I thought I was doing something harmless.
I had a bag of dried beans sitting in the pantry, and I was planning to make a big pot of soup. The usual instructions said to cover the beans with water and let them soak.
But when I reached for the water, I noticed a bottle of club soda in the refrigerator.
And I wondered:
What would happen if I soaked the beans in club soda instead of ordinary tap water?
It seemed like a harmless experiment.
Club soda is mostly water, after all. It simply contains dissolved carbon dioxide and, depending on the brand, small amounts of mineral salts.
So I poured the club soda over the dried beans, covered them, and left them to soak.
The next day, I drained them, added fresh liquid and the rest of my soup ingredients, and started cooking.
One pot of soup later, I had my answer.
And the result was more interesting than I expected.
First Things First: Was the Club Soda Safe for Soaking Beans?
Yes.
Plain, unflavored club soda is essentially carbonated water, so using it to soak dried beans isn’t inherently dangerous.
The important word here is plain.
You don’t want to use a flavored sparkling beverage containing large amounts of sugar, acids, artificial sweeteners, or other ingredients.
Plain club soda is a completely different thing from soda pop.
Club soda may contain dissolved carbon dioxide and small quantities of minerals or salts, depending on the product.
Those ingredients aren’t going to turn ordinary dried beans into something dangerous.
The bigger question is whether club soda actually changes the beans.
And that is where the experiment gets interesting.
What Happened to the Beans During the Soak?
The first thing I noticed was something you would expect from any proper bean soak:
The beans absorbed water and expanded.
Dried beans are dehydrated seeds.
When they’re placed in liquid, they gradually absorb that liquid and become larger and softer.
That’s the whole purpose of soaking.
But there was one subtle difference.
When I first opened the container, there was a layer of tiny bubbles clinging to some of the beans.
The club soda had started releasing its dissolved carbon dioxide.
That made the beans look slightly different from a normal water soak.
But the bubbles didn’t remain there forever.
Once the club soda warmed up and lost carbonation, most of the fizz disappeared.
And that led to the first big realization:
The carbonation wasn’t going to magically penetrate the beans and make them fizzy.
The beans were simply absorbing liquid.
Did the Beans Become Carbonated?
No.
This was probably the question I was most curious about.
After soaking overnight, I tasted one of the beans before cooking.
There was no noticeable sparkling sensation.
The beans weren’t carbonated.
That makes sense.
Carbon dioxide dissolved in a cold liquid escapes as the liquid warms and the container is opened.
The dry beans are primarily absorbing the liquid itself.
So if you’re imagining beans that somehow become little carbonated legumes, that’s not what happens.
The club soda behaves much more like water than like a carbonated soft drink once it has been sitting around for a while.
Then Why Did I Notice a Difference?
The difference wasn’t really the bubbles.
It was the chemistry of the water.
This is where things get more complicated.
Bean texture during cooking can be affected by the chemistry of the cooking liquid.
Minerals, pH, and other components of the water can influence how quickly beans soften.
Different types of beans also behave differently.
The age of the beans matters.
The variety matters.
The hardness of the water matters.
Even storage conditions can affect cooking time.
So if your club soda contains minerals or salts, those ingredients can theoretically influence the cooking process.
But this doesn’t mean every bottle of club soda will produce dramatically different beans.
In fact, you may notice almost no difference at all.
My Beans Looked Plumper After Soaking
After the overnight soak, the beans looked noticeably larger.
That’s exactly what you want.
The dry, wrinkled surfaces had become smoother.
Some beans had almost doubled in apparent size.
A few split during soaking.
That isn’t necessarily a problem.
Beans don’t all absorb liquid at exactly the same rate.
Some are older.
Some have tiny cracks.
Some varieties have thinner skins.
The important thing was that the beans were hydrated enough to begin cooking.
I drained the soaking liquid and rinsed the beans before adding them to the soup.
That was an important step.
I didn’t want to carry the soaking liquid into the finished soup because I wanted to start cooking with fresh liquid and control the final flavor.
Did the Soup Taste Like Club Soda?
Absolutely not.
This was another thing I was curious about.
After cooking the beans for a long time with vegetables, broth, herbs, and seasonings, there was no obvious “club soda” flavor.
The carbonation was gone.
The soup tasted like bean soup.
The beans had their normal earthy, creamy character.
There wasn’t a strange sparkling flavor hiding in the broth.
If I hadn’t known how the beans had been soaked, I don’t think I would have guessed.
