Dried beans are best - just ask the experts! 

 ‘Here in Spain, what we usually do is buy the dry bean and then cook it ourselves which is the tradition here. Between beans in tins, beans in jars and dried beans, the choice is always the dry, because in the jars or cans they use chemical products.’ Mario Castellanos of Legumbres Castellanos, Spain’s largest producer of gourmet beans

‘With dried beans there's less waste, you're not chucking away loads of tins and jars the whole time. Not only do we save the planet, it's a nice, therapeutic thing to cook: a couple of hours of almost entirely hands-off cooking time as the beans simmer with the aromatics of your choice. Ingredients like onions, garlic, herbs, and chillies infuse the dried beans with tons of flavour as they slowly cook and soak up all that aromatic liquid. The tradeoff for your time is a pot of deeply flavoured, complex beans that you will never, ever be able to get out of a can. It's just not the same if you add identical ingredients to a pot of already-cooked canned beans. So the rule of thumb is: anytime you want to add your own flavour profile to your beans for any kind of bean soup, stew, or salad, make your own—it makes all the difference.’ Bon Appetit magazine

‘When working with dry beans, you control the ingredients you cook with, so it’s easy to minimise or eliminate the use of salt, added sugars, and any other ingredients you may prefer to avoid. Similarly, you can add seasonings such as herbs during the cooking process if using dry beans, and you have more control over the final texture of the cooked beans. It may [also] be easier to know where your beans are sourced from if you purchase dry beans over canned. Whereas you can purchase dry beans from a farmer or processor implementing farming practices you support or to benefit local food systems, sourcing information can be harder to find in canned beans.’ Dr Chelsea Didinger, alegumeaday.com

‘An heirloom plant is a varietal that has not been developed via large-scale farm production, but rather passed down decade after decade through families and agricultural communities. Heirloom beans are often more difficult to grow with lower yields than their commercial counterparts, but the depth of flavour makes them super special.’ Blue House Farm, California