Our Story
Coffee with a roar.
A town with no coffee
Simba Coffee Co. was born in Ortonville, Michigan — a small town where everybody knows your name, but for the longest time, nobody could pour you a cup of coffee. We were a community without a café. Many coffee shops had come and gone over the years, each one trying and none of them sticking. No place to grab a quick espresso on the way to work, no spot to sit and catch up with a neighbor, no warm corner to land on a cold Michigan morning.
For us, opening a shop was never about the money. We grew up in Africa, where coffee is something shared — a ceremony, a welcome, a reason to slow down and be together. Ortonville is home now, and we wanted to bring that memory of African coffee to our new community. The bold, chocolatey cups of our childhood. The bright florals that made a morning feel like a morning. The feeling of sitting around a pot with people you know.
So we built Simba — a little piece of that memory, poured fresh on a small-town corner. We're proud to be Ortonville's coffee shop: the corner that was missing, finally filled with the smell of fresh roast and the sound of friends running into each other. Every cup we pull is for the community that made us want to do this in the first place.
A Lifetime Promise
Our commitment to Ortonville
Ortonville believed in us when we first opened our doors — before there was a second location, before anyone knew our name. You gave a small-town coffee shop a chance, and that chance is the reason we're still here.
So this is our lifetime promise to the people of Ortonville: the Ortonville shop will always be 10% or more cheaper than any other Simba location. Not for a season, not while it's convenient — for as long as we pour coffee. It's the least we can do to honor the community that made Simba possible.
Paying respect to the farmers
Africa grows some of the finest coffee in the world, yet for too long its farmers have been underappreciated — paid a fraction of what their beans are worth, and too often erased altogether. African coffee has been shipped out, relabeled, and sold as “coffee from elsewhere,” the origin stripped away so someone else could put their name on it. The farmers who tend the trees, pick the cherries, and carry the harvest down the mountain rarely saw the credit or the price they deserved.
We wanted no part of that. Simba exists to put the origin front and center — Uganda and Ethiopia, named proudly on every bag — and to make sure the farmers behind it get a fair price for their work. When you drink a cup here, you're not just tasting bold African coffee. You're honoring the people who grew it, and making sure they can keep growing it.
It starts with the bean
Great coffee isn't made in a café — it starts on a farm, in the soil, at altitude. We source from two regions that grow some of the boldest coffee on earth.
🇺🇬 Uganda
Rich, chocolatey, full-bodied beans from the equatorial highlands. Deep cocoa, toasted nuts, and a thick caramel finish. The backbone of our dark roasts and the heart of our espresso.
🇪🇹 Ethiopia
Bright, floral, and fruity — from the birthplace of coffee itself. Jasmine, bergamot, and stone fruit that cuts clean and lingers. The spark in our light roasts.
Roasted fresh, the old way
Where our beans come from, coffee is roasted over open heat — beans turned by hand until they crack and smoke, the oils rising to the surface. That's where the boldness lives.
We roast in small batches all week so every cup lands with full intensity. No stale bags, no flat flavor — just coffee that kicks back.
Built to kick start your day
A neighborhood café in Ortonville where the espresso hits bold and the welcome is warm. Pull up a seat, grab a cup, and let the morning roar.