Meet our owner and coffee roaster, Erin Harper 

Hi, welcome to our world of coffee. Ignited by a passion for high quality coffee roasted to peak performance. I consider myself a "foodie" in the sense of using food as art. a perfect pairing of flavors, using the highest quality ingredients and supporting farming practices we believe in. As craft coffee emerged and created a movement I began to seek out craft medium and dark roast coffees, however found them hard to come by. That's why I decided to start my own journey. 

Craft coffee means that retailers seek out a high quality coffee beans and pay a premium to support ethical farming practices and cultivation of the crop. Simultaneously we strive to prefect the art of roasting coffee, to perfecting cook the beans to an optimal temperature without burning the coffee. My goal with Ascend's lineup of coffee's has been to find the right bean for the roast profile we are serving (light, medium, or dark) while also discovering the perfect methods for roasting these beans. It has in turn lead to our fruit forward bright light roast Agaro, our perfectly balanced medium house blend and our bold yet smooth dark roast Loloru. 

My journey into the business of coffee has been a long one. I started working in coffee at the age of seventeen at a drive-thru shack named "Hot Shots". I later went on to work in an organic grocery store but years later found myself yearning for the sense of community the coffee business had to offer. Regulars who knew your name, and you knew their families and drink order. This calling lead me to start working at Old California Coffee House and Eatery in San Marcos, Ca. A local legend, when I was 21 years old. The business quickly drew me in as I made lifelong friends there and began to learn in workings of the business. A decade later I was a part owner in the business. With many changes coming in the years after the pandemic I decided it was time to venture into the world of roasting and start my own line of coffees. 

From the roasting and sourcing coffee side of things I have greatly enjoyed learning about farming practices around the world and found farming communities that I am proud to support with our dollar. Our farmers and their villages greatly benefit from our purchases and work hard to take better care of our planet with their farming methods. Many farms we support our run by co-ops that support villages of 1,200+ people. You are supporting them as well when you support our business.