Small-batch coffee roasters, by the sea
Light roasts that taste like cool water and morning fruit. Dark ones that taste like a fire on the sand. Five coffees, roasted twice a week, in a drum the size of a rowing boat's bench.
The idea
Tide is patience. It is cool water, early light and the quiet fruit in a carefully washed coffee. Ember is heat. It is caramel, cocoa and the last glow in a dark roast. We started Tide & Ember because we kept finding that the best cups lived where the two meet.
So we roast each coffee with a simple rule: give it the gentlest heat that gets the job done, then finish with just enough fire to bring out its sweetness. Nothing is burnt for drama. Nothing is rushed for the schedule.
“A good roast should taste like the place the coffee came from, not like the roaster.”
The range
Tell us how you brew and what you want in the cup. We will point at one of five coffees. Or skip that and browse the range yourself.
Suggested for you
Ethiopia · Washed · Light roast
The first cup of a clear morning. Floral and lemony up front, with a peachy sweetness that lingers as it cools. Best slow and clean.
Suggested for you
Colombia · Washed · Medium roast
Our everyday coffee. Warm caramel, roasted hazelnut and a crisp red-apple finish. It forgives a rushed morning and rewards a slow one.
Suggested for you
Brazil · Natural · Medium-dark roast
Heavy-hearted and sweet, like toasted almonds and brown sugar stirred into dark cocoa. Soft acidity, big body, lovely with milk.
Suggested for you
Brazil and Guatemala blend · Dark roast
Our espresso. Built to hold its own in a flat white and to be a proper, syrupy shot on its own. Dark chocolate first, black cherry in the finish.
Suggested for you
Colombia · Sugarcane decaf · Medium roast
For the late afternoon and the long lunch. Decaffeinated with a sugarcane-derived process, then roasted to taste like a proper coffee: milk chocolate, orange peel, a little vanilla.
Brew recipes are friendly starting points, not rules. Adjust the grind a notch finer if the cup tastes thin or sour, coarser if it tastes bitter or dry.
From seed to cup
Every bag follows the same five steps. Scroll through them to see where the tide ends and the ember begins.
01 Choose
We sample green coffee from importers’ lots and cup each one blind. We only commit to a coffee we would be happy to drink every day for a month.
02 Sort
Green coffee is weighed, checked for chips and defects, and stored in breathable jute until roast day. Beans that are not ready do not get roasted.
03 Roast
A 12 kg drum, a written profile for every coffee and notes on every batch. Heat is brought up slowly, then finished with a short, deliberate push. That is the ember.
04 Rest
Beans leave the drum and are cooled within minutes. Then they rest for 48 hours so the gases settle and the flavour comes into focus before anything is bagged.
05 Cup
Every batch is cupped before it goes into a bag. If it does not taste like the coffee we meant to roast, it does not go out. The bag is the last step, not the first.
Scrapbook
Eight frames from the places and moments that shape the coffee. Select any picture to see it larger.
Good to know
Still wondering about something? Write to us and we will get back to you.
No. Tide & Ember is a fictional roaster created for this demonstration. The coffees, details and numbers are invented, and nothing on this page can be bought. The photographs are free-to-use stock images, credited on the credits page.
Use the Match me picker above. If you like fruity, tea-like coffee start with Harbour Light. If you like something sweet and easy, start with Driftwood. If you want something dark, rich and good with milk, start with Salt Marsh or Night Tide.
Roughly: very fine for stovetop moka, fine for espresso, medium for filter and pour-over, coarse for a plunger pot. Each coffee’s recipe card above gives a starting point. If a cup tastes sour or thin, grind a little finer. If it tastes bitter or dry, grind a little coarser.
Whole bean, if you can. Coffee starts losing aroma soon after grinding. We would only offer ground coffee in a real launch if you tell us which brewer you use, so we can match the grind.
Coffee tastes best from about a week after roasting up to roughly six weeks. We rest every batch for 48 hours before bagging. Keep the bag closed, in a cool, dark cupboard, not in the fridge or freezer.
Low Tide is decaffeinated with an ethyl acetate process, which uses a compound found naturally in sugarcane. The beans are decaffeinated while green, then roasted by us in the usual way.
Not here. This site is information only: it has no basket, checkout or payments. To ask about availability, wholesale for a café or anything else, use the contact section to prepare a message.
Wholesale would be a conversation, not a form. Tell us what you serve, how much you pour and what machines you have, and we would suggest a coffee and a roast schedule. Pick “Wholesale enquiry” in the contact section to start a draft.
Get in touch
Questions about a coffee, a brewing problem or something for your café? Write a note below. We will help you put it into an email you send yourself.
