Coffee Roastery in Asheville, NC
Taste it before you trust it. We roast on Riverside Drive, publish the log for every batch, and put a spoon in your hand every Friday afternoon.
Eleven Years, Nine Farms
Kilnwood started in 2015 in a leaky unit behind a furniture workshop, with a 5kg drum roaster and one customer who was also our landlord.
What we got right early was slow: rather than buying from a dozen importers, we spent four years building direct relationships with nine farms and have stayed with all nine. That's unglamorous and it's the whole business. We know what the rainfall did last season, we know when a lot is going to be worse than last year, and we say so on the bag rather than roasting darker and hoping nobody notices.
The tasting room came later, because people kept asking to see it. Now it's the part we'd least want to lose.
- ✓Roasting on Riverside Drive since 2015
- ✓Nine direct farm relationships, all still current
- ✓Roast log printed on every retail bag
- ✓Wholesale to eighteen cafes across western NC
Green Coffee to Your Grinder
Five steps, and we'll show you any of them if you turn up on a weekday.
Buying, a Year Ahead
We taste offer samples nine to twelve months before a lot lands, and commit early so the farm gets paid before harvest rather than after it.
Sample Roasting
Every lot is roasted small and cupped blind against the previous season before it goes near the production drum. About one in four gets declined.
Profile Development
Six to ten development roasts per coffee, logged, until we've got a curve that shows what the lot actually is rather than what a dark roast makes everything.
Production, To Order
We roast against orders rather than into a warehouse. Nothing sits. Your bag was in the drum within forty-eight hours of being packed.
The Log on the Bag
Charge temperature, first crack, development time, end temperature. Most people never look. The ones who do can taste why two batches differ.
Retail, Trade and Everything Between
The roastery is the business. The tasting room is how you check we mean it.
Riverside Drive, River Arts District
A drum, a cupping table, and a roller door that's open most of the summer.
What People Say
We switched our cafe to Kilnwood after they turned up with six samples and no price list, and told us two of them wouldn't suit our machine. Nobody had ever talked us out of a coffee before. Four years on we've never had a bad batch.
I went to the Friday cupping expecting to be out of my depth and it was eleven people slurping out of spoons and disagreeing cheerfully. I learned more in an hour than in three years of reading about it.
The roast log on the bag sounded like a gimmick until I compared two batches of the same Guatemalan six weeks apart and could actually taste what the numbers were telling me. It's the only roaster I've stopped second-guessing.
Buying, Visiting and Wholesale
Can I just turn up to the cupping table?
Yes — Fridays at three, free, no booking, capped by however many spoons we own. You taste six coffees blind and say what you notice. Nobody will test you and there are no correct answers.
How fresh will my beans be?
Roasted within forty-eight hours of being packed, and we print the roast date rather than a best-before. Coffee is at its best from about seven days off roast, so don't panic if a bag arrives very fresh — give it a few days.
Do you roast dark?
Not really, and we'd rather say so than surprise you. We roast to show what a lot actually tastes like, which means brighter than a supermarket bag. If you want deep and smoky we'll happily point you at two roasters nearby who do it well.
What does wholesale cost?
It depends on volume and which coffee, and we won't quote before you've tasted. We'll bring samples to your bar, dial them in on your machine, and only then talk price. Minimum order is 5kg a fortnight.
Can I visit the roastery?
Tours run on weekday mornings, forty-five minutes, ten people maximum — ask at the counter or call. Outside tours you're welcome to stand at the roller door and watch, which most people find is enough.
What's the roast log on the bag?
Charge temperature, time to first crack, development time and end temperature for your specific batch. Most people never read it. If you brew seriously it explains why two batches of the same coffee taste slightly different.
Do you ship?
Anywhere in the US, roasted the day it's packed. Free over $50. We don't do same-day, because we'd rather roast your order than pull it off a shelf.
Will you tell me if a coffee is worse this year?
Yes, and we do. Harvests vary and pretending otherwise is how trust goes. When a farm has a hard season we either buy less, price it accordingly, or say plainly that this year's lot isn't up to the last one.
Come and Taste Six Coffees Blind
Free, no booking, and the single fastest way to find out what you actually like rather than what you've been told to like.
Wholesale, Tours or Just a Question
If it's wholesale, tell us your machine and your volume and we'll bring samples before we bring a price.