Located in The Junction at Downtown Airport, directly across from the Greenville Humane Society - Cohesive Coffee. They are coming into the Greenville coffee scene with a focus on community, inclusivity, and high quality coffee.

I sat down with owner Josh William a few days before they opened to talk about his journey up to opening and what inspired him.

The opportunity for a brick and mortar location came about in January of 2019 when Josh was approached by the developers of The Junction. By February he had signed a lease. “The vision I had for my shop came true. A lot of times in construction you get a lot of ‘you won’t be able to do this’ — I didn’t have that. The design and vision I’ve had for my shop is exactly this.”

Josh made sure to point out and praise his contractors, NexGen, for their outstanding work and for going above and beyond with their work.

Josh is a Greenville native. He grew up with a dad who was a big coffee drinker. After drinking a lot of self-described “crappy coffee” in college, he really started to fall in love with the science behind coffee. He was overseas on a mission trip when a he watched a gentleman make him a pour over. He saw the communal side of coffee.

About three years ago, Josh saw an empty place that he thought would be a great spot for a coffee shop and said to his wife, “What if I opened a coffee shop there?”

“She didn’t freak out. Which was a a good start.,” he told me with a laugh.

After a year of deliberating and some coaxing from friends, he started The Mauldin Coffee Co. and operated out of a mobile bus. “We tried it, it was cool, but I think it would work better in other places. Currently the bus is in my backyard right now,” he said. There has been a lot of sweat equity put into Cohesive, quite literally. Josh spent many a night with no AC, a single light, and case of beer working to get Cohesive to where it is now.

Josh then started thinking about rebranding. After combing through several dozen names he landed on Cohesive, inspired by a coffee meetup he attended while attending Anderson University. “When the word cohesive came up I said “Man, I love that. That feels good.”

His desire is to be communal focused. At the heart, both Mauldin Coffee Co. and Cohesive Coffee is about bringing people together.

“Everyone has a seat at the table. Whether you are a tea drinker, coffee drinker, or neither. There is a place for you here. No matter what nationality you are. No matter what your sexual identity is…there is a place for you here.

He continued, “This is a place for healthy debates and conversation. In history coffeeshops were called penny universities and that’s what I want.”

Every part of Cohesive Coffee has been designed with the customer in mind. A place to hang out that has a warm and cozy feeling. The menus explain the coffee clearly and the staff is happy to explain everything and answer questions if you’re unfamiliar with coffee.

Cohesive has their grand opening party on August 24th and will be open Monday-Thursday from 7am-4pm and Friday-Saturday 7am-8pm.

So come by, bring a friend, grab a latte, and join the Cohesive community!

Cohesive Coffee | Josh Williams | Greenville Entrepenuers