Ceramic mug and a stove. Never dies.

My buddy Nate ran into this same thing at his place in Reno last month, where Splendor went over way smoother with total newbies than a round of Werewolf did. The reason is simple: euros give you something to look at and point to when you get stuck, but hidden role games ask you to read faces and remember what everyone said five minutes ago, and that's a skill most people haven't built up yet. So the real fix is to stop judging games by page count and start asking whether the game tells you what to do or makes you figure it out on your own.

Salt is actually the thing most people miss. A tablespoon or two in the soak water helps way more than baking soda, and it won't tear up the skins like that stuff does. Old beans are the other culprit, if they sat on the shelf for a year or two they'll never get soft no matter how long you cook them.