Samyukta Mahendra
Coffee has shaped how I work, how I build, and how I show up in community. I’ve spent the last decade in specialty coffee, trying to create spaces where care, equity, and long-term thinking come first. We built a shared roasting space in Atlanta because I believe access matters, and that good work should be shared. My approach is rooted in what I know to be true: food is never just food. It’s identity, labor, culture, and connection. I hold a master’s degree in Sustainability Science and have worked across the coffee industry as a barista, café manager, roaster, and business owner. Sleepy Mango exists because I wanted to create something that felt familiar, comforting, and honest. A business that offers both quality and care without pretense
Crossing Worlds
I came to the U.S. at 11. Like a lot of immigrant kids, I learned quickly how to code-switch, blend in, and keep going. I didn’t know it then, but that experience shaped how I moved through both academia and the service industry. I was rarely seen as an expert, but always expected to over-deliver.
Over the years, I cleaned houses, managed cafes, worked behind the bar, handled contracts as an agent, and consulted for coffee businesses trying to survive in a broken system. Along the way, I earned a bachelor’s degree in molecular biology and a master’s degree in sustainability science.
I loved the work, but academia, like many industries, was not built for people like me. It taught me about systems, climate, agriculture, and global inequality, and it gave me the critical lens I carry into coffee today.
Sleepy Mango is the result of all of that. It is scientific and emotional. Practical and political. Personal and expansive
The Story Behind Sleepy Mango
I am an introvert with social anxiety. A jaded hopeful. A scientist who loves service. I love coffee, plants, great food, power tools, Legos, art, my spouse, and my chosen family. I am also someone who is deeply and stubbornly committed to building something real.
That commitment grew out of frustration. Frustration with gatekeeping. With the industry’s obsession with prestige over people. With how hard it was to get in the room as a roaster, as an immigrant, as someone from a coffee-growing country who was not seen as an expert unless the status quo said so.
I did not set out to build a company. I wanted a work environment that was not extractive. A place where care was not conditional. Where people did not have to burn out to belong.
In an industry as beautiful and expansive as coffee, there should be room for softness, joy, and real sustainability. Yet so many spaces still run on underpaid labor, overextended staff, and outdated systems that take more than they give.
So I built something different. Sleepy Mango is steady. It is intentional. It is grounded in soft rebellion and structured care. We move slow on purpose, because building well matters more than building fast. Because people matter more than prestige.
This is deeply personal work. It is future work. And if you are here, I hope it becomes yours too.
