Small batches aren’t a marketing line here.

Ember & Ash opened in 2016 as a two-kilo drum roaster running out of a shared kitchen space on Munjoy Hill. The founder, a former line cook, had one rule: never bag a coffee she wouldn’t drink black the next morning.

That rule is still the whole business model. We roast in runs small enough for one taster to cup every batch before it goes on the shelf. When a lot doesn’t hold up, it doesn’t get sold under our name — it goes into staff cold brew instead.

We moved to the current Harbor Street space in 2019, added a six-seat pour-over bar in 2021, and started publishing our roast logs — charge temperature, development time, batch weight — on a chalkboard by the register. If you ask, we will absolutely talk your ear off about drum speed.

Today it’s a crew of five: two roasters, two people on the bar, and one person who handles sourcing and somehow also does the books.