Mississippi's Coffee Scene: 25 Indie Roasters from Jackson to the Gulf
Mississippi doesn't get name-checked in specialty coffee conversations very often, which is part of what makes the state interesting. Twenty-five active independent roasters are spread across a state of three million people — from the capital metro outward through the Pine Belt timber country, down to the Gulf Coast, and up through Oxford, Tupelo, and the northern hill towns. Most are small. A handful punch well above their weight.
We mapped 25 active independent coffee roasters across Mississippi. The list runs from the only Black-owned roaster in the state to a Laurel operation working out of the town HGTV's "Home Town" put back on the map, with stops in college towns, tourist Gulf towns, and a handful of places most people would have to look up on a map.
Jackson and the Capital Metro
Jackson anchors the state's coffee scene with four roasters in the city itself, and three more across the suburban ring. The standout is BeanFruit Coffee Company, founded by Paul Bonds — Mississippi's only Black-owned coffee roaster, and a name that's been picked up nationally by Sprudge. BeanFruit ships across the country and has done more to put Jackson on the specialty map than any other operator in the city.
Native Coffee Co. works the local-only side of Jackson with a tighter neighborhood footprint. Northshore Specialty Coffee ships nationally and leans into a more conventional specialty profile. Seattle Drip Inc rounds out the city, a local-only roaster with a name that telegraphs where its owners cut their teeth.
Out in the suburbs, Backwoods Grind Coffee Company in Pearl ships nationally, Cups Espresso Cafe in Ridgeland is a long-running cafe-and-roaster combo, and Cafezinho Coffee Company in Clinton ships beans across the country with a name that nods to Brazilian street coffee. Together the seven Jackson-metro roasters give the capital region the densest coffee map in the state.
The Pine Belt and the Gulf Coast
Hattiesburg is Mississippi's third-largest city and home to USM, and it has two roasters working very different angles. Grin Coffee Roastery keeps things local with a focused retail footprint, and Java Moe's Coffee ships nationally — both serving the Southern Miss campus crowd alongside the broader Pine Belt.
A half-hour east in Laurel, Manuscript Coffee ships beans nationwide from the small downtown that Erin and Ben Napier turned into a national fixture through HGTV's "Home Town." The show drove a tourist economy that didn't exist a decade ago, and Manuscript is one of the operations that's grown into it.
Down on the Gulf, Coast Roast Coffee in Long Beach handles the Mississippi Coast — the strip from Bay St. Louis through Gulfport and Biloxi over to Pascagoula. It's a region most people associate with Louisiana and Alabama coffee, but Coast Roast is the indie that holds it down on the Mississippi side.
Northern Mississippi: Oxford, Tupelo, Starkville, and the Hill Country
Oxford has two roasters and the most serious specialty pull in northern Mississippi. Heartbreak Coffee is run by Gretchen Williams, an Ole Miss alum who built the operation around the campus-and-Square crowd that defines Oxford coffee culture. Velvet Ditch Coffee Roasters, founded by Lesley Vance-Walkington, ships nationally and takes its name from the local nickname for Oxford itself — the kind of detail that only lands if you know the town.
In Tupelo, Lost + Found Coffee ships nationally and Tupelo River Coffee keeps a local footprint — two roasters serving Elvis's hometown and the broader Lee County market. Forty-five miles east in Starkville, Umble Coffee ships beans nationally and pulls on the Mississippi State campus crowd. Down in Columbus, Southbound Coffee Company handles the Golden Triangle with a national shipping footprint.
The most regionally significant operation up here is High Point Coffee Roasters in New Albany — a wholesale presence that's grown into one of the more recognized indie coffee names across the Mid-South. High Point ships nationally and supplies cafes across northern Mississippi and into the surrounding states.
The Long Tail: Small Towns and State-Level Operators
Mississippi's coffee map fills out with operators in towns most people outside the state would need to look up. Belle Oak Coffee Co works out of Florence, just south of Jackson, with a local-only footprint. Clockwork Coffee Co. ships nationally from Pinola, a Simpson County address with a population in the hundreds. Coffee Caboose Roasters ships beans out of Tylertown in Walthall County near the Louisiana line.
A handful of operators run at the state level without a single fixed retail city. Steampunk Coffee Roasters and Strange Brew Coffeehouse both work the state-level slot — Strange Brew shipping nationally. Meraki Roasting Co. and Thunderhead Coffee round out the list, both shipping nationally and connecting with customers wherever they are.
What Ties It Together
Mississippi's coffee scene runs on a different logic than most. There's no dominant specialty city, no concentrated coffee district, no scene-shaping flagship roaster pulling everyone else along. What you get instead is a state where roasters spring up in small towns because someone in that town cares enough to start one — Pinola, Tylertown, New Albany, Long Beach. Of the 25 active operations, around 17 ship nationally, which means most of them are reachable regardless of where you live.
The two stories worth knowing: BeanFruit's Paul Bonds is the only Black-owned roaster in the state and one of the more nationally cited coffee operators in the South. And Manuscript Coffee in Laurel is anchored to a town that wouldn't exist on the tourist map without two HGTV hosts deciding to renovate it. Both are working in conditions that would have been unimaginable for a Mississippi roaster twenty years ago.
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Last updated: May 2026