The Beans Became Creamy
The biggest thing I noticed after cooking was the texture.
The beans became soft and creamy inside.
The skins held together reasonably well, while the centers became tender enough to blend naturally into the soup.
This is exactly what you want from beans in a hearty soup.
Some of the beans remained intact.
Others began breaking apart.
That gave the broth a thicker, richer consistency.
And that’s where the experiment became difficult to judge.
Was the club soda responsible?
Maybe partly.
But there were so many other variables that it would be impossible to say from one pot.
The bean variety, age, cooking time, temperature, water chemistry, and ingredients all affect the final texture.
So I wouldn’t claim that club soda is a secret miracle ingredient for perfectly cooked beans.
It isn’t.
One Important Thing: Don’t Add Acid Too Early
This experiment also reminded me of a much more important bean-cooking principle.
Acidic ingredients can make beans take longer to soften.
Ingredients such as tomatoes, vinegar, citrus juice, and some other acidic foods are often better added after the beans have had a chance to become tender.
That’s especially relevant when making tomato-based bean soups.
If your beans seem to be taking forever to soften, the problem may have more to do with the cooking liquid and ingredients than with the fact that you used club soda during soaking.
So if you’re experimenting with beans, change one variable at a time.
Otherwise, you won’t know what actually caused the result.
What About Salt?
Salt and beans have a surprisingly complicated relationship.
For years, many home cooks were told that salt makes beans tough.
Modern cooking experience has shown that salting beans during soaking or cooking does not necessarily produce the tough results people once feared, and some cooks deliberately salt their soaking water because it can improve seasoning and texture.
But the important thing for this experiment is that club soda is not automatically a substitute for salted bean water.
Some club sodas contain minerals or sodium, but the amount varies considerably from one brand to another.
If you want precise control over the seasoning of your beans, it’s better to add salt intentionally rather than relying on the mineral content of a particular bottle of club soda.
What If the Club Soda Was Very Cold?
Cold club soda isn’t a problem.
In fact, soaking beans in cold liquid is perfectly normal.
The beans gradually absorb the liquid as they sit.
The club soda will lose carbonation over time, particularly as it warms.
You don’t need the liquid to remain fizzy for the soaking process to work.
The beans aren’t depending on carbonation to hydrate.
They’re depending on the liquid.
What If I Use Sparkling Water Instead?
Plain sparkling water is another reasonable option.
The difference between sparkling water and club soda depends on the specific product.
Club soda commonly contains added minerals or salts, while sparkling water may be naturally carbonated or have carbonation added.
For bean soaking, however, the practical difference is unlikely to be dramatic.
You’re still primarily providing water for the dried beans to absorb.
If you have ordinary drinking water available, there’s usually no compelling reason to buy sparkling water specifically for soaking beans.
What If I Use Tonic Water?
That’s where I’d stop the experiment.
Tonic water isn’t simply carbonated water.
It commonly contains sweeteners and quinine, along with other ingredients.
It is not the same thing as club soda or plain sparkling water.
You don’t need those extra ingredients in your beans.
If you’re going to experiment, stick with plain, unflavored club soda or sparkling water.
What About Flavored Sparkling Water?
I’d avoid it.
Even if a flavored sparkling water has little or no sugar, it can contain flavoring compounds, acids, or other ingredients that may affect the taste of the beans.
There is no real advantage.
Plain water is predictable.
Plain club soda is predictable.
Flavored sparkling water introduces unnecessary variables.
And when you’re trying to understand a cooking experiment, unnecessary variables are exactly what you don’t want.
Could Club Soda Make Beans Cook Faster?
This is the claim I would be most skeptical about.
You may find people online claiming that carbonated water dramatically speeds up bean cooking.
But carbonation itself isn’t a reliable magic shortcut.
Once the club soda warms and loses its dissolved carbon dioxide, you’re essentially dealing with water containing whatever minerals were present in the product.
If a particular water chemistry changes cooking time, that doesn’t mean the bubbles are responsible.
So I wouldn’t buy club soda expecting it to transform beans that normally take hours into beans that cook in half the time.
If you’re having trouble cooking beans, there are other factors worth investigating.
The Age of Your Beans May Matter More
One of the biggest hidden variables in bean cooking is age.
Dried beans can remain usable for a long time when stored properly, but older beans may take longer to become tender.
That’s one reason two bags of beans can behave completely differently even when you use exactly the same recipe.
One batch may become creamy and tender relatively quickly.
Another may seem stubborn for hours.
