The Mauritius Coffee Festival (MCF) is both the stage and the platform for the island’s emerging coffee culture. Its first edition, branded Coffee & Co., took place at La Piazza, Vivéa Business Park, Moka, over the weekend of 30–31 August 2025, drawing more than 1,200 attendees to the island’s first dedicated coffee festival.
As MCF’s public-facing showcase, Coffee & Co. united Mauritius’s coffee community and home-grown talent with an international roster of brands and suppliers in a curated setting designed to connect people, spark collaboration, and celebrate the craft of coffee. The exhibitor roster balanced global names such as Monin, Jacobs, Nespresso alongside the Nespresso Recycling Programme; Fiou-ki (Diablo), Toast Maker, Oatly, and Chalo, with Mauritian producers including Kuumba Coffee, Amana Coffee, Café de Chamarel, Kind Coffee, Cozy Eight, Mokapsul, and Chikooz. Local food and beverage purveyors Maison Escoffier, Ketty Cooks, Sweets O’Clock, Mantra Foods, added to the mix, while Mission Verte provided the sustainability framework. The festival was delivered in partnership with Ticketbox as ticketing partner and Oficea as venue partner.
Some exhibitors used the occasion to launch new products; others consolidated their presence in a market still taking shape. Across the two days, the programme combined competitions, talks, workshops, and live music all underpinned by a clear environmental ethos. With its mix of curated experiences, industry engagement, and public participation, Coffee & Co. has set the tone for what organisers intend to make a flagship annual fixture in Mauritius’s cultural and commercial calendar.
Coffee & Co. was the product of an unlikely alliance between entrepreneurs, marketing minds, and pure passion – a blend of skills that proved just the right brew to bring the concept to life.
Calvin Gunness, Entrepreneur, Director at Unicorn Group and founder of both the Mauritius Coffee Festival (MCF) and its showcase, Coffee & Co., first encountered the concept in January 2025 at the Dubai Coffee Festival. The visit convinced him that Mauritius, with its handful of roasters and growing appetite for specialty beans, needed a dedicated platform to connect producers, suppliers, and consumers.
“Mauritius has the talent, the curiosity, and the supply ecosystem to grow,” he said. “By bringing competitors together and giving suppliers visibility, we can turn fragmentation into collaboration and place the island firmly on the global coffee map.”
While Coffee & Co. will return each year as the festival’s flagship event, Calvin Gunness stresses that it is only one part of a broader strategy. MCF, the umbrella platform he established, will host different events throughout the year to celebrate coffee in varied forms; from competitions and tastings to discussions and exhibitions, positioning Mauritius within the international conversation and linking regional talent from Réunion Island to Madagascar with their Mauritian counterparts.
“Our island sits at the centre of a region rich in agricultural heritage and untapped potential,” Calvin observed. “With my team, I am committed to sustaining the momentum we have created – giving visibility and opportunity to our local and regional talents and brands, and creating pathways for them to compete, collaborate, and be recognised on the global stage. Our aim is that when the world speaks of coffee excellence in the Indian Ocean, Mauritius is not an afterthought, but a point of reference.”
If Calvin Gunness provided the impetus, Keshmi Gopal, Managing Director of Aspire Marketing, gave the festival its visual and experiential form. From the brand’s logo to the installation of the “black box” – a hallmark of major coffee festivals worldwide; each detail was conceived to encourage discovery, interaction, and a sense of occasion. “I am not a designer by training, but I am a creative,” she reflected. “Seeing the brand I developed take shape across the venue, and be received with such warmth, was surreal. Every element was intentional – a way to prompt conversation and build community.”
That philosophy extended to the industry dynamic. “We wanted to level the playing field by bringing every player – established and emerging under one roof, to democratise the space and take the competitiveness out of it and celebrate a common commodity ‘Coffee’,” Keshmi explained. “The cake is big enough for everyone to have a slice, and when we work together, the whole industry benefits.”
The community response validated that approach. Influencers in Mauritius, including many who had not been invited, purchased their own tickets to show support. For Keshmi, it underscored a simple truth: when something is built with care and authenticity, people are willing to invest in it.
