About Us

Latina led, women forward, Little Waves Coffee Roasters sources by building relationships over time aimed to develop prudent trusting reciprocity. While they seek out and feature top competition level lots, they also recognize that flavor preference is as diverse as people, and coffee is a crop, with annual variation. They offer what they call a peak, integrated array, where flavor and quality are paramount, with quality needing to account for relationships and impact to be truly great.

Cocoa Cinnamon, our three award winning brick and mortar shops, located in Durham, NC, are driven by the experience that is amazed by the marvel of cities and the roots of languages, whose blood rushes in the awe of landscapes, the wonder of travel and the history, colors, textures, and stories of coffee, chocolate, and tea. We make drinks after these histories and after the characters that inspire us, those who remind us of the beauty and possibility of humanity. The name, shop designs, and menus go against the grain of the trends of the last decade, our vision for Cocoa Cinnamon is an homage to the intermingling of coffee and spice in early coffee brewing and coffee houses, rooted in story, pluralism, beyond third place, wave, and algorithm.

We are small and independently owned and operated, quality, service, and heart-driven, Latina co-owned, women-forward, and our team is comprised of people of different cultures, genders, languages, faiths, and beliefs. ⁠

⁠With every decision we make, we work to honor people, places, cultures, and histories. We integrate personal narratives into our spaces and offerings in an effort to help our guests and clients feel more connected to us on a human level. We name our roasts and drinks after places that inspire wonder, have cultural significance, and after people and places that we love. Every act is an invitation to connect, and we are fueled by the joy we get from cultivating health and wonder with the world around us. 

We strive for sustainability in everything we do from relationship to energy usage. Our Loring S15 Falcon roaster has an 80% reduction in energy usage compared to traditional roasters. Our retail coffee bags are 60% compostable. We divert coffee bi-product chaff to be used in local community gardens. Our roastery & cafes divert nearly all of the coffee compost they create to local gardens and farms.

Little Waves Coffee Roasters is the roasting and wholesale arm accompanying Cocoa Cinnamon, in Durham, NC. Little Waves is a Latina co-owned and women forward business. We relationship source and micro-roast select coffees from around the world. We roast on a Loring S15 Falcon at our location in the Lakewood neighborhood in Durham, NC.

Cocoa Cinnamon is a place for people to enjoy carefully crafted drinks and locally made desserts in a comfortable and engaging Durham setting. Cocoa Cinnamon is open to all people and strives, through commerce and service, to support a sustainable, democratic and artistic way of being.  

We recruit, sustain and inspire a devoted group of roastery and barista professionals. We aim to be as diverse as our city, knowing that we are indicators of the range of people we hope to invite. Each of our locations and roastery are a unique piece of a puzzle that together make the whole.

Cocoa Cinnamon is about touching, yearning and continually striving to bring wonder to the everyday via carefully chosen and roasted coffees, connecting craft, service and atmosphere via our rotating wonder menus and the layers of art embedded in the designs of our shops. Here's a link to a slide show giving a bit of a feeling of each shop, the roastery and the La Marzocco residency.