We visit every farm we buy from, roast single-origin beans to order, and ship them while they're still alive. No shelf time. No compromise.
I started Ember & Oak because I got tired of drinking coffee that tasted like it had been waiting. Seven years ago, I visited my first Ethiopian farm—Yirgacheffe, where our signature bean comes from—and realized I'd never actually tasted what coffee from that place could be. Every bag I'd bought before had been sitting in warehouses for months. So I made a promise: I'd only roast what people ordered, within 48 hours of shipment. I visit every farm we source from because I need to know the soil, the altitude, the hands that grew it. There's no mystery in our supply chain—just direct relationships and beans that taste like they're supposed to. When you open a bag from us, you're not buying inventory. You're buying something that was roasted while you were probably still asleep.
James Okafor started Ember & Oak Coffee Co. after spending three years visiting farms across Ethiopia, Colombia, and Guatemala. Every single-origin offering we carry is one we can trace to a specific lot, a specific harvest, and a specific relationship with the people who grew it.