Our Story

What do you get when you cross a world-class chef with someone who lives and breathes (and is truly is obsessed with) coffee?

You get a coffee that is truly magical.  Powering you to do magical things.

Our story begins with May River’s founder, Chief Roaster … and longtime coffee-lover Leslie Rohland – who has been obsessed with coffee since her childhood days spent living in countries, and continents, throughout the world.  A self-described coffee connoisseur, she fully believes in the power of a truly great cup of coffee.  And as a renowned chef and owner of the popular Bluffton restaurant The Cottage Café, Bakery and Tea Room, she knew that she was in a position to bring a “culinary approach” to coffee – to make a coffee that would be loved by coffee aficionados and “Regular Joes” alike.

Craving that a culinary approach to coffee, Leslie headed to Vermont to enroll in one of the country’s top “Coffee Schools” – where she brought her cooking skills, and keen insight into what makes a truly amazing cup of coffee, to learn, and perfect, her coffee roasting skills.  Armed with her love of everything-coffee and the ability to now roast the perfect blends she and her fellow coffee-loving customers had been craving, she launched May River Coffee.  And the rest, as they say, is coffee history.

Roasted Intuitively To Perfection

She did it for herself.  She did it for her coffee-loving customers at The Cottage.  She did it because to Leslie, there’s nothing better than the smell of freshly (and absolutely-perfectly) roasted coffee made from the highest quality ethically-sourced beans.  But most of all, she did it so that she could spread her love of truly great coffee to her fellow coffee-lovers around the world, who now have the opportunity to taste what Bluffton, South Carolina residents have been raving about for years.

Today, Leslie and her team of equally as coffee-obsessed roasters skillfully, lovingly – and “intuitively” roast each of her unique blends using an old school drum roaster – bringing out the delicious natural flavors of each of the special beans she secures from coffee capitals of the world.  With her experienced eye on harvesting times in the world’s top coffee bean producing countries, Leslie secures only the highest quality, and best tasting, beans for roasting – and is committed to buying only 100% ethically sourced coffee beans, grown by those who practice sustainable farming.

Right here in the Lowcountry

The best, most flavorful, coffee beans.  Roasted by a team of experienced roasters who love coffee as much as you do.  All under the direction of an award-winning chef whose goal is to blow your mind with the best cup of coffee you’ve ever had.  That’s May River Coffee.  And that’s what will power you to do great, and magical, things each and every day

Our story is different … and so is our coffee.  Which is why so many of the Lowcountry’s finest hotels, resorts, restaurants – and homes throughout the area – have made May River Coffee their choice when it comes to coffee.  Experience what makes May River Coffee so magical – and how our culinary approach to coffee is truly blowing the minds of coffee-lovers throughout the coffee-loving world every day.