Dean began roasting coffee in the late 1980's in Orange, MA. He
didn't discover his life's mission until he was 40 years old, and
he discovered it after working as an international lawyer working
with the Santa Fe, NM, based nonprofit organization Coffee Kids,
Inc., which assists children and families in coffee-growing communities
through development projects.
Dean starting his business with a $7000 grinder and 750 lbs. of
green coffee beans. Now, Dean's Beans roasts almost 500,000 lbs.
of coffee per year.
Growth has never been the prime focus of Dean's Beans - growth
has been secondary to paying the farmers a sustainable wage for
their beans, paying his employees a fair wage, buying organic, etc.
Nevertheless, Dean's is now a nationwide operation with sales in
450 outlets.
• Locations
Online and through retail locations nationwide.
• Passions
Dean's Beans has more coffee-related passions than anyone I know
of. All of their coffee is certified organic, fair-trade, shade-grown
and kosher. All of the coffee is bought with considerations in mind
for how the farmer, farm and community are treated.
Dean's Beans is a founding member of Cooperative Coffees, Inc.,
the first roaster's cooperative created to buy direct, Fair Trade
coffee from farmer coops.
Dean recently spent time in Rwanda helping with the program "Men
and Women Working Together to Overcome Gender-Based Violence."
He has also spent time in Guatemala, Kenya, Colombia and other countries
helping with programs that empower people and communities and promote
sustainable growing practices.
In 2004, many US soldiers in Iraq were buying coffee from Dean's
web site because the government contractor Halliburton's coffee
was so bad. A Halliburton employee e-mailed Dean from Iraq, asking
him to send US troops some of his beans to replace the US military
contractor's "lousy" coffee. After questioning why Halliburton
needed a donation considering their large budget, Dean ending up
sending over some coffee and "Make Coffee, Not War" bumper
stickers.
Dean played a pirate in one of the "Pirates of the Caribbean"
movies.
