By Alicia Couch Payne
World class coffee, delicious baked goods, scrumptious sandwiches and true “Southern” hospitality, has found it’s way into our little corner of the world.
I first encountered the owners of The Bean Tap, Heather and Jennifer at a Buford Business Alliance (BBA) meeting. They are genuine, good natured women who decided to combine their love of good coffee, good food, and a heartfelt desire to help their community by forming a coffee house, they named, The Bean Tap.
The creation began when both Heather and Jennifer were dissatisfied with their career paths involving corporate chains and not being able to provide the type of atmosphere and menu they wanted.
The owners quickly learn your name and they encourage their customers to give their feedback on what they would like to see on the menu. They strive to provide the atmosphere and service you just cannot find at a corporate chain.
The backbone of their business is of course coffee drinks. They get their coffee roasted fresh every week from Rev Coffee Roasters in Smyrna, Georgia and have a large selection of coffee related beverages. They also have smoothies, Italian sodas, bubble teas, frappes, and bottled sodas.
The Bean Tap serves more than just beverages. They hand make a variety of baked goods every morning, including muffins, scones, little lemon cakes, cake pops, cupcakes, and their version of a doughnut called a monut. Monuts are little fluffy mounds of pure heaven. Moist and flavorful on the inside with a dusting of cinnamon sugar on the outside.
All of the products that they serve are made in the USA and some are even made locally.
Heather and Jennifer use The Bean Tap to help their true passion, volunteering and giving back to the community. During their opening weekend, all tips collected were donated to Fur Kids Animal Rescue. Their first holiday season the Bean Tap collected over $1k in pet supplies which were also donated to Fur Kids. For their one year anniversary they raised money for “Canes for Heroes”. They hand make and give out free canes to Veterans in need. Last year when Hurricane Harvey hit Texas, the generosity of the Bean Tap and their customers netted over $2k in money and supplies which went to two animal rescues there. Most recently, they started helping a non profit called Hands Across Atlanta by volunteering once a month giving out free coffee, food, and clothes to the homeless around Atlanta. The Bean Tap has also raised and donated $1k to Hands Across Atlanta.
They sponsor local sports teams as well as partnering with Ivy Creek Elementary as a business sponsor. The Bean Tap holds Spirit Days for Ivy Creek in which 15% of sales are donated to the school. They plan on expanding this to other schools in the future.
For more information about The Bean Tap Coffee House, visit www.thebeantap.com.