Cole Bennett's roastery, grown up
Cole Bennett started roasting on a card table at the Denton farmers market in 2016, buying green coffee ten pounds at a time and cupping every batch before he would sell a bag of it.
He apprenticed for two years under a roaster in Fort Worth, learning the difference between first crack and second crack the hard way, then leased a small storefront on Ballard Avenue in Wylie in 2019 with a single 12 kilogram drum roaster and one employee.
Six years later, Ember & Oak roasts twice a week, cups every batch before it goes in a bag, and still buys beans in quantities small enough that Cole tastes every lot personally.
“If I would not serve a coffee to my own family, it does not go in a bag with our name on it.”
Cole Bennett, Head Roaster
Small batches, no shortcuts
Every lot is roasted under 30 pounds at a time, cupped blind against the last three roasts of the same coffee, and adjusted until the profile matches what the beans can actually do. Cole buys directly from importers who work with the same growing cooperatives year over year, so we know whose hands picked the cherries.
We roast a standing wholesale account for three restaurants and two coffee shops in Wylie and Sachse, with room for a few more.