Subscriber Benefit
As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe Now
Company history: Needham King Hurst started his Indianapolis business in 1938 as a coffee, tea and sugar distributor but got into the dried-bean business in 1947, finding demand for quality dry beans in small packages. Hurst soon began selling packaged beans to several major grocery chains, including the A&P Tea Co., Winn-Dixie and Kroger. Today, the business is still owned and operated by the second, third and fourth generations of the Hurst family.
Birth of HamBeens: In the 1960s, Hurst asked a local chemist he knew to develop a dry ham flavoring. The company began including packets of the flavoring in packages of beans and sold them under the HamBeens name, which was trademarked in 1963. HamBeens became the first mass-produced seasoned dry-bean product in the country.
15 Bean Soup: In 1986, Hurst introduced the iconic HamBeens 15 Bean Soup. It was the first Hurst product to gain national distribution. Today, it is the top-selling brand of seasoned dry beans in the country and can be found in almost every grocery store nationwide.
Products: In addition to its traditional flavor, HamBeens 15 Bean Soup comes in Chicken and Cajun flavors. Other HamBeens products include Great Northern Beans, Pinto Beans, Split HamPeas, Slow Cooker Chili, Italian Bean Soup, BBQ Style Cowboy Beans, Baby Limas, Black Bean Soup and Blackeye HamPeas.
Headquarters: N.K. Hurst operated at 230 W. McCarty St. in downtown Indianapolis from 1947 until 2017, when it moved to a new, modern production facility in Zionsville. Its old building was remodeled into an events venue called the Heirloom at N.K. Hurst.
Fun fact: N.K. Hurst operated a restaurant in the late 1960s and early 1970s near the Indianapolis State Fairgrounds on East 38th Street along the Monon railroad tracks called HamBeens Junction.
—Compiled by Jeff Newman
Please enable JavaScript to view this content.