Dean’s Beans Organic Coffee Company began in 1993 with a clear idea: a for-profit business could be a powerful tool for positive change. After years working as an environmental and indigenous rights lawyer, Dean Cycon came to coffee with a different approach. He had seen how global systems shaped the lives of farmers and their communities, and believed business itself needed to operate differently to create lasting impact.

That belief became the foundation of Dean’s Beans. From the beginning, the company has focused on building long-term relationships with coffee farming communities, sourcing organic, Fair Trade coffees, and approaching every part of the business with respect for the people and places that make coffee possible. The work has always been rooted in partnership, with the understanding that strong relationships lead to better coffee and stronger communities.

Over time, that approach has shaped who we are. We’ve spent more than three decades building connections with producers, investing in community-driven projects, and roasting high-quality coffee in small batches at our beanery in Orange, Massachusetts. The goal has stayed consistent: to use specialty coffee as a vehicle for positive social, economic, and ecological change.

The transition to worker ownership was a natural next step in the life of the company. When it came time for Dean to step away, selling the business to the people who had been doing the work and carrying the mission forward made sense. It kept the company grounded in its values and ensured that the decisions shaping its future would stay aligned with the purpose it was built on.

Today, Dean’s Beans operates as a worker-owned cooperative, with 14 owners collectively guiding the company’s future. Together, we bring decades of experience in roasting, sourcing, operations, and customer relationships, along with a shared commitment to doing this work thoughtfully and well.

That experience is grounded in more than thirty years of partnerships with coffee farming communities and long-standing relationships with customers who believe, like we do, that business can be a force for good. We’re responsible for both the day-to-day work and the long-term direction of the company. We make decisions together, stay connected to the people we work with, and keep the mission at the center of it all.

It’s a new structure, built on the same foundation: strong relationships, high-quality coffee, and a belief that how we do business matters just as much as what we produce.