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Durham-based coffee roaster named international roaster of the year

Durham-based Little Waves Coffee Roasters was named the 2022 Micro Roaster of the Year by Roast magazine on Monday.

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Cocoa Cinnamon
DURHAM, N.C. — Durham-based Little Waves Coffee Roasters was named the 2022 Micro Roaster of the Year by Roast magazine on Monday.
The award honors the top coffee roasters in the world and evaluates the entire operation from sourcing and roasting the beans to cupping the coffee.
Little Waves Coffee Roaster is located in Durham and owned by Areli Barrera Grodski.

“Winning 2022 Micro Roaster of the Year feels amazing. As a Latina-led, women forward roastery, and after Little Waves Coffee was already a finalist for 2021, it is even more special," Barrera Grodski said.

Little Waves was honored in the micro roaster category, which is for companies that roast fewer than 100,000 pounds of coffee each year. Little Waves Coffee roasted 58,000 pounds of coffee in the last year.

Barrera Grodski and head roaster Mandy Spirito met with team members to cup and choose the coffees for submission to the Roaster of the Year competition.

Drew Billups, director of education and quality control at Atlas Coffee and one of the Roast ROY judges, said Little Waves Coffee's Edwin Enrique Noreña Pink Bourbon was a "complete show-stopper."

Barrera Grodski credits the diverse roastery team and customers with helping the company take home the honor.

“We got this win because of all the contributors in our value chain,” Barrera Grodski said. “From our customers, our team, to our importers and exporters, and our partners at origin. This is a partnership from cup to crop and crop to cup. Every Little Waves Coffee order supports all the folks in that process.”

Little Waves Coffee operates out of Cocoa Cinnamon coffee shop's Lakewood neighborhood location. Cocoa Cinnamon and Little Waves are co-owned by Areli Barrera Grodski and her husband Leon Grodski Barrera. The coffee concept got started in 2010 as a market stand, then as bikeCOFFEE push cart and has now grown to three Cocoa Cinnamon coffee locations.

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