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The roastery · 142 Wickenden Street

A drum, a cupping table,
and twelve people we can name.

Rosa Villanueva opened Kiln & Alder in 2014 with a used 12-kilo drum and a rule she has never broken: if we can't tell you what the farmer was paid, we don't sell the coffee.

Founded
2014Providence, Rhode Island
Producing partners
12 farmsAcross 7 countries, 6 on repeat contracts
Avg. FOB paid
$3.85 / lb2025–26 season · C-market avg. $1.60

How it started

The first batch was
badly underdeveloped.

Rosa had spent nine years as a green buyer and had never once run a roaster. The 12-kilo drum came out of a closed bakery in Pawtucket on a flatbed, and the first batch — a Huila she'd bought herself — came out sour and hollow and completely unsellable.

She logged the curve anyway. Then she logged the next four hundred. That habit is the whole company now: every batch since 2014 runs against a saved profile, gets re-cupped before it ships, and gets thrown out if it doesn't match. Nothing here is intuition dressed up as craft.

Nine people work at Wickenden Street today. Six of them were regulars at the bar before they were staff.

  1. 2014 · One drum, one café

    The first wholesale account was Tidewater in Newport — four kilos a week, delivered in Rosa's own car.

  2. 2017 · The first direct contract

    A two-year agreement with Tesfaye Bekele in Guji, priced before harvest. It's still running; Ember No. 1 comes off it.

  3. 2019 · Printing the price

    We started printing FOB, farm gate and our landed cost on the back of every bag. Two competitors told us it was commercially insane.

  4. 2023 · The Loring

    Replaced the drum with a Loring S15. Same 12 kg batch size, 80% less gas, and a profile log we can hand to anyone who asks.

  5. 2026 · Thirty-four accounts

    Thirty-four cafés and kitchens across Rhode Island and southeastern Massachusetts, plus about 900 subscribers.

Freshly roasted beans turning in the roaster's cooling tray under the rake arm
The cooling tray, 6:40 a.m.
Roasted coffee beans piled inside an open burlap jute sack
Green intake, Mondays
Three espresso portafilters holding whole beans, ground coffee and a finished latte
Dial-in before service
“I'd rather lose an account than sell someone a bag I can't account for. That has cost us exactly two accounts in twelve years.”
Rosa Villanueva · founder

Sourcing & direct trade

The ledger,
open.

"Direct trade" is not a certification and we won't pretend it is. Here is what it means at this company: a named farm or co-op, a price agreed before harvest, and a number you can check. Every lot we bought this season is below.

Producing partners, contract length and price paid for the 2025–26 season
Producer Origin Relationship FOB paid C-market
Tesfaye BekeleGuji, Ethiopia9 years · 2-yr contract$4.20$1.74
Finca La AuroraHuila, Colombia7 years · annual$3.60$1.68
Gichathaini F.C.S.Nyeri, Kenya5 years · auction + direct$4.85$1.74
Finca El VolcánAntigua, Guatemala6 years · 2-yr contract$3.40$1.61
Kinunu washing st.Nyamasheke, Rwanda3 years · annual$4.10$1.70
Finca Cerro NegroChiriquí, Panama2 years · micro-lot$11.50$1.74
Beneficio Los RoblesTarrazú, Costa Rica4 years · annual$3.75$1.66
Cenfrocafé co-opCajamarca, Peru5 years · annual$3.15$1.58
Asorcafé co-opHuila, Colombia4 years · annual$3.20$1.62
Fazenda Rio ClaroSul de Minas, Brazil8 years · 2-yr contract$2.60$1.55
Aceh co-op (Gayo)Aceh, Indonesia3 years · annual$3.30$1.60
Suke Quto stationGuji, Ethiopia6 years · annual$3.95$1.74

All prices US$ per pound, free on board, 2025–26 harvest. C-market figure is the ICE Arabica settlement on the day each contract was signed. Landed cost and our roasted margin are printed on the back of every bag.

01

We buy the whole lot or none of it

Cherry-picking the best two bags out of a producer's harvest leaves them holding the rest. If we score it above 86, we take all of it at one price.

02

Price agreed before the harvest

Producers plan a year out. A price fixed in September is worth more than a better price offered in February, so we fix it early and eat the market risk.

03

Rosa goes, twice a year

Once at harvest, once at the cupping table. Nine of the twelve relationships have outlasted the coffee that started them.

04

Nothing gets a note it can't defend

Tasting notes come off the Saturday sheet with eleven cuppers scoring blind. If three of us can't find it, it doesn't go on the bag.

Who's on the floor

Nine people,
one drum.

Visit the roastery

Rosa Villanueva

Founder & green buyer

Nine years buying green before she ever ran a roaster. Flies to origin twice a year and signs every contract herself.

Hà Nguyen

Head roaster

Owns the profile log. Has thrown out four batches this year and will tell you about all of them if you ask.

Theo Castellano

Wholesale & dial-in

Installs, trains and re-dials for all 34 accounts. Was a bar regular for two years before he was staff.

Mireille Abara

Quality & cupping lead

Runs the Saturday table and the SCA scoring. Q-grader since 2021; the score sheets on every lot page are hers.

Wholesale

Pouring for
34 rooms.

If you run a café, a restaurant, a bakery or an office that drinks like one, this is what working with us looks like. No exclusivity clause, no branded cup minimum, no machine lease dressed up as a partnership.

  • Free espresso dial-in on your machine.Theo comes out, dials it, and leaves you the recipe card. Again free whenever the lot changes.
  • Staff training at the roastery.Two seats per account, any Saturday. Cupping, grind theory, milk. No charge.
  • Standing Tuesday delivery.Roasted that morning, on your bar the same afternoon across RI and southeastern MA.
  • Trade pricing from 12 kg / week.Blends from $11.40/lb, single origin from $14.20/lb. Full sheet on request.
  • Thirty days, no contract.Stop whenever. We'd rather you leave than stay on coffee you've stopped believing in.

Request a price sheet

We answer every wholesale enquiry within one business day — usually the same morning.

Demo form — this template stores nothing and sends nothing. Wire it to your own handler.

Cupping every Saturday, 10:00

Come taste it flat
on the table.

Twelve farms, twelve coffees, one drum, and a price we'll tell you out loud. The bar is open to anyone — no reservation, no minimum spend, no one will try to sell you a bag on the way out.

Shop the shelf Hours & directions
Roast-datedAlwaysBy hand