Best of both bread varieties produced by Hovis:
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A 800g sliced bread in a smooth plastic blue and cream cover off the shelf (about 17 slices)
A 700g unsliced, unpackaged version available from the bakery (about 12 slices)
Variety ... Read review
Advantages: Lo cal, high wheatgerm, lo fat, makes nice toast Disadvantages: Not as good for you as brown bread
...Really anywhere that sells the Hovis brand
Shaggy dog and unfortunate squirrel stories:
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A long time before I got my tender hooks into my beloved husband, his mother stood red faced and flustered from the blast of heat that scurried towards her as she pulled another tray load of home made brown bread out of her Somerset oven.
Oven closed, the bread ... ...to look like a sentimental Hovis ad.
This boy who was force-fed for years on his Mother’s over cooked / over yeasted / hard / soggy attempts at brown bread now refuses flat to eat brown bread. As his wife I really believe that he would rather eat the leaves off a tree than touch the stuff. When there was just the two of us, I just bought white bread and he ate it. I didn’t bother with the stuff as I knew it wasn’t very good for me ... more
Best of both bread varieties produced by Hovis: *************************************************** A 800g sliced bread in a smooth plastic blue and cream cover off the shelf (about 17 slices) A 700g unsliced, unpackaged version available from the bakery (about 12 slices)
Variety being reviewed today: ******************************* The sliced stuff
Availability: *********** Somerfield Asda Sainburys Really anywhere that sells the Hovis brand
Shaggy dog and unfortunate squirrel stories: ************************************************ A long time before I got my tender hooks into my beloved husband, his mother stood red faced and flustered from the blast of heat that scurried towards her as she pulled another tray load of home made brown bread out of her Somerset oven.
Oven closed, the bread was left to cool on a wire tray in front of a slightly open window as Mrs. F cleaned her large kitchen table of the cooking implements and flakes of ingredients which had scattered three sheets to the corners as she mixed her bread. With four growing boys in the house to feed she could not afford one of those new fangled bread-makers or even a food processor to mix her dough in.
The back door slammed as if the forces of hell had come through its portal but it was not the devil himself but her eldest boy come home. It was his turn that week to use the only bike the four boys had between them so he was first in the door from school. The bike was shared on a fair but strict rotation with their meagre pocket money being pooled for tyre patches and last month’s luxury, a new Raleigh lamp for the handlebars.
His mother smiled and cut him a large chunk of the fresh brown bread lathering it with a generous helping of farmhouse butter. In a combined scarf removal, schoolbag throwing, sitting down motion, the boy plonked himself at the kitchen table and began gulping down a large glass of cold water. The hill from Wookey was not an easy one on a 2nd hand boneshaker with 1 gear.
The boy looked at the bread on the plate and looked at his Mother. “Any sliced white in the bread bin?” he enquired “EAT what is in front of you” his Mother growled in return. As soon as she left the room, the young boy fired the rock hard piece of hot bread out the open window scaring the life out of a squirrel which happened to be passing under the nearby clump of fir trees.
Not really the typical end to what was beginning to look like a sentimental Hovis ad.
This boy who was force-fed for years on his Mother’s over cooked / over yeasted / hard / soggy attempts at brown bread now refuses flat to eat brown bread. As his wife I really believe that he would rather eat the leaves off a tree than touch the stuff. When there was just the two of us, I just bought white bread and he ate it. I didn’t bother with the stuff as I knew it wasn’t very good for me but there was no changing his mind so I just accepted it.
Then I became pregnant and I wanted toasted cheese sandwiches – NOW!!
I had read the food that we give developing babies in the womb would be the food that they like ‘on the outside’ so it had to be brown bread. However, bringing a second loaf into the house would have been wasteful, as it would have gone rotten before I was halfway through it.
Then I read about ‘Best of Both’ bread with the appearance of white bread but all the goodness of brown but how was I to get it into the house?
A few years ago my Father had a small heart scare but being the stubborn old son of a country farmer that he is, he refused flatly to give up things like butter and his meat dinners. The meat dinners were easy, my Mother simply bought leaner cuts but the butter was another battle and my Father ate a lot of it.
That is, he DID, until my Mother started buying low fat margarine and putting it in the butter tub and not saying a word to my Father. There was a heart stopping moment when he remarked that the Dairygold taste had changed a bit but there was no mention of it after that. This has been going on for 15 years now.
