Four-Nine Black Beans

Four-Nine Black Beans

　　When winter arrives, people in Taishan enjoy making soup with black beans, pairing them with pork lung, honey dates, loquat leaves, sand ginseng, northern ginseng, dried tangerine peel, and sliced mutton. This kind of black bean soup is soothing to the lungs and helps dissolve phlegm and relieve coughing. Therefore, black beans are a favorite legume among the locals. They are mainly produced in areas such as Hoiyin, Shalan, Siujiu, and Chunglow. Also known as black soybeans, these beans are as dark as ink and generally come in two types. One type has flat beans with black skin that has some grayish-white patches, and indentations on the back — often referred to as “cow hoof prints.” These are the genuine variety of black beans, harvested in the eighth lunar month, hence also called “August beans.” The other type has round beans without indentations on the back and can be cultivated two to three times a year. They are referred to as “three-harvest beans,” but their efficacy is not as good as the first type.