Our Story

Hi! We’re Ellen & Will — founders of Mash Bill Coffee.

Our roots are in Virginia & North Carolina. We met at the University of Virginia in our third year and were pretty much inseparable after our first date. We bonded early on over a love for coffee, and I’m taking a moment to shoutout our favorite shops in Charlottesville: Grit Coffee & C’Ville Coffee. Coffee fueled our academia, and thus there were many coffee dates in our college days.

I’ve always wanted to start a coffee shop. I think this ideal came from all of my favorite TV shows having a designated hang out spot — Luke’s Diner in Gilmore Girls, The Bronze in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, MacLaren’s in How I Met Your Mother, etc. I wanted to belong to a place like that, with friends and family as regulars. And so when people asked me what I wanted to do when I grew up, it was always start a coffee shop.

Mash Bill is a recipe of grains used to make bourbon, whiskey, and other grain based spirits. Each grain produces a unique flavor to the drink. Coffee uses a similar philosophy, with house and espresso blends borrowing something like 35% Colombian, 40% Ethiopian, and 25% Nigerian. I’ve pirated the term mash bill as inspiration for our coffee endeavor. It’s an homage to our coffee’s unique flavor profile, and the fact that coffee is an especially fun place to be entering right now. There’s so much in the intersection between coffee and cocktails, of creating a drink that represents a moment. MBC values experimentation and pushing the limits of what’s being served at coffee shops.

Thanks for stopping by. We’d love to hear from you.