Bare Beans Launches DTC, Delivering Fresh, One-Ingredient Beans Nationwide
Bare Beans, a fresh-cooked bean company built around a remarkably simple idea—beans with just one ingredient—has officially launched its online store at barebeans.com, making its kettle-cooked, freshly packed beans available to consumers nationwide for the first time.
The launch marks a major milestone for the company, which has spent the past eight years building its business largely behind the scenes. During that time, Bare Beans established itself as a trusted supplier to restaurants, foodservice operators, and institutional customers across the United States and Canada. Its partners have included Sysco’s Cutting Edge Solutions program, US Foods, Bitchin’ Sauce, and Sizzler restaurants.
Now, the company is bringing the same beans professional kitchens have been using for years directly to home cooks.
Bare Beans currently offers five varieties: pinto, garbanzo, black, navy, and red beans. Each variety is made using a process familiar to anyone who has cooked dried beans at home. The beans are rehydrated overnight, kettle-cooked fresh each day, then rinsed, drained, vacuum-sealed, and packed cold.
There is nothing else added.
No salt. No seasoning. No preservatives. No firming agents. No unnecessary ingredients.
Just beans.
The result is a fresh alternative to both traditional dried beans and conventional canned beans. Bare Beans can be stored for up to 90 days in the refrigerator or up to a year in the freezer. They can also be substituted one-for-one in virtually any recipe that calls for canned beans, making the transition simple for consumers.
“For as long as beans have been sold in stores, you had two choices: dry beans that are time-consuming to prepare or canned beans cooked inside the tin cans you buy them in,” said Bare Beans founder and CEO Michelle Huff, a member of the Turtle Mountain Chippewa. “We developed the third option. We grow the beans on our farm, we cook them fresh daily, and we pack them cold. Restaurants and professional chefs have been using them for years. Now the home cook can too.”
That third option is at the heart of Bare Beans’ consumer proposition.
For decades, canned beans have been the default convenience option for shoppers. While canned beans offer speed and affordability, they are generally cooked and processed inside the sealed can along with ingredients such as salt and firming agents before being stored at room temperature for extended periods.
Bare Beans takes a fundamentally different approach.
The beans are never cooked inside their final package. Instead, they are soaked and rehydrated, cooked in a kettle, rinsed and drained, and then moved into vacuum-sealed packaging and cold storage. By separating the cooking process from the packaging process, the company aims to preserve the texture, aroma, and flavor associated with freshly prepared beans.
The difference is noticeable in the kitchen. Bare Beans are designed to retain their shape and have the aroma of freshly cooked beans rather than the familiar smell associated with canned products. Their fresh-food positioning also changes how consumers can think about beans: rather than treating them as a pantry staple that sits on a shelf for months, shoppers can use them much like other refrigerated ingredients.
Behind the product is an unusually integrated business model.
Bare Beans is one of the relatively rare vertically integrated food companies in the United States. The Huff family grows the majority of its beans on its own Idaho farm and sources additional beans locally when needed. The family also owns and manages the facility where the beans are cooked and packed.
That level of control extends beyond simply managing the supply chain. The Huff family selects bean varieties based on taste and texture, determines what goes into the soil, oversees production, and maintains its own food-safety protocols rather than relying entirely on an outside co-packer.
For consumers, that farm-to-package approach offers a level of traceability and control that is uncommon in the bean category. It also allows Bare Beans to focus closely on the qualities that matter most in a simple food: the variety of bean, its texture, its flavor, and how it is prepared.
The company’s move into direct-to-consumer sales comes at an important moment of growth. Bare Beans recently secured a $2.79 million seed investment from Raven Indigenous Capital Partners, the first Indigenous-owned venture capital firm on Turtle Island. The funding will support the company’s direct-to-consumer expansion, with retail growth expected to follow.
For Raven Indigenous Capital Partners, the investment also represents an opportunity to back an Indigenous founder who has already demonstrated that a differentiated food product can build a substantial business.
“Indigenous founders receive roughly 0.05% of U.S. venture capital, which makes a venture-backed, Native woman-owned food company one of the rarest things in American business,” said Paul Lacerte, co-founder and Chief Purpose Officer of Raven Indigenous Capital Partners. “We invested in Bare Beans because Michelle had already done the hard part. She built a strong revenue stream and national distribution from her family’s own farm, bringing a truly unique product to market.”
Bare Beans’ mission also extends beyond the product itself.
Giving back has been part of the company’s business model from its earliest days. The company has already donated thousands of pounds of beans to local food banks and senior centers, helping provide nutritious food to communities in need.
With the launch of its online store, Bare Beans is expanding that commitment nationwide. For every online purchase, the company will donate an equivalent product to food banks and Native food sovereignty programs. The goal is to help more Native families access clean, real food while supporting communities that are closely connected to Huff’s own heritage.
The online launch therefore represents more than a new sales channel. It brings together the different elements that have defined Bare Beans from the beginning: family farming, fresh food, vertical integration, Indigenous entrepreneurship, and community giving.
After years of supplying professional kitchens, Bare Beans is now putting its fresh-cooked beans directly into the hands of home cooks. And with its simple ingredient list, refrigerated format, and ready-to-use convenience, the company is betting that consumers are ready to see beans in a new way—not as something that has to come from a can or require hours of preparation, but as a fresh food that is ready when they are.
Source Link:https://www.businesswire.com/
