For Sarah Gill, everything comes back to coffee.
Gill, 26, also known as Mama Mocha, runs Mama Mocha's Coffee Roastery located in the back of the Gnu's Room on South Gay Street in Auburn.
Any given day Gill may be caught either roasting in the back of the shop on her handhammered copper roastery, chatting with regulars or drinking her average of 10 espressos a day.
Gill has always loved coffee and found early on that community formed fast over the dark beverage, she said.
"And I realized that when I was making it for people, they would tell me these things and it was like this connection that people normally don't make," Gill said. "It's kind of like a daytime bartender."
The Hoke's Bluff native grew up in high school working at local coffee shops and later moved on to working in the corporate world of coffee at a Starbucks.
Gill soon found herself frustrated with climbing the ladder and yearning for a chance to be creative with the business and beverage.
"I wanted to start something from grass roots," Gill said.
Gill's increased interest in what she calls the "rabbit hole" of coffee knowledge was fueled when she went to an event for the Speciality Coffee Association of America.
"For the first fifteen minutes I was there, I cried," Gill said. "I'm sure I looked like an \ insane person. Because everybody cared so much- everybody was so into what they were doing with coffee - not making money, not the new cupcake... It was just about the farmers, the beverage and the relationships."
When first moving to Auburn, Gill briefly managed another local coffee shop.
She was involved in a cell group at Campus Church. Gill links much of her dreaming about the roastery and coffee shop to the time she spent around those people, she said.
"Everybody was dreaming," Gill said. "And it was trying to connect dreaming with action And coffee's kind of like a catalyst for that."
Kelly Fly, children's pastor at Campus Church, was in the same cell group as Gill when she was scheming about the idea of the roastery and coffee shop.
Fly said that Gill has a personality that draws people in.
"She doesn't exclude anyone," Fly said.
For Gill, next to making excellent coffee, she wants to create an open environment and community for people to come and be themselves as they transition through college or other stages of life with their own dreams, she said. She said that often the coffee shop will turn into a time of people coming in to just talk to others and unload about the stress and happiness in their lives.
"Sometimes it's like a tear factory back here," she said.
Apart from selling her coffee in countless local venues, Gill also frequently donates or assists local nonprofits. She said she is especially passionate about the local humane society and Freedom 21, a local nonprofit charity that combats human trafficking.
Gill's mother, Debbi Barnett lives in Hoke's Bluff and said that Gill has always been a go getter and a starter.
Her junior year in high school, Gill was elected to the homecoming court and wanted to wear combat boots with her formal dress, Barnett said. The principal would not agree, but finally gave in to a compromise: allowing her to wear flip flops, Barnett said.
"She just thinks out of the box and she goes and does it!" Barnett said.
Barnett helps sell Gill's coffee in the Gadsden area, now taking on the name of Grandmama Mocha as she brings the product to waiting customers.
"If it's about coffee, she gets excited," Barnett said.
For Gill, community and excellence continue to be the key things.
"Investing time in people around you and choosing a good local business to do that at is really important," Gill said.
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