The Better World Beans Story

Andrew on his first trip to the DR with farmer Fella in June 2011.

Dominican Republic shares the island of Hispañola in the Caribbean

In the summer of 2011, Founder/CEO Andrew Hermann traveled to the rural mountain village of Franco Bidó, Dominican Republic. Moved by the hospitality and generosity of small scale family coffee farmers, Andrew began to learn about the coffee production process. Every summer and soon every few months after Andrew returned to Franco Bidó to learn from these farmers and understand the complexities of the coffee industry.

Frustrated that these small scale family coffee farmers were losing money selling high quality specialty grade coffee to the mass international market, Andrew embarked on a journey that led to the creation of Better World Beans.

In June 2015 and at age 19, Andrew imported our first small batch of 1,000 lbs. of coffee which was roasted in Cincinnati, OH.

The Better World Beans model was simple. Export coffee direct from the farms, roast coffee to order and send fresh roasted coffee in the mail to consumers. He believed by bringing consumers and producers as close to one another as possible the model could transform small scale coffee farmers’ lives and create much needed economic stability.

Throughout college at Xavier University in Cincinnati, Ohio Andrew learned from fellow entrepreneurs and began Better World Beans. The Better World Beans coffee is roasted by our friends at Deeper Roots Coffee in Cincinnati and shipped direct to you!

Our coffee has been sold in over 24 states nationwide in schools, churches, universities, coffee shops, and homes. Each sip of Better World Beans coffee contributes to an economically just model and the continued transformation of rural life in the Dominican Republic.

While we started out with coffee because it was the main crop in the area, the goal of our work is to help diversify our partner farms into many other sustainable crops to improve the soil fertility, protect the environment, increase small landholder incomes, and improve economic vitality. Some crops such as bananas, plantains, yucca, oranges, grapefruit, and cacao (the chocolate tree) are great to plant in with the coffee. Our on-going work to help diversify the farms is made possible through purchasing our coffee.

We hope to offer eco-tourism trips soon too to meet the farmers and learn about the coffee production process! Interested? Send us a message!