The 2024 Netflix docuseries Court of Gold follows the American men’s basketball team as they seek to win the gold medal at the Paris Olympics. In one memorable scene, the Indiana Pacers’ star point guard Tyrese Halliburton invites fellow Team USA member Joel Embiid to team up after the Olympics.
“Do you want to come to Indy? Let’s make it happen,” Halliburton says.
The former MVP responds:
“Never in my life. I would rather retire.”
Embiid’s quip reflects a common bicoastal sentiment about Indianapolis. It’s flyover country. A Midwestern metropolis surrounded by a sea of corn. But if Joel Embiid actually came to Indianapolis, he would find a thriving specialty coffee community that’s home to multiple champions.
I first visited the city in 2014 when I was part of the team that helped Louisville, Kentucky-based roaster/retailer Quills Coffee open its Indianapolis outpost. At the time, I was nervous about how the local coffee community would respond to a group of out-of-towners moseying in on their turf. What I found was a welcoming group of coffee enthusiasts excited to have another coffee shop around.
Since 2014, Indy’s specialty coffee scene has shifted into high gear. From multi-roaster cafes, barista-led pop-ups, or world-class micro roasters, Indy’s coffee scene has it all. These are some of the best coffee shops in the “Racing Capital of the World.”
Helm
For 2025 US Brewers Cup Champion Justin Bull, the decision to join the team at Helm was an unexpected impulse.
“I walked into Helm the second week it was open, and I said, ‘I think I need to work here,’” he says. Bull reached out to Helm’s founder, former professional rugby player Jillion Potter, and the two agreed to join forces. “We like to highlight what we love,” Bull tells me. “We source coffee from producers that we want to work with and roast them to highlight origin and varietal characteristics.”
On a recent visit to Helm’s roastery and cafe, Bull brews us a coffee using the technique that helped him earn a spot in the top six at the 2025 World Brewers Cup Championship. Using a hybrid brewer, he blooms the coffee with the dripper open, before switching to immersion for the second pour, believing this approach offers more clarity in the cup. The striking floral aromas from our brew—a Gesha variety from Colombian producer Yessica Para—certainly support the hypothesis.
Helm, like Bull’s brewing technique, is an atypical neighborhood coffee roaster. For one, Helm focuses on selling small quantities—100–200 grams—of lightly-roasted microlots. All coffees are roasted on site on a Stronghold S9X.
But it’s not just coffee nerds who love Helm. The brand is popular with the tabletop gaming community. They are the official Coffee Sponsor of Gen Con, the annual gaming convention that brings more than 90,000 visitors to the city.
Tinker Coffee Co
For Tinker Coffee Co. co-founder Steve Hall, a strong sense of rootedness is at the heart of everything the brand does.
“We really pride ourselves in our Hoosier hospitality,” Hall says. “Showing up and being good, solid salt-of-the-earth Midwesterners for the people who come to our town.”
Hall, along with his cofounder and brother-in-law Jeff Johnson, was inspired by Michaele Weissman’s 2008 book God in a Cup: The Obsessive Quest for the Perfect Coffee. “We’ve always wanted to do something entrepreneurial together,” he tels me. “We felt like there was a big opportunity for someone to do something right…so we bought a used Probat L12 and a couple bags from Cafe Imports and we got to work.”
Tinker quickly built a loyal following of wholesale accounts and soon added a catering arm to the business. In 2018, the company bought Loring S70 roaster and moved into a 10,000-square-foot warehouse. Following the pandemic, however, the roastery took a hard pivot into retail.
Today, Tinker operates eight locations around the Indianapolis area, including two locations in Indianapolis international airport under a licensing agreement.
Amberson Coffee & Grocer
Even before Hugo Cano won the 2026 US Coffee in Good Spirits Championship, his coffee shop Amberson Coffee & Grocer was serving competition-level microlots.
“Coffee competitions have opened us to the world of truly extraordinary coffees,” Cano says. “We love sharing these coffees with our community and allowing others to experience coffees they may not have access to.
Cano’s dream to open his own coffee shop, however, almost didn’t come to fruition.
“In February of 2020, I found a spot that seemed the perfect place to pursue my dream of serving coffee at my own shop. I signed a lease, and a month later Covid happened, which meant our original idea for the shop would have to drastically change,” says Cano. “The current version of Amberson was born out of necessity, survival, and a longing for community.”
As a multi-roaster, Amberson is focused on serving an ever-changing line up of roasters from around the country and abroad.
“We alternate between partnering with roasters who may be less recognized and international roasters. We love exploring the beautifully diverse world that is coffee by sharing all the different expressions of coffee,” Cano says.
For Cano, the goal is creating value for Indy’s coffee community.
“The coffee scene is thriving with both established and upcoming shops. We hope that through our intentionality to keep building community, we have been able to create and maintain safe and supportive spaces for coffee peeps,” he says.
Blue Mind Coffee Roasting
From humble beginnings roasting on a Hottop in their garage, husband-and-wife team Andy and Sarah Hassler have grown Blue Mind Coffee Roasting into a community staple in Indianapolis’s Meridian-Kessler neighborhood.
“When an opportunity to open a shop in a place and way that seemed to fit who we were, it felt like the time to have our own cafe. It has been wonderful to be able to have a way to be face-to-face with our customers and also to showcase more of who we are,” says Andy Hassler, who is also Blue Mind’s head roaster.
Their success is truly a family affair—the Hassler’s children, now adults, are active in the business.
“We have loved having our kids involved in the business from the beginning. They have learned a lot about the value of work and even entrepreneurship through helping with everything from roasting to bagging to working behind bar and delivering to customers,” he says.
The roasting program at Blue Mind features a wide array of single origin coffee, roasted onsite with a Loring S15 roaster. As much as Hassler’s focus might be on filter coffee, Blue Mind’s ube latte has become a cult favorite in the community. Whether it’s a pour-over or a sweet signature drink, for Hassler it all comes down to hospitality.
“We try to go above and beyond in creating a space that feels welcoming and kind. We also work to create a culture among our staff that allows people to feel at home when they are in our shop,” says Hassler.
Neverhome
When Sprudge walks into Neverhome’s pop-up at Natural State Provisions, the energy around the project is palpable. The bootstrapped project is gathering steam and Indianapolis is catching on. On the weekends, the queue can snake down the street.
“We started this on barista salaries,” says Niehaus. “You might wait for this, but it’s going to be good,” he says.
On the coffee side of things Neverhome works with roasters like Berkeley’s Hydrangea Coffee Roasters. Equal care and attention is given to its elaborate matcha program. “A lot of of our undercurrents take from the east and west coast—showcasing roasters from both regions but keep that Midwestern hospitality,” says Naja Ferguson, Neverhome’s cofounder.
“Neverhome is inspired by hard working baristas—our peers and past mentors. We wanted to create a coffee experience that we were always looking for,” she says.
Michael Butterworth is a coffee educator and consultant based in Istanbul, Turkey. Read more Michael Butterworth for Sprudge.
