Bean & Bean Coffee is the first Korean American mother-daughter-powered coffee brand with an inspiring backstory of gender equity. Bean & Bean is focused on Female Equity in Coffee. Women make up more than 70% of coffee labor — from farmers to baristas — but are paid substantially less and have fewer workers’ rights than men. Bean & Bean has a conscious commitment to source from female producers whenever possible. Right now, more than half of Bean & Bean coffee is from women-led or owned coffee farms. All producers are fair trade and organic certified, to guarantee that all workers receive a livable wage, no exceptions. Bean & Bean believes in supply chain transparency. That means they have a real relationship with their coffee producers. (Like, they actually know each other and keep in touch via text and zoom.)

Each Bean & Bean coffee bag contains enough beans for 20-24 cups and are available on a subscription model — with 10% off. 1% of all proceeds are donated to the Costa Rica-based Sloth Institute to help injured baby sloths reintegrate into healthy ecosystems. 

The duo behind ethically sourced Bean & Bean is mother Rachel and daughter Jiyoon, both certified Q graders (a.k.a. coffee sommeliers). Jiyoon’s parents, who immigrated from South Korea in 2000, opened their first coffee shop in New York City in 2008 and pioneered the first-ever Queens, NY coffee roastery. 

Today, Bean & Bean has 4 locations. Each coffee is sourced, cupped, and curated by the mother-daughter duo. That’s why they have survived three major obstacles — the 2008 financial recession, the COVID-19 pandemic, and their first brick and mortar being right next to a Starbucks. 

Not that it’s been easy — Jiyoon is pulling double duty, a Harvard Business School MBA candidate in the mornings and a coffee connoisseur at night, experiencing the shutdown as a crash course in saving a family business.