like include the following;

Pasta - it looks "dirty" very irrational I know! More importantly it was pretty tasteless. Also, it seems to have lost it's original price adavantage.
Cornflakes/rice crispes - I gave these to the pigeons on the lawn who didn't complain, but I thought they were awful.

It's actually even better than that - there are 5 of the b*ggers in the pack!

London_Town

Well spotted 1carminestocky! Apologies for the moment of senility, the sponges truly are amazing value.

RHYSDAD

London_Town wrote: »

I'm going to have to revisit the Basics tea bags as so many people on this thread rate them. I tried the Sainsbury's Economy teas bags that came out about 10 years ago. They were horrendous and tasted like someone had dropped a fag in my cup. However, the recipe or blend may well have changed and as tea has rocketed in price, it's time to re-appraise!

The Basics I can recommend are as follows;

sponge/scourers - 15p for 3 is amazing and they're good.
Pickle is absolutely fine.
Tuna is too.
Hair shampoo - Very nice to use, brilliant value and with a price that belongs in 1982!!
All the Basics biscuits are lovely, I'm munching some of the Basic's Nice while I type!

Ones I didn't like include the following;

Pasta - it looks "dirty" very irrational I know! More importantly it was pretty tasteless. Also, it seems to have lost it's original price adavantage.
Cornflakes/rice crispes - I gave these to the pigeons on the lawn who didn't complain, but I thought they were awful.

I think it's because it contains durum wheat flour whereas the 'good' pasta is durum wheat semolina. I know what you mean as we bought a bag, tried it, binned it and we gave the remainder of it to my three year old to glue on some paper and paint. It wasn't fit to eat.

Bitsy_Beans

I quite like the pasta. Mind you I preferred it when it was 20p for the bag rather than the 43p they currently charge grrrrrr

I can recommend the Rice Crispies in making rice crispie cakes. They work perfectly well with chocolate. Wouldn't touch them any other way though

jcr16

we also like the tins of pineapple pieces in juice. it recently reduced in price from 16p a tin to 13p. it is a small tin i think 225g.

the pieces are very small and odd shapes, but when mixed with jelly are delish. my 4 yr old loves pineapple so much he will have a little bowl or it and just eat it by itself.

it is also ideal for pizza's.

and 500g bags of grated mild cheese. it is £1.97. this is ideal for sauces or tops of pizzas etc. it works out very good value. i prefer mature cheese for on crackers etc but in toastie sandwiches or cheese on toast ideal.

1carminestocky

We really like the pasta as well. And, agreed, the 500g of grated cheese for £1.97 is another billy bargain. As are the tins of pineapple (in juice not syrup so much healthier) - they were great value at 18p so at 13p it's ridiculous!

littlesnuggy

I don't understand the dislike for the pasta! When I make a pasta dish I use half Basics and half wholewheat fusilli, and in a sauce I don't think there's any taste difference (I only use half wholewheat as I'm diabetic and the wholewheat is slower energy release / lower GI)

Today I'm hoping to get the basics mozarella to try making home-made pizza for the first time! Wasn't a fan of Basics pizzas; fresh was worse than frozen - it was so doughy I felt ill!

carolinosourus

We use the:
Basics bag of peppers- great value and they seem to last for ages (had some really strange dinky ones the last bag though, 2 perfectly formed orange peppers which were tiny!)

Basics bag of aubergines- again great value compared to buying loose, as I tend to chop mine up and cook with them then the odd shapes that you can get are no problem

I've used basics salad bags and they seemed ok, basics pitta bread is good, we've used basics salad potatoes which were fine but did seem to sprout quite quickly, also the basics tinned tomatoes which were fine!

Going to sainsbo tonight to get the weeks shopping so I'll see what else I can convince the bf to try!