Little Waves Coffee Roasters

10/15/2026

Join Little Waves Coffee Roasters & Cocoa Cinnamon Co-Owner Leon in a special seated tasting!

The Six Sips to Support SANA flight explores six rare & innovative Colombian coffees to support Female Coffee Producer Mental Health!

In this very special seated tasting, we will will be taking over a section in the front of Cocoa Cinnamon OWD (2627 Hillsborough Road), pouring and serving serving several extremely rare and award winning Colombian coffees. ☕

Link in bio for details and tix! Friday, October 30, 2026

Little Waves is the roasting arm of Cocoa Cinnamon, winner of 2022 Roast Magazine Roaster of the Year and 2026 top 50 Coffee Shops in North America! ✨

Six Sips to Support SANA is a special event to support and raise money for SANA, a non profit that supports mental health for women coffee farmers.

All proceeds from the event will go to SANA.

In this coffee flight you’ll sample an array of some of the most innovative Colombia Coffee available today. From an auction winning honey processed Pink Bourbon, to our Café 1959 I Scientist Handcrafted Coffee 2026 Good Food Award Winner, two contrasting coffees from International Women’s Coffee Alliance, Colombia Chapter Co-Founder AnaMaria, and award winning world renowned producers Finca La Negrita and Edwin Noreña. These sips are not to miss.

As we pour, we’ll speak in detail and answer questions about each coffee, place, processing, and producer, most of whom we count as dear friends and collaborators.

Link in bio.

10/11/2026

Lance Scott asks Edwin Noreña Edwin Noreña about his favorite coffee and brew method at our first ever public event at the new Little Waves.

This photo by Kenneth Freyer captures more than a thousand words of our little world.

Edwin Noreña speaks to the following questions and more from the crowd.

- How did you get started with your unique processings? Can you speak to some of how you do it?
- How do you deal with a changing climate? Anticipating more issues? Considering the endangered status what do you see as the outlook. How do you use and process Castillo as a way address this?
- What are you excited about now? Looking forward to explore doing moving forward....?

Team and friends, longtime and new.

33 coffees by Edwin Noreña on the table. An incredibly mind and sensory opening experience for all of us.

Eduardo shows up a bunch, but this image by Kenneth Freyer was too good to leave out!

Edwin Noreña, Professor Miguel Rojas-Sotelo, Eduardo Masters Student The Fuqua School Of Business

Duke Student Government president Angela! & Fuqua Coffee Club officer Eduardo showing the Bull City love!

Multiple people mentioned the event - between Edwin’s kindness and talent and the experience in our new space bringing tears to the eyes.

We didn’t catch everyone but we did get a group picture!

We gave Edwin the full in depth taste and design tour of all three shops!

Edwin assessed the status of the “little farm.”

Edwin looking at the plants, giving us growing input and assigned us and sumalee/สุมาลี a series of tests to start before the frost comes and we put the greenhouse covers on.

Capturing the care, collaboration, labor, cross border connection, insight, and love that we mean when we use the word relationship. We are grateful to Edwin Noreña for your visit, for your beautiful work, and most of all for your dear friendship.

10/03/2026

Update: the Edwin Noreña Edwin Noreña talk and tasting is now full. Feel free to join the waitlist (link in first comment) in case any spots open up.

We are very excited to welcome our dear friend and world renowned award winning coffee producer Edwin Noreña to our new roastery cupping lab for a presentation and tasting!

We’ve been regularly sourcing Edwin’s coffees for the past 5 years and have collaborated on several occasions in the US, Colombia, and Europe.

Edwin is here all the way from Qunidío, Colombia and will share his story, what led him to develop his unique processings, his outlook for the future of his coffee including the endangered state of coffee itself, along with tasting our and his roasts.

The session will be in both English and Spanish.

Note: this is a 90 minute workshop, not a stop in scenario. Attendance is by RSVP only - with limited number available. Please only RSVP if you will attend the entire session.

Full details in first comment.

10/02/2026

Thinking about International Coffee Day, I feel almost speechless.

Over the last years in particular the relationships and friendships we have built and keep growing feel like the oxygen that fuels us. Across nation, region, belief, there are so many curious, hard working, innovative and kind people who make up the cadences of our lives.

For all of you we are more grateful than we can ever say.
They make business a pleasure, existence a beauty, and coffee even more than the flavors over which we obsess together.

