Do you remember those old dishwashing liquid commericals with Madge the manicurist? No? I guess I'm old. But when customers would question her on how mild the detergent was, she'd respond, "You're soaking in it." You can imagine how much fun the soaking discussion is for me. Some people insist on it, others don't care. I say as long as you're cooking good beans and not opening a can, you're way ahead of the pack. I tend not to soak.

Eric in Customer Service received a call recently about our Royal Corona beans not cooking. This confused us as we know exactly how old these are (we keep the lot numbers handy and we haven't had this bean for long). The caller cooked the beans for hours and they weren't softening. No salts, no acids, no reason! Then she said, "And I soaked them for 24 hours so they really should have cooked fast!" Bingo! There's the culprit. Whenever we hear about cooking problems, they always seem to stem from oversoaking. It's not intuitive but it seems to be the reality with our beans.

If you want to soak, I would suggest from 4 to 6 hours.