WORDS Katie Vega
When I walked into Mama Mocha’s on Gay Street in Auburn, I was instantly captured by the coffee shop aura, as I usually am. But there were forces that could not be found at a typical Starbucks that made that pull even stronger: the screen printer at the front desk, the list of events on the chalkboard (everything from church to drag shows), and the sheer amount of bodies inside the emporium at 4:45 (it closes at 5:00). I fell in love. Well, I thought I fell in love. Then I had the coffee. And that’s when my affection and excitement kind of spun out of control. And my love affair began…
Mama’s and founder Sarah Gill are real jewels for our state—providing fresh, real coffee—right outside our front doors. Sarah’s first memory of coffee was the smell of her grandmother’s house. But her real love affair for coffee began as a teenager, when her church youth group acquired a donated espresso machine. She began making coffee for the homeless, and not only did she fall in love with the art of coffee making, but also with the connection it birthed between her and other humans.
Here is Sarah’s story in her own words…
“I decided that I wanted to work with coffee for the rest of my life. I worked at Starbucks in Oxford for the health insurance. I got divorced and had a little break down. When I went back to work, I shot up the corporate ladder. I poured myself into it. I learned a lot about finances and high volume, but I absolutely was not cut out for the corporate world.
I moved to Auburn and managed a shop called Cambridge downtown. I really fell in love with Auburn. It’s a really progressive town in Alabama that is constantly generating new ideas because of the student body coming in and out. The townies that live here are awesome—a lot of them are old hippies.
I went to the SCAA conference in Atlanta in 2009 and for the first fifteen minutes, I cried. There were so many people there that loved what I loved. I met people who made roasters, people who imported green coffee, and people who supplied packaging. I learned about heat transfer, communication efficiencies with customers who are used to ordering a Caramel Macchiato Starbucks, and how to tell them what to order instead without sounding pretentious.
I went and told my parents about it and told them I wanted to open a roasting company and coffee shops. I didn’t know how, but I wanted to do it. I know how to make drinks and I can talk to them about how the coffee should taste. And my mom was like…let’s do it.
The first location was a used bookstore that served French Press coffee and simple Italian drinks. I was talking to the bookstore owner about getting some business planning books, and she offered me the back room, which was full of 5,000 books. All I had to do was help her move the books out and renovate the space and I would rent it. And we did it.
I opened a roasting company. Cambridge eventually closed and I brought the baristas with me. I started selling to regulars immediately and getting contracts right off the bat. I read as much as I could and went to as many seminars as I could on heat transfer and chemical compositions. Eventually, the bookstore owner sold me the store. It’s one of the oldest buildings in Auburn.
About six months later, we had so much business and I really wanted a presence elsewhere in Auburn. We opened a store a couple of blocks away, sort of as a test store. I want to open shops all around the Southeast.”
Tell me something about yourself most people don’t know.
One of my biggest dreams is to buy a bunch of land and live off the grid. I want to be the matriarch of my own family holler.
What do you love about Alabama?
It would be really hard to imagine living anywhere else. The food and the culture of people. The fact that I can be a tough country Southern women, and it’s okay. Sometimes as a woman business owner it’s hard playing with the men. I’m really glad I’m so tall (she’s 6 foot 3)! I can hold my ground and be who I need to be. Also, shopping local is enormous in Auburn, and people in the community see my efforts and they have responded really well.
What’s your guilty pleasure?
Bourbon. All day long.
And Miley Cyrus Radio on Pandora.
What are four things you can’t live without?
The Bible, conversations with my mom, bourbon, and my husband.
Go visit Sarah and the baristas at Mama Mocha’s in Auburn. I suggest the Italian-style Vanilla Cappuccino. Choose from two locations: Gay Street and Tichenor Ave. Like Mama Mocha’s Coffee Roastery and Mama Mocha’s II on Facebook, and make sure you follow them on Instagram: @mama_mocha_coffee_emporium