THE BEAN TURNS 30!
It all started way back in 1990 when a quaint little coffee house opened its doors in West Vancouver with an in-store 5-kilo Probat coffee roaster. It didn’t take long for news to travel about this “new” coffee house, a new gathering place for locals, built around the love of coffee. Slowly more Bean Around the World coffeehouses carved their way into the hearts of the people from the North Shore to Point Grey, each as unique as its owner. With the increased demand for Beans rich dark roast, a roastery was forged, and more independently owned locations joined the growing family.
In 2008 the two owners of the Bean roastery travelled down to Antigua Guatemala and met with Ricardo Zelaya, a local farmer and toured his plantation during picking season. Eight farms were visited in total, one of them the most remote that sits on the Honduran border, Finca Carrizal. This isolated community was home to seventy plus children that live there year-round with their families and this number swells during the picking season to hundreds. In order to give back to this amazing community it was apparent that an educational resource would be a beneficial asset. BATW then committed to the funding and build of a brand-new three-room schoolhouse with an attached kitchen and washroom facility that reached completion in 2010. To date over 1000 children have received an education and the Bean continues to pay for the teachers’ salaries and fundraise for supplies and technology as an ongoing effort to support the school and enrich the community that houses it.
Over the next decade Bean Around the World continued to grow organically and watched as coffee trends came and went. The industry evolved and the Bean honed its craft but remained true to its iconic dark flavour profile. The focus always on purchasing the highest quality arabica beans and roasting on demand to provide the freshest coffee to all its customers. From its humble beginning in 1990 to its 30th anniversary this October 22, 2020, we are forever thankful to our Bean partners and loyal Bean customers. We couldn’t have done it alone and the support of our surrounding communities has made BATW what it is today.