The operational architecture of the festival was the responsibility of Tehseen Atchia Abdoolah, a pharmacist-turned-events strategist whose remit spanned vendor liaison, logistical oversight, and the careful choreography of the two-day programme. Collectively, the MCF team, along with Tehseen, engineered the B2B morning sessions, an hour each day before the doors opened to the public; a deliberate space for exhibitors to meet, exchange ideas, and explore potential collaborations without distraction. She noted the impact saying “by the afternoon, collaborations were already in motion,” she recalled, citing the Kuumba–Monin pairing, which offered syrup-infused brews, as one of several unplanned but welcome outcomes.
For Tehseen, the festival was also a launchpad. Several participants, including new local and regional entrants, chose Coffee & Co. as the moment to introduce their brands to the public- an outcome she regards as central to the event’s purpose. “It’s about giving people the confidence and the platform to make their first impression count,” she said.
That same ethos underpinned the Careers Corner during the festival, designed to show aspiring baristas, café owners, and coffee entrepreneurs the practical steps from passion to profession. “If we want this industry to grow, we must make the career paths visible and accessible,” she noted.
Her own turning point came not during the bustle of the weekend but in the final hours of preparation: “The night before the opening, when the black box was finally installed, it was clear we were launching something significant for the island.” That sense of significance extended to her sustainability brief. Every exhibitor was instructed to use recyclable cups and issued three colour-coded bags for waste separation, ensuring that recycling and composting were part of the festival’s daily rhythm. “It wasn’t an afterthought,” she said. “If we are building a coffee culture worth sustaining, it must reflect the values we want it to stand for and we thank Mission Verte for making this happen.”
Programme Highlights
The festival’s programme balanced commerce, competition, and conversation. The Brew & Bite Marketplace brought roasters, cafés, and patisseries together under one roof.
The Latte Art Showdown – Art of the Pour featured eight baristas: Marichi Moothoosamy (Nespresso Mauritius), Krishnaduth “Varun” Udhin (Slovakia-based café co-owner), Axel Julie (independent coffee enthusiast), Annabelle Babajee (Café de Chamarel), Zuzana Udhin (Slovakia-based café co-owner), Kawthar Ismail (Comptoir 96), Varshini Rutnoo (Kind Coffee, La Gaulette), and Joly Jonathan (freelance consultant and trainer, formerly Café La Fournaise and LUX* Grand Gaube). Their pours were assessed for symmetry, contrast, and precision by a distinguished jury: Frédéric Coutant, Hospitality & Culinary Arts Expert and Meilleur Ouvrier de France in Arts de la Table; Jay Boodhun, Beverage Expert at Monin; and Gillian Mauree, specialty coffee roaster. Kawthar Ismail emerged as champion, impressing judges with both technical mastery and creative flair.
Coffee Confessions, hosted by Adilla Diouman of HR Café, featured candid conversations with leading voices in the coffee world. Day one welcomed Shibani Hassamal (Mantra Foods), Jay Prakash (Monin), and Thomas Lehoux (Café de Chamarel) under the theme From Bean to Brand. The conversation then shifted to From Roots to Roasts on Day 2 with Luigi Peccini (Nespresso), Andrew Langworthy (Kuumba Coffee), Bruno Pougnet (Mission Verte), and Sandy Scioli (Maison Escoffier), exploring challenges and roasting craft to sustainability and culinary artistry; capturing coffee in all its complexity, from its origins to the final pour.
Dedicated content zones gave photographers and influencers abundant material. For younger visitors, the Children’s Corner combined interactive workshops on bean-to-cup basics, upcycling coffee grounds, and environmental awareness with more playful activities, including face painting – making the festival as engaging for families as it was for industry insiders.
The atmosphere was framed by music, with LP performing on Saturday and Manu Desroches closing the festival on Sunday.
About Mauritius Coffee Festival
The Mauritius Coffee Festival’s (MCF) first event is the island’s pioneering coffee collective, bringing together roasters, baristas, and coffee enthusiasts in a vibrant, community-driven celebration of the craft. Committed to bean-to-cup creativity, it spotlights homegrown talent, champions sustainable practices such as upcycling coffee grounds and eco-friendly brewing, and shares moments that deepen appreciation with every sip.
MCF stands for innovation, collaboration, and unbridled coffee passion. Its goal is to transform Mauritius into a recognised global coffee destination by Educating, entertaining and elevating the Mauritian Coffee Culture. The festival aspires to become the Indian Ocean’s premier coffee cultural hub, where every pour, performance, and conversation fuels both creative and commercial growth. Through entertainment, family-friendly activities, cultural showcases, competitions, and educational workshops, MCF aims to elevate the island’s coffee scene to the global stage.
