These are high quality, dried black beans. I like to make big batches and freeze them in portions for an easy side dish, or to use a part of a more complicated dish. They're always nice and clean, and I have never found any pebbles or anything else that isn't a bean in there. It's nice getting dried beans in bulk, & knowing Ihave them around. This size is a great compromise between little grocery store-sized bags, and the huge 50 lb bag, which is a little overwhelming unless you have a restaurant (yes, I'm looking at you, 40-something lbs of pinto beans in my laundry room).

We cooked 4lbs. Of black beans every other week, so we know about quality & price... and this beans from Sam’s are the best in the market and the lowest price too!

Purchased this for the Hurricane Melissa Black Relief Fund

Black beans are very good for you. I try to eat some every day, either as the base of a smoothie, or included in a dish. I really prefer working with dried beans as they only require about an hour in a pressure cooker and they're cheaper and more nutritious than canned. (Read: less sodium) These arrived very clean, no pebbles or stones to be found, at least in the bag i purchased. That said, always wash and inspect dried beans before cooking.

These beans are just fine. They arrived quickly and taste great. I make beans all the time and saw these so decided to try them since the price for the quantity is very good. Twelve pounds is a lot of beans, but they don't really spoil and we eat them all the time!

A friend gave me an America's Test Kitchen Cookbook with a fabulous recipe for black bean soup made from dried beans. It's a summer staple for when it's too hot to cook & a winter staple for when soup hits the spot. With this bag of beans, I'll be making it often. These beans also work great in Calico Beans & Piccadilly.

Plant-based whole foods- so healthy, nutritious and economical.

I'm only giving this 3 stars because the cooking instructions say to cook it for 2 minutes. Wrong! These need to be cooked in a covered stovetop dish for at least an hour. It took me a couple of tries to get it right. It's honestly just easier to buy them canned/precooked. Other than that, they're pretty good when cooked properly! I love black beans.

I've cooked these beans twice so far. The first batch was pre-soaked for eight hours before they were added to a chili to simmer longer, but I added tomatoes immediately after which probably hardened the pectin, so maybe my fault. The latest batch I cooked plain and according to the package instructions, and they were still hard. I attempted two basic internet solutions to save them: adding baking soda to the water and simply cooking a bit longer, which improved but didn't solve the problem that I was still crunching beans. So I did a lot more research and learned how the water's pH level and its calcium and magnesium content affects bean softness and think that Sam's might want to invest in some better R%26D into its bean-cooking instructions. A lot of places in the US, mine included, have hard water that doesn't work with your instructions. I'm still working through this bag on a consistent solution myself. This is all assuming you aren't selling us old beans, which would make cooking them impossible.

I have been buying this bags for a while now and they have always been broken to an extent. Most recent purchase- Large portion of the beans are pulverized. Or halved. You get so many shells/ peels making them appear dirty. Typing is not a big issue for me as I make my beans refried anyway but this time it was excessive. I wouldn't recommend to someone that serves their beans whole to their family. This is a good value even when comparing with the Great Value ones from Walmart, however it's not the quality I expect from Sam's.