Bean
One Bean
Goes beyond the basics. Think an in-house roasting program, house-made syrups, or a seasonal pour-over menu.
The Specialty Coffee Guide
Issue Nº 01
San Francisco · Chicago · New York
Private beta
Some coffee is
worth the detour.
Bean is two things at once. A curated guide to shops our team has actually vetted, rated one to three beans. And your own ranking, built by comparing every shop you visit against the last one you loved.
All coffee is good coffee. Bean just helps you find your next favorite.
Store links go live at launch.
1,804
Shops on the map
3
Bean rating tiers
Nº 01
Coverage
Where Bean is open right now.
Bean launches a city only once there is enough on the map to be worth opening the app for. Every shop below is a real specialty shop or roaster, reviewed before it lands. The guide layer, the hand-vetted part with bean ratings, follows once our team has walked the city themselves.
Figures current as of this release
01
California
1,180 shops / 34 cities
02
Ohio
517 shops / 31 cities
03
New York
47 shops / 5 cities
04
Illinois
41 shops / Chicago
05
Washington DC
19 shops
—
Your city
Tell us where next
All coffee is good coffee. If your favorite shop is not on Bean, that does not make it any less great - everyone's taste is different.
The Bean editorial standard
Nº 02
The rating key
A bean rating is an editorial judgement made by our team, not an average of user reviews. It is a signal for what makes a shop worth seeking out before you ever walk in.
Two Beans
Everything a one bean shop does, plus something extra. A standout menu item or a rare bean selection that makes them one of a kind.
Three Beans
Pushes the boundaries of what cafes are today. Experimenting with coffee while staying approachable and welcoming to everyone.
Nº 03
Your ranking
Nobody thinks in stars.
Asked to score a flat white out of five, everybody says four. So Bean never asks. You say whether a shop was world class, solid, or not for you, and then it asks the only question you can actually answer: this one, or that one?
- 01Pick a bucket. World class, solid shop, or not for me.
- 02Answer a few head-to-head matchups against shops you have already been to.
- 03Bean places it in your ranked list and works out the score from where it landed.
Which was better?
2 of 3
Saint Frank
Russian Hill, SF
Your pick
OR
The Coffee Movement
Nob Hill, SF
Your pick
Nº 04
In the app
Start your guide.
Bean is in private beta on iOS and Android. Store links go live at launch, and the guide expands city by city.
Know a shop we are missing?
[email protected]