The Human Bean combines the art of coffee with genuine hospitality, education, and community giving

A Human Bean barista hands out a box of coffee. Photo courtesy of The Human Bean.

By Emily Kemme

The morning of Tuesday, December 28 dawned bleak and cold. My house was colder than it should have been, even for a wintery Colorado day.

It looked like the end of 2021 was barreling toward a bitterly cold conclusion. The power went out around 9:30 p.m. the night before, and while doing the dishes by flashlight seemed a minor hazard, spending the night without heat or hot water was an unpleasant reality. 

The next morning, I wracked my brain for the closest coffee shop: there was a Human Bean kiosk on 10th Street in Greeley near home. My goal was to keep the coffee as hot as possible for as long as possible.

After placing my order, the young woman framed in the drive-thru window asked me if I wanted a bean with my coffee.

I didn’t know what that meant, but my brain was too frozen to process much, so I just nodded yes.

Smiling, the barista handed me the coffee. On top of the lid perched a single espresso bean wrapped in chocolate, candy coated like an M&M. Before it could roll off the lid and be lost in the netherworld on the floor of my car, I popped the bean into my mouth — and crunched.

And in that moment, the world seemed just a bit warmer. Melty chocolate can do that.

“That particular bean is the genesis of The Human Bean,” said Frank Sherman, who along with his wife, Kay, owns ten of the coffee franchises in Northern Colorado. “It’s one of our Costa Rica espresso beans and we give it to all our customers who buy something from us, and even those who don’t. You chew it up and it’ll have you bouncing off the wall.”

The Human Bean in Northern Colorado encompasses 11 freestanding double-sided drive-thrus and a coffee truck the size of a bus stationed on CSU’s campus in Fort Collins. The company sends its baristas to truck driving school to learn how to drive it. Photo courtesy of The Human Bean.

Sherman has lived in Colorado for the last 25 years. He’d made a name for himself in a career spent turning around companies; along the way he’d had opportunities to get to know a lot of people. When Art Linkletter, the beloved radio and TV personality, reached out to talk about the fast growth his granddaughter’s coffee company was experiencing in her company’s early days, Sherman got involved. He bought his first Human Bean franchise in 2009, and plans to open his 11th shop in Wellington soon.

Each Human Bean is a double-sided drive-thru with a walk-up window. The first one in Northern Colorado opened on 23rd Avenue in Evans in 2004.

Along with the standalone kiosks, the company operates a coffee truck on the Colorado State University campus. The truck’s home base is Moby Arena. Although it travels to assorted events — the Greeley Stampede is one of them — its home is on CSU turf when school is in session, he said.

The company also uses the truck as a hands-on learning experience for its young baristas, most of whom are college students.

“It’s as big as a bus and we send our baristas to truck driving school to be able to drive it. It’s a way we can market our product directly to people in our community rather than them coming to us.”

Learning how to drive a huge truck is one aspect of the educational touchstone that defines the company.

Sherman sources coffee beans from Costa Rica and other growers in third world markets that exist in the band between the Tropic of Capricorn and the Tropic of Cancer, the geographic latitudes above and below the equator defining the tropical climate where coffee beans are grown.

“Human Bean coffee buyers go into these third world markets to buy coffee beans, we pay above market price for the beans and we’ve worked with farmers for over 20 years helping them grow better beans that are more environmentally friendly,” Sherman said.

His baristas vie for the opportunity to go on buying trips to meet the farmers and learn about growing and selecting the beans. 

“They’re always world class beans, small batch, single origin coffee plantation, it’s a bean we’ve fallen in love with,” he said.

He recognizes that coffee growing is a hard way of making a living, and often, the coffee farmers don’t know where their beans end up.

That’s why Human Bean partners with the growers, building fresh water pumps for farmers, building schools or hiring a teacher. They also bring the growers to the United States to show them how their beans are handled.

Connecting to the community

Kay Sherman runs the warehouse and manages a team that does community events. As a business, community outreach is a top strategy.

“There is a lot of giving back. We’ve plowed more than one million dollars back into the community,” Frank Sherman said.

The biggest event of the year is Coffee for A Cure in October. The event focuses on breast cancer awareness, donating one hundred percent of sales on that day and more to the North Colorado Medical Center Foundation and the UCHealth Northern Colorado Foundation.

The donations are earmarked for plugging gaps for people who have cancer, Sherman said, and are designated to provide funds for people who’ve lost jobs or need gas or grocery money. 

Every year, The Human Bean participates in Coffee for a Cure. On that day, 100% of proceeds are donated to the North Colorado Medical Center Foundation and the UCHealth Northern Colorado Foundation and are earmarked for breast cancer patients. Photo courtesy of The Human Bean.

The event invites guest baristas from the community to talk about their causes while handing patrons coffee orders from the kiosks or the coffee truck. Sherman said that giving levels in 2021 were a record, reaching almost $70,000 in one day.

“That’s coming from the community, and it goes right back into the community within the next few days,” he said.

He’s discovered over the years that the coffee business encompasses a lot more than business transactions and slinging coffee. 

“The baristas often ask customers how their day’s been going, and how they’re doing. And customers respond, often pouring their hearts out. One barista has adopted grandparents she met at The Bean; she goes to lunch with them,” Sherman said.

And as a business model, sometimes the smallest of things — like a candied espresso bean perched on top of a coffee lid — are all that’s needed to warm a heart. 

For more

For more information or to find the nearest The Human Bean, go to https://humanbeannortherncolorado.com.