Our Story
From farm to cup,
with care.
Ember Roast was born from a simple belief: everyone deserves access to exceptional coffee — without compromising the people who grow it.
How It Started
A broken espresso machine and a plane ticket.
In 2019, our founder Maya Chen was a burned-out software engineer with a caffeine habit and a restless curiosity. When her beloved espresso machine finally gave out, she didn't just buy a new one — she went down a rabbit hole. She started asking questions most coffee drinkers never think about: where do these beans actually come from? Who grew them? And why does most “specialty” coffee still taste like it was roasted six months ago?
The answers led her to book a one-way ticket to Yirgacheffe, Ethiopia — the birthplace of coffee itself. What she found there changed everything.
Direct Trade
We know every farmer by name.
Maya spent three months living alongside coffee farming families in the highlands of Ethiopia. She learned that the global coffee supply chain is staggeringly opaque — beans pass through brokers, exporters, importers, and roasters, each taking a cut. By the time a bag reaches your kitchen, the farmer who grew it often earned less than a dollar per pound.
That felt wrong. So we built Ember Roast on a different model. We buy directly from smallholder cooperatives in Ethiopia, Colombia, and Guatemala — no middlemen, no commodities market prices. Our farmers earn 3–4x the Fair Trade minimum, and we visit every partner farm at least once a year.
It's slower. It's harder. And it's the only way we'd do it.
The Roastery
Small batches. No shortcuts.
Our roastery sits in a converted warehouse in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, sandwiched between a woodworking studio and a bakery that makes the whole block smell incredible. It's not much to look at from the outside, but inside, it's where the magic happens.
We roast every bean on a vintage 1962 Probat UG-22 drum roaster — a machine with more character than most people. Our head roaster, David, has spent 15 years developing profiles that bring out each origin's unique personality. The Ethiopian Yirgacheffe gets a light touch that preserves its jasmine and bergamot notes. The Colombian Huila goes a shade darker to unlock that chocolate-and-brown-sugar sweetness.
We never roast more than 25 pounds at a time, and every batch is cupped and graded before it's approved for packing. If a roast doesn't meet our standards, it goes to the compost — not to your door.
The Freshness Promise
Roasted today. Shipped tomorrow. In your cup by Friday.
Most “fresh roasted” coffee you buy at the store was actually roasted weeks or even months ago. It sits in warehouses, on trucks, and on shelves — slowly going stale while the label still says “premium.”
We don't play that game. Every Ember Roast subscription order is roasted on demand. We pack your beans within 24 hours of roasting, ship them in airtight, compostable bags with a one-way valve, and get them to your door within 2–3 days. That means you're brewing with beans that are less than a week old — which, if you've never tried it, is a completely different experience.
What We Stand For
Coffee with a conscience.
Farmer First
Our direct-trade partnerships ensure fair wages and long-term stability for farming families. We publish our green coffee purchase prices every quarter — full transparency, no exceptions.
Planet Friendly
Our bags are 100% compostable, our roastery runs on renewable energy, and we carbon-offset every shipment. Coffee should wake you up, not keep the planet up at night.
Radically Fresh
No shelf time, no warehouses, no compromises. Every bag is roasted to order and shipped within 24 hours. We believe freshness isn't a feature — it's the whole point.
Ready to taste the difference?
Join thousands of coffee lovers who've made the switch to fresher, more ethical coffee.
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