So based on my Mothers ingenuity, I bought ‘Best of both’ and started putting it into an empty packet which had formerly contained a white Hovis loaf. (Having wiped out the crumbs with a dry facecloth first) When he first tried it, there were no heart stopping moments for me and this has been going on for 2 ½ years now. I will tell him one day but just not yet. The unfortunate thing is that he is convinced that he has converted me to white bread.
3 ¾ slices = The same calories as 1 65g (normal) Mars bar
Any unexplained numbers in the ingredients: ************************************************ Emulsifier 472(e) - Mono- and di-acetyl tartaric acid esters of mono- and di-glycerides of fatty acids. As with all fatty acids, this is not a good foodstuff to consume in abundance.
E300 flour treatment agent – Ascorbic acid. Actually a good ingredient as it can keep scurvy at bay and promote the healing of skin cuts and grazes
The competition: ****************** Kingsmill Whole & White. About the same calories, less wheatgerm and 36% wholemeal flour. Does not taste as nice in my opinion and hubby spotted that it was a ‘brown’ bread.
Right enough blathering, what does it look/smell/taste like? ************************************************ In APPEARANCE, this is a slightly tanned slice of white bread with small speckles of viable grain.
The SMELL is typical of wrapped sliced bread, nothing that would start a stampede to get to it but not unpleasant in its own right. For some reason, a newly opened packet always reminds me of the scent of slightly wet wool.
If you are used to bakery bread, this can TASTE a bit thin and almost watery. The real test of a piece of bread for me is how it tastes with a bit of real butter (sorry mum!) spread on it. Despite its smoothness, this is nothing really special ‘as is’. There is a smooth texture with no bits to appease the white bread fans and a slightly nutty aftertaste, which is actually quite nice.
However, apply a bit of heat to it and spread on some real butter and honey and there it really comes alive. It is that nice sort of bread that cracks into ridges and looks like a very homely piece of toast. Unlike a lot of brown bread, it doesn’t dry out in the toaster or under the grill.
Advantages: ************* Easy to feed it to people biased against brown bread It is relatively low in calories compared to other white breads but has the same lower fat content as other wholemeals. This bread has more wheatgerm added than most wholemeals (5%). Wheatgerm is the very heart of the wheat and is a good source of calcium, vitamins E, B1, B6 and riboflavin.
Disadvantages: ***************** There is less of the natural goodness you would find in wholemeal flour
Conclusion: ************* Of the two white brown breads on the market at the moment, this is the better tasting of the two of them as well as being more nutritionally advantaged. So if you have to get whole-wheat into your brood, this is a good way to do it by stealth rather than not at all and one day you can tell them that they have been eating brown bread all along.
Useful Related URL’s: ************************ http://www.hovis.co.uk/?bob Products related portion of the maker’s website
http://www.rankhovis.co.uk/recipes/index.html Recipe for making the bread from the ‘best of both’ flour and bread mix
http://www.rhmtech.co.uk/technology/development.php Food development company who developed the bread
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/health/healthmain.html?in_article_id=310851&in_page_id=1774&in_a_source= Daily mail article on the relative calorie contents of different breads
Advantages: Aesthetically pleasing to picky eaters, and good all round loaf. Disadvantages: I'm trying to think objectively about this one!
...I love this stuff!
Hovis announce on the side of the packaging that: 'Best of Both has all the taste, texture and look of white bread, but with all the wheat germ goodness of wholemeal bread. It has no bits, no grains, no artificial preservatives or flavourings and is made with unbleached flour.' The bread is almost the same in appearance to an ordinary shop bought pre-sliced white loaf, with the difference that (in my opinion) the outside (to reduce ... ...because this isn’t a crusty Hovis loaf) is more golden in colour than your average white slice.
If you stare hard before you tuck into that sandwich, slight golden flecks of wheat germ are visible to the eye, but then you would have to be really finicky, and not that famished.
It goes on to state that most of the goodness of the Original Hovis brown bread is in the wheat germ, but Hovis those ingenious bakers, declare that they've baked the goodness ...
luverlymaid 03.10.2004
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Hovis Best of Both Loaf
Advantages: Nice tasting, a bit healthier than white Disadvantages: Not as healthy as wholemeal
...advert on the TV for Hovis best of both. Anyone who has read my reviews in the past will tell you that I am a very gullible person so, I thought this could be the answer to my child related problem.