If your beans refuse to soften, don’t immediately blame the soaking liquid.
The beans themselves may be the problem.
Why Soaking Beans in the First Place?
Soaking isn’t absolutely mandatory for every type of dried bean, but it can be useful.
A traditional overnight soak allows the beans to absorb water before cooking.
That can reduce the time needed to bring them to tenderness.
It can also make the cooking process more predictable.
There are different methods for preparing dried beans, including overnight soaking and quicker hot-soak methods.
Whatever method you choose, the beans should eventually be cooked until they’re properly tender.
What Happened to the Soup After One Pot?
By the time the soup was finished, the beans were tender.
The broth had become rich and hearty.
Some beans remained whole, while others softened enough to thicken the liquid.
There was no obvious club-soda flavor.
No strange fizz.
No unusual aftertaste.
And no dramatic visual difference in the finished soup.
If anything, the most interesting part of the experiment was realizing how little the club soda changed the overall character of the dish.
It wasn’t a disaster.
But it also wasn’t a revolutionary bean-cooking hack.
Would I Do It Again?
Probably—but only if I happened to have club soda available.
I wouldn’t go to the store specifically to buy it for soaking beans.
That’s because ordinary water works perfectly well.
The experiment was fun, and it produced a perfectly good pot of soup, but there was no dramatic improvement that justified spending extra money.
If you’re curious, though, there’s little reason not to try it with plain club soda.
Just remember that your results may be different because of the particular beans and club soda you’re using.
What I Would Change Next Time
If I wanted to make this experiment more useful, I’d conduct a proper side-by-side test.
I’d take the same type and batch of beans and divide them into two containers.
One would be soaked in tap water.
The other would be soaked in plain club soda.
Then I’d cook both batches under identical conditions.
Same pot size.
Same cooking temperature.
Same amount of liquid.
Same cooking time.
Same seasonings.
Then I’d compare:
- Soaking time
- Bean expansion
- Cooking time
- Skin texture
- Interior creaminess
- Flavor
- Final soup consistency
That would provide a much better answer than relying on one pot of soup.
And honestly, that’s what makes kitchen experiments fun.
You don’t always discover a revolutionary trick.
Sometimes you discover that something you expected to make a huge difference barely changes anything.
That’s useful information too.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I soak dry beans in club soda?
Yes. Plain, unflavored club soda can be used as the soaking liquid for dried beans.
Will club soda make beans taste fizzy?
No. The carbonation dissipates, and the beans don’t become carbonated.
Does club soda make beans cook faster?
There is no guarantee. The mineral content and water chemistry may affect cooking in some circumstances, but carbonation itself shouldn’t be treated as a reliable shortcut.
Should I use flavored sparkling water?
It’s better to use plain club soda or plain sparkling water. Flavored products can introduce unnecessary flavors and ingredients.
Can I use tonic water?
It’s not recommended. Tonic water contains additional ingredients and is very different from plain club soda.
Do I need to rinse beans after soaking?
Rinsing the beans after soaking is a reasonable way to remove the soaking liquid and start the cooking process with fresh liquid.
Can I add tomatoes to beans while they’re cooking?
Acidic ingredients can make beans take longer to soften, so many cooks prefer adding acidic ingredients after the beans have become tender or mostly tender.
Why are some dried beans difficult to soften?
Bean age, variety, storage conditions, water chemistry, cooking temperature, and acidic ingredients can all influence how quickly beans become tender.
The Final Verdict
So, what happened after I soaked my dry beans in club soda and turned them into a pot of soup?
Honestly, not as much as I expected—and that’s what made the experiment interesting.
The beans absorbed the liquid normally.
They became plumper.
The carbonation disappeared.
The beans did not become fizzy.
The finished soup did not taste like club soda.
And after cooking, the beans became tender and creamy enough to make a satisfying pot of soup.
The club soda wasn’t a magic ingredient.
It didn’t suddenly turn ordinary dried beans into something extraordinary.
But it also didn’t ruin them.
If you have a bottle of plain club soda sitting in the refrigerator and you’re curious, you can use it for an experiment like this.
Just don’t expect the bubbles to perform miracles.
The biggest lesson was that beans care much more about proper hydration, cooking conditions, bean quality, and the chemistry of the cooking liquid than they do about whether the water happened to be fizzy when the soaking began.
And sometimes that’s the best outcome a kitchen experiment can give you.
You start with a strange idea.
You expect something dramatic.
You end up with a perfectly good pot of soup—and a better understanding of what’s actually happening inside the pot.