To all who are Little Waves subcribers, regular drinkers, and who are part of our retail shops, you make innovation from crop to cup possible and are the reason we can reverberate back from cup to crop.

For all of that we are so so grateful, beyond words. Happy internatonal coffee day!!

- L

07/07/2026

"This coffee is the culmination of 12 years of careful Gesha selections on a steep mountainside in Pijao, Quindío, Colombia,” says Barrera Grodski, who explains that the farm’s attributes, from altitude and airflow to cloud cover and surrounding flora, “closely mirror the variety’s birthplace, Gesha, Ethiopia.” The coffee is roasted light and fast to ensure “delicate florals, sweet candy notes, and bright acidity, with just enough development to elicit a balanced sweetness.” - From Food & W**e article by Stasia Brewczynski including LW Good Food Award winning coffee Rio Dulce Gesha from Café 1959

Link in first comment.

06/02/2026

We’re happy to share that LW roast of Rio Dulce Gesha has won a Good Food Award!

We’ve been working with José Giraldo since 2021 and have built a close relationship rooted in trust, quality, and shared values. It has been a joy to witness his dedication, hard work, and spirit of innovation, and to share his coffees with our community.

This coffee is the culmination of 12 years of careful Gesha selections on a steep mountainside in Pijao, Quindío, Colombia.

The farm’s unique conditions closely mirror the variety’s birthplace Gesha, Ethiopia. The altitude, airflow, cloud cover, sunlight, surrounding flora, variety selection, and meticulous care in slow, layered processing, all play essential roles in shaping the extraordinary character of this coffee. Learn all about it at the link in bio.

We’re grateful that all of this dedication resonated with the Good Food Awards judges and that José is receiving the recognition he has worked so hard to earn.

This award represents a truly collaborative effort. We wouldn’t have this coffee without the partnership and support of , nor without the incredible work of our roasting team, Maricarmen and Pin, who brought José’s vision to life in the cup.

We’re honored to be part of this journey and excited to continue sharing your coffees with our community near and far! 🌿☕🏆

05/14/2026

Happy Birthday Areli!

Areli prefers quiet more than words, mostly letting her work be the talking - from sourcing in a way that enacts her vision to building and modeling for a warm and outstanding team!

Areli, we hope you have a happy day!

05/02/2026

Andrea Scarpeta Chicue is a coffee producer whose story demands admiration. Though she was unable to attend the auction, her presence was felt through her coffee. Two years ago, Andrea was diagnosed with cancer. Despite this, she continues to steward her family’s farm, honoring a legacy rooted in coffee while teaching her children to carry it forward. For Andrea, coffee is not only a livelihood, but a way to preserve identity, strength, and future possibility.

Tabi, means "good" in the Colombian indigenous language of Guambiano. With traits of sweetness, fruits, and herbaceousness, the Tabi variety is a hybrid of Typica, Bourbon and Timor Hybrid (a natural occuring hybrid of Coffea arabica and Coffea canephora), bred by Cenicafe to be more resistant to coffee leaf rust, the devastating fungus to coffee plants. When we consider the future of coffee, it's important to us to source and support coffees that are resistant while producing a quality flavor.

Bright and clear, with a tea-like softness—white peach sweetness lifted by gentle florals.

This coffee is available on our website now!

04/30/2026

Thanks Timeout for the mention! Feeling grateful to be recognized as #49 coffee shop in N America by our peers and supporters!

Cocoa Cinnamon shops!!

A new ranking from World's 100 Best Coffee Shops highlights cafes in North America, Central America and the Caribbean.

04/24/2026

We are delighted to present this coffee as part of a selection purchased during our trip to Colombia, where we visited the women contributing to the Condor Huila Project. Check out our reels for more info!

María Deya Camacho is a distinguished coffee producer from Acevedo, Huila, in the village of San Isidro, where she carries forward a rich family tradition of coffee cultivation passed down through generations. Her commitment to excellence has earned her national acclaim

This Pink Bourbon is produced using a meticulous honey process with controlled fermentations, resulting in this deliciously fruity cup.

This particular lot was the #1 ranked coffee in the auction. We paid $20 per pound green directly to María Deya Camacho. Investments like these reflect our commitment to supporting women of color in coffee who are pushing boundaries and producing truly outstanding coffees.