Tribe’s Beginnings

As is fitting, Tribe wasn’t born in a typical way. A collaboration between a few industry veterans, Tribe actually started as what you might call a guerilla roasting operation. Initially they were focused primarily on contract roasting for other businesses, leasing time on other roasters and tactically buying green coffee to meet demand, they quickly realised that they needed their own brand and their own roaster to develop a business that was already showing signs of potential.

In 2011, Bertha, the affectionately named Probat roaster which is still the centre of their operation was purchased. Bertha’s first home was in a small industrial park, where she would work her magic primarily at night, as other park-residents weren’t thrilled with the smoke she produced, and day-times were focused on working with customers.

Despite this atypical start, people quickly took notice of what Tribe was doing, and as the customer base grew, it became clear that this tribe was destined for great things. In 2013, Bertha moved into the Foundry in Woodstock which is still her home. Today, Bertha occupies a larger part of the Foundry, with a beautiful and quirky café, and serves those customers, as well as a new collaborative café space with BMW in the Cape Town CBD which opened in 2015.

What Tribe Coffee’s All About

Whether you’re drinking their coffee or hanging out in one of their buzzing spaces, it’s not hard to understand what Tribe’s all about. Their goal is to bring good quality, affordable coffee to everyone, and to have fun doing it.

It’s amazing to observe the extent to which all members of the growing Tribe team seem to have the same outgoing spirit. They take their coffee seriously, but not too seriously, and they take pride in doing things their own way. If you ever have the chance, you should definitely take the opportunity to visit their recently expanded mothership in Woodstock, and, if you can’t, let us deliver a little bit of Tribal coffee goodness directly to your door!

That moment eventually arrived when they tracked down what may have been the first Diedrich roaster in South Africa. Not only did they convince the long-time owner to sell it to them, but along the way, they also managed to get him to intensively train them on how to get the best out of the machine.

Armed with this inherited wisdom and precision tool, they set about constructing their business, roasting for their own customers right away but also doing a large amount of contract roasting that helped them hone their skills quickly. Fast forward just 6 years, and Legado has helped to transform the Cape Winelands coffee landscape and made an indelible mark on the speciality coffee scene of South Africa as a whole.

Legado's Approach

When you've had the privilege of working with Legado for a while, you come to realise that their founding story epitomises their way of operating. They are focused, meticulous and quality driven. They take their time to prepare well for whatever they're going to do, but when it's time to move, they move quickly.

There's an essence of professionalism that pervades their approach in everything from administration to the aesthetics of their brand. Much to the delight of our, and many of our customers' taste buds, this also translates directly into the cups of coffee brewed from their carefully selected & occasionally blended coffee beans.

Legado's selection of coffees is always varied & delicious - they make a point of ensuring they can offer their customers a really diverse set of origins and flavours. Their roast style honours the natural characteristics of the coffees they source, tending towards the lighter side but always