Two basics I cannot find...and I'm sure they are here in UK

Hello. I'm in Nottingham in the East Midlands. It's about 2.5 hours by train from london, but I seem to get down there enough that I'm keen on any advice.

I would like to find black beans. There are plenty of arab and turkish stores here in Notts, with beans galore, dried and canned. But, I'm after black beans... Mexican style... do not have to be seasoned...

And, this is embarassing, but white vinegar? I must be looking in the wrong place in tesco, sainsburys and ASDA. I can find plenty of cider vinegar, balsamic, wine... But, I wanted some cheap, huge amount of white vinegar to do some household cleaning...

Many thanks!
Rutabega

don't know about the vinegar ,but Sainsburys has black beans . they're canned and in the organic aisle.

It took me ages to find black beans!  They were near the "free from" foods for awhile, but my Sainsbury's has recently started carrying tortillas and refried beans, so they have moved over there to the "exotic" food section.  It's in a small box-type thing, not a can!

I've seen the white vinegar near the "generic oil" section (where the peanut oil and etc are).

Good luck! (It took me SIX MONTHS to find cocoa powder.)

I buy cheap malt vinegar instead of the white stuff, I use it for cleaning etc. Also, they have Black Beans at Asda, they are dry. IMO the tinned are harder to find here.

I've seen the dried black beans at Tesco and the tinned ones as well.  The dried ones will be called black turtle beans. 

Large jugs of white vinegar I have yet to see.  You can buy bottles of distilled malt vinegar in most major supermarkets.

I can find canned/tinned black beans everywhere, but maybe it's b/c I'm in London and it's generally in the Caribbean/'West Indian' section.  Try there in a large supermarket, otherwise check out if you have any specialty shops near you?

For white vinegar, I use cheap mal vinegar like everyone else...works close enough.

My local Sainsburys (both of them) and Tescos (both of them) carried tinned black beans for several years - and suddenly they've all vanished! 

I can find canned/tinned black beans everywhere, but maybe it's b/c I'm in London and it's generally in the Caribbean/'West Indian' section.  Try there in a large supermarket, otherwise check out if you have any specialty shops near you?

For white vinegar, I use cheap mal vinegar like everyone else...works close enough.

I'm in London as well, but I simply cannot find black beans!

Thanks! I will try the malt vinegar. I'll look into the black (turtle!) bean tips! I think once I asked and a Sainsbury employee asked if I meant turtle beans...So, great, this helps...

Best, Rutabega

Larger Tesco & Sainsburys usually have canned & black beans.

I've never had any problems finding white vinegar - any supermarket should have it.

In our two local Sainsbury's, I can't find tinned black beans.  I can find tinned black-eyed beans tho'.  Our local carries black beans (not black-eyed) in the So Organic range and it's in a carton rather than can.

Been here 11 years and I can tell you aren't going to find big jugs of white vinegar in regular grocery stores.  Some Asian stores might carry it.

I went shopping for taco soup ingredients yesterday and braced myself for the worst - but I found every type of bean on the list! What I did NOT find was stewed tomatoes. Just tomato paste and puree.

I didn't have a problem finding white vinegar. Actually, the only other thing I couldn't find since I've been here is corn syrup... had to use plain syrup instead (the yellow, tasteless kind). It worked just fine.

The cheapest place I've found so far for tinned black beans are the Asian supermarkets (in the English sense - Indian/Pakistani/Bangladeshi. Which is, coincidentally, also where I found yellow coarse cornmeal and ground almonds in bulk) - round Brick Lane they sell for about 59p compared to 99p for the organic ones the supermarkets carry. I'm not at home or I'd look up the brand name for you, sorry!

Try this site for a large quantity of white vinegar...
http://www.summernaturals.co.uk/

Corn syrup just doesn't seem to exist here.

Like I said, I get my black beans in the international aisle, in the Caribbean/West Indian food section...maybe b/c I'm in S/SE London where there's a large Caribbean population??