Debunking The Bean Myth

By Eva Barrows | Illustration by Abigail Brendlen | Fall 2025

We brew coffee beans, scrape fresh vanilla beans into dessert batter and simmer cannellini beans for hearty soups. On the surface, these beans have obvious similarities, but the truth is, some things we call beans aren’t beans at all. So what is a bean, exactly?

Beans are products of the Fabaceae plant family. The fruit—or vessels containing seeds—of this family are called legumes, commonly referred to as pods. When ripe, the elongated legume pod splits along its edges to release its seeds.

Beans are the seeds within the pod, but bean can also refer to both the pod and the seeds inside. Green beans are enjoyed fresh off the vine, pod and all. Other varieties, like heirloom borlotti and kidney beans, are dried and their seeds are harvested from the pod shells to cook later.

Beans are one of the largest legume groups and are cultivated for their high protein content. Pulses—legume seed types grown to be eaten or planted, including peas, lentils and peanuts—are also members of the Fabaceae plant family but are differentiated from the bean group.

It is easy to understand why there’s confusion around what a bean is. “I think what has happened over the millennia is people have started to call fruits that look like beans beans, even though botanically they’re not the same thing,” explains Jim Salyards, associate director of horticultural initiatives at Filoli Historic House & World-Class Garden.

For instance, the whole coffee beans you grind up each morning have that bean shape—rounded on one side and flat on the other. But these beans come from the Rubiaceae plant family and are harvested from seeds of coffee cherries.
Cacao beans, what’s processed into chocolate, are fruit pulp-covered seeds that grow inside a pod. Yet cacao pods are not legumes but fruit from the Malvaceae plant family.

Vanilla beans are especially tricky because they really do look just like green beans! From the Orchidaceae plant family, the vanilla orchid produces bean-like fruit pods. These pods are then cured and used to flavor delicious desserts.

What disqualifies vanilla, cacao and coffee from being beans is not that they are seeds or fruit (because beans are both those things), but that they are not from the Fabaceae plant family. That’s it. They just aren’t part of the bean family.

So even if our favorite beans are not, in the botanical sense, beans, we can continue to bestow the title upon them and enjoy each and every form they might take.

Eva Barrows is a San Francisco Peninsula freelance writer and developmental editor for fiction and nonfiction books. She writes for Walks San Francisco City Guide and Kampgrounds of America. Eva is currently writing a historical novel. See more of her work at evabarrows.com.

Abigail Brendlen is a multidisciplinary artist based in California. Her work captures the art and life in everyday compositions through playful, layered textures. A food and wine enthusiast, she’s always on to the next project—creative or culinary. View her portfolio at abigailbrendlen.art