The Taste of Beans

The Taste of Beans

David Sparks Ph.D.
David Sparks Ph.D.
Mark Brick, Professor of Plant Breeding and Genetics at Colorado State University has figured out how to breed an upright pinto bean. It's kind of a hybrid and I asked him: “What do the uprights taste like? You cannot tell the difference. They are identical. If you look at a dried, edible bean, there are 10 different market classes in the United States. Black beans, Navy beans, pinto beans, Northern beans, red beans, kidney beans, etc. Most of the taste in a being is the seed coat. If you have a white bean, the beings not going to have a lot of flavor, no tannins. It's like when you drink beer. What you are looking for is the tannins from the hops and some of those flavors that hops bring in. White beans don't bring any of those flavors in from the seed coat. Typically, when you think about eating white beans, how do you eat them? Pork and beans in tomato sauce with a little pork in there, great Northern’s, what do you think about, baked beans with some sugar in there to caramelize and give them flavor. But now, what about colored beans? Black beans or kidney beans. We go right to the salad bar and eat them straight. Because the seed coat imparts a flavor, we don't need to put sugar or tomato paste on them.”
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