Hovis best of both Boasts ….. super tasting white bread with all the wheatgerm goodness of wholemeal…
A BIT OF HISTORY
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Hovis started in 1886 by a Richard ‘Stoney’ Smith. He He perfected the method of steam cooking that preserved ... ...strength of man. In 2001 Hovis bought out the best of both range. Hovis has always had a very traditional look to it but in the last few years I has tried to update itself with a fair amount of success.
PACKAGING
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Back to my Hovis loaf. The packaging is very appealing. It does not look like a wholemeal loaf. In fact the packaging looks more like what you would expect from a white loaf. It is a plasic maily blue bag with the Hovis ...
vichar68 15.06.2007
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Hovis Best of Both Loaf
Advantages: white bread with all the goodness of brown. Disadvantages: price.
...i thought i would try hovis best of both.
~ What is best of both ~
It is white bread but with all the wheatgerm goodness of wholemeal bread .
It is a good source of vitamins E ,B1, B6, and riboflavin.
~ What does it look like ~
It is a very pale brown colour .
~ What does it taste like ~
It has got a very nice taste to it and is ideal for sandwiches or toast .
It smells really nice when you are toasting it .
Its lovely and soft and the bread ... ...lot of bread does.
You can taste the wholemeal but its not a strong taste just nice, so it should suit a lot of people.
I have found that it keeps fresh too.
~ Nutrition information ~
No artificial preservatives
Suitable for vegans and vegeterians.
Per slice ....
110 calories
1.1g fat.
~ Allergy infomation ~
Contains wheat, gluten and soya.
~ The price ~
I paid 1.08 from tesco for a 800g loaf .
~ Where you can buy it from ~
You can ...
textmad 02.07.2007
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Hovis Best of Both Loaf
Hovis "Best of Both" is available in the packets of sliced bread and some stores do the unsliced version from the bakery.
The unsliced bakery version is 79p for 400g and I've seen it in Somerfield and Asda. An unsliced loaf is nice now and then but it's quite expensive.
The 800g sliced version is much more common and is widely available in many supermarkets and smaller shops.
It's called "Best of Both" because it is essentially a white loaf with ... ...a thick or medium square loaf. There are on average 17 slices in the medium sliced loaf and about 12 in the thick sliced loaf. The crusts at the beginning and end of the loaf are often very thick.
The packet is blue and white and it's made from the usual waxy, plastic bag most bread comes in now.
The bread is actually very nice, especially when toasted. It has a sort of nutty taste to it. The texture is somewhat strange though. It's quite crumbly ...
Mel27 06.04.2004 (22.07.2005)
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of Hovis Best of Both Loaf
Advantages: My 3 year old thinks it is white bread Disadvantages: none
...had gone stale. So when Hovis Best of Both came onto the market, claiming to have all the goodness of brown bread in a white loaf, I tried it at once. Nobody noticed the difference and even I quite enjoyed it.
Sometimes if the supermarket has sold out of Hovis Best of Both- it is often on special offer and is very popular - I have bought the Kingsmill/Tesco/Sainsbury's equivalent. None of them taste as nice. The Kingsmill is a bit salty.
Hovis ... ...GOOD NEWS.... [Sept 2005 update] Hovis has just made it even easier to fool your kids by making an "Invisible Crust" Best of Both. This is basically bread where the crust is the same colour as the bread and is very soft. This saves waste if your kids don't eat their crusts.... but the birds are starving around here!!! ...
pittcity 23.02.2005 (20.09.2005)
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of Hovis Best of Both Loaf
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Advantages: Excellent value for money, rich fresh taste Disadvantages: Crusts can be a little dry
of them. I like it with plenty of butter, but find other brands to be very heavy at the end of the loaf. With Asda Bakers Gold though, the end crusts retain that freshness and lightness which is characteristic of the other slices. My other half likes picking the loaf without the crusts on the sides of the slices, as she thinks it tastes even lighter. But as I need hairs on my chest, I get the crustier ones.
Obviously, packaged sliced bread isn?t going to be able to match the taste of freshly cooked bread rolls from a restaurant or any of the more exotic varieties. But there again that is not its market. For Asda Bakers Gold, its competitors are going to be the likes of Hovis or Kingsmill, and for my money it beats both. Taste wise, it is the best bread since sliced bread, and at 65p per loaf I don?t think you can get better value ...
