Tinned Tomato Taste Test

My local preferred supermarket sells two varieties of tinned tomatoes, and neither of them are San Marzano, which I understand to be the brand-of-choice for today's foodie. Instead, they come in ordinary and premium types. The latter has a more gourmet-looking label and costs 46p (or 39p on special) instead of 31p. But is it worth the extra 15p?

A monster chilli cooking session provided the opportunity for a comparison: I bought four tins of each type, thinking to smooth out any quality-related difference in the finished product by combining them. (A real test would have been to make two separate batches, one with each kind, but I had neither the time nor inclination nor kitchen facilities for that!)

The premium chunky chopped look a bit more rugged when the tin is opened; the regular kind have lots of smooth juice, though it's not too thin.

Emptying each tin into a bowl shows the textural difference; interestingly the regular has a deeper red colour than the premium.

But the real difference is in the taste: comparing a spoonful of each, the regular tomatoes taste weak and slightly acidic compared to the rich, round flavour of the premium kind. For around 30p more per average pot of tomatoey-saucey thing, it seems worth the extra. Then again, given the cheapness of tinned tomatoes, 15p represents a 50% price increase. If the tomato flavour is the star and needs to shine through, I expect the premium would be the better pick. But if the dish is going to be loaded with other flavours and spiked with additional tomato paste, maybe it wouldn't be especially noticeable. Perhaps I do need to do that double-batch taste test after all...!