These are  best descriptors for arguably the most forward-thinking café on the beautiful island of Mauritius.
Opened by childhood best friends, Taylor and Willow – Kind Coffee in La Gaulette is a space that places emphasis on these values. For a specialty coffee consumer, these components make for the ideal holiday destination cup of coffee.

ISLAND:

From the minute you step off the plane, you are welcomed with thick, warm air. Serving as a

reminder that all the sunscreen, beach shorts and floral vests will be in full use for the duration of your stay. The island is proof of nature’s ability to create the most breathtakingly beautiful scenes, from the clear blue waters to the deep green tall mountains. The island is home to many ambitious and culturally-rich locals. Among this number, are Taylor and Willow. Having spent many years on the island, they comfortably call it home. Their love and pride for Mauritius shows in all the conversations you have with them. During this stay, I had the pleasure of staying at Taylor’s family home. He had been working all day at the shop for the days leading up to the official opening of the cafe.On my first day, we were up till midnight sharing ideas and plans of what felt like a pivotal moment for not only Taylor and his young family but specialty coffee on the island. A sense of responsibility and ambition were the theme of conversation.

Mauritius is a developing nation, an island full of underestimated ambition and certainly unfulfilled potential. Alongside Willow, Taylor has travelled globally. These experiences have shaped a more driven and big picture mindset. This was evident during our goal-setting conversations. With the currently inaccessibility of better coffee on the island, Taylor and Willow make fit leaders of a new wave of specialty coffee on the island. A big responsibility is placed on their shoulders but they are embracing it head on.

INNOVATION:

The current status quo of coffee in Mauritius leaves a lot to be desired. There is a general lack of information on the advancement of the coffee industry. With limited local coffee roasters, shops and coffee education, it has led to a low standard of coffee offering. The KIND Coffee team aims to change this and make coffee more accessible yet quality driven. Their innovative thinking has propelled them to building a world class cafe offering. As you walk in, you are greeted with world-beating pieces of equipment. A Mahlkonig E65 grinder, a La Marzocco Linea Mini and a manual brew set up of April brewers. We have collaboratively curated their coffee offering, roasting and sending them coffee from our producer partners at Migoti Coffee Company in Burundi and Volcan Azul in Costa Rica.

Their obsession with quality aligns perfectly with our values as a company. As a collective at

Bluebird , we have known the team since 2021. I met Taylor and Yasmin at our coffee bar and roastery at the Old Mushroom Farm. As with many guests we receive, they were fascinated by the standard of our coffee bar. The level of offering and the amount of work put in to serve consistent quality cups. On this day, I brewed the Volcan Azul Anaerobic Natural

SL28 for them both. This coffee has been an annual staple for us at the roastery, as it consistently proves to be incredibly bright and complex. These are the characteristics that evidently changed Taylor’s outlook on the flavour potential of coffee. The general coffee consumer’s flavour expectation is often limited to bitterness and intensity. This is due to the traditional dark roasts and strength-driven brew recipes. With Alejo’s approach to producing bright, clean and flavourful coffees, our flavour-driven approach to roasting and my high extraction approach to brewing. We achieved a flavour experience that a general coffee consumer like Taylor, had never experienced before. It is this level of innovation that the team at KIND wanted to emulate in their coffee at their shop, 2 years after their visit.

This makes this supply relationship incredibly aligned. There is an emphasis from the team to intentionally create a space and offering that highlights similar experiences to what they had at our coffee bar.

HAPPINESS:

Many cafes are associated with a feeling it provides, a sense of satisfaction and enjoyment.

This is a feeling the consumers chase in these spaces and cafe owners foster. For the team at KIND, it is the utmost priority. They are intentional in their engagements and layout to provide this. Again, heavily influenced by our values as a team at Bluebird Coffee Roastery to foster happy experiences through our products and space. Driven by the idea of having a common goal and purpose, the time spent together is enjoyable and gives meaning to our work. This level of emphasis on this quality is important for a business with ambitions to elevate coffee and become leaders of a new wave of specialty coffee on the island. In an attempt to educate the coffee community, there’s a need for spaces and people to be inviting and unpretentious. The team at KIND understands this very well and are taking the necessary steps to be the ideal leaders and ambassadors of what this coffee community truly is about.