# Sunbeam Bread: Top-Shelf Product, or Cheap Off-Brand **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 6, 2012, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sunbeam-bread-top-shelf-product-or-cheap-off-brand/611968 "2012-02-06T12:51:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![limegreen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/82dd89/32.png) [@limegreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/limegreen)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2012, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sunbeam-bread-top-shelf-product-or-cheap-off-brand/611968/21 "2012-02-07T18:12:15Z")
A Sunbeam plant is in my town,and when you drive by at baking time, the smell is mouth-watering. We buy Sunbeam for the kids, who don’t want sunfower kernels or other hippie weirdness in their PBJ. ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2012, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sunbeam-bread-top-shelf-product-or-cheap-off-brand/611968/22 "2012-02-07T18:16:18Z")
I think of Sunbeam and Wonder (do they still make Wonder, I wonder?) as the highest end of the low end breads. ---
**Author:** ![rock\_party](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e19b73/32.png) [@rock\_party](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rock_party)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2012, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sunbeam-bread-top-shelf-product-or-cheap-off-brand/611968/23 "2012-02-07T19:24:05Z")
Snow white, textureless, bland, turns to dough and sticks to the roof of your mouth is the opposite of a high quality bread. Yuk! This is mass produced cotton that is ment to be made cheaply. Whole wheat breads are usually better as far as texture, but the store bought ones aren’t all that much better. Some denser brands with wheatberry and fiber aren’t so bad. There’s a french bakery in my town that sells REAL bread: Crisp flakey crust, chewy and firm inside with air pockets all different sizes and OMG is it ever delicious! To bad they sell out by 9am almost every morning. ---
**Author:** ![cornflakes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9d8465/32.png) [@cornflakes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cornflakes)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2012, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sunbeam-bread-top-shelf-product-or-cheap-off-brand/611968/24 "2012-02-07T19:24:28Z")
> [@HeyHomie](#): > > Mrs. Homie maintains that Sunbeam is a crap off-brand meant to be sold at Aldi. You know, this may be the most useful evaluation you’re going to get. Sunbeam is a standard white bread, and it may be better or worse depending on the bakery, the distribution chain, the relationship between the grocers and the delivery people, etc. On the other hand (and I know that this is more fitting for IMHO), you know for a fact that there are people in you home that do not like the stuff. ---
**Author:** ![Hermitian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hermitian/32/470_2.png) [@Hermitian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hermitian)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2012, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sunbeam-bread-top-shelf-product-or-cheap-off-brand/611968/25 "2012-02-07T20:19:45Z")
> [@rock\_party](#): > > Snow white, textureless, bland, turns to dough and sticks to the roof of your mouth is the > opposite of a high quality bread. Yuk! This is mass produced cotton that is ment to be made > cheaply. > Whole wheat breads are usually better as far as texture, but the store bought ones aren’t all that > much better. Some denser brands with wheatberry and fiber aren’t so bad. > > There’s a french bakery in my town that sells REAL bread: Crisp flakey crust, chewy and firm inside > with air pockets all different sizes and OMG is it ever delicious! To bad they sell out by 9am almost > every morning. I guess it is all about perspective. I consider white bread to be the pinnacle in taste, but it is just not as healthy. As far as I’m concerned, the purpose of white bread is to not taste like whole wheat crap. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2012, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sunbeam-bread-top-shelf-product-or-cheap-off-brand/611968/26 "2012-02-07T20:36:56Z")
> [@Hermitian](#): > > As far as I’m concerned, the purpose of white bread is to not taste like whole wheat crap. Also to not have whole seeds bigger than my freaking little fingernail studded throughout. If I want sunflower seeds, I’ll buy a box. Ten-grain, twelve-grain, fifteen-grain…you health enthusiasts know they’re just going out and throwing whatever looks seedy/grainy/organic in because they know the bigger the number in front of “-grain”, the more popular it’ll be, right? I want BREAD…white, soft and holds its shape like a champion when you squish it into little balls. Unfortunately, I do not get BREAD…I get a sampler mosaic from multiple granaries… ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2012, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sunbeam-bread-top-shelf-product-or-cheap-off-brand/611968/27 "2012-02-07T21:36:39Z")
> [@jayjay](#): > > Also to not have whole seeds bigger than my freaking little fingernail studded throughout. If I want sunflower seeds, I’ll buy a box. Ten-grain, twelve-grain, fifteen-grain…you health enthusiasts know they’re just going out and throwing whatever looks seedy/grainy/organic in because they know the bigger the number in front of “-grain”, the more popular it’ll be, right? > > I want BREAD…white, soft and holds its shape like a champion when you squish it into little balls. Unfortunately, I do not get BREAD…I get a sampler mosaic from multiple granaries… White bread should not have anything in it. That said, for me, white bread should be something along [these lines](http://www.csehpekseg.hu/hungarikum/csaky-kenyer.jpg) or [these lines](http://www.thefreshloaf.com/files/u5218/Pain_a_l'ancienne_Crumb.JPG). That’s just regular white bread, but not that cottony Wonder Bread style crap that is just a vehicle for whatever is inside. I admit, I do use the Wonder Bread style bread for various comfort foods – grilled cheese, PB&J, American-style toast, etc. But for when I want to taste actual bread, it’s something akin to what I linked to: Crisp crust, chewy interior, an irregular crumb (it could be dense, it could be airy, but it should not be a homogenous mass), and the taste of _bread_. And it needs to be within a half day of being baked–it goes stale fast. But when it is fresh, oh my fucking God, with a pat of quality butter, there is perhaps no more perfect a food in this world. It is that good, and honestly needs no other toppings. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2012, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sunbeam-bread-top-shelf-product-or-cheap-off-brand/611968/28 "2012-02-07T22:41:53Z")
Can’t really argue with that. All I ask is that it not have the generative units of a dozen or more different species of plant in it. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2012, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sunbeam-bread-top-shelf-product-or-cheap-off-brand/611968/29 "2012-02-07T23:42:50Z")
> [@Rhiannon8404](#): > > Is it a regional brand? I’ve never heard of it. I thought this was going to be about kitchen appliances. > > If it’s any thing like Wonder bread then I would not call it “top shelf” at all. This. Both thisses, in fact. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sunbeam-bread-top-shelf-product-or-cheap-off-brand/611968.md?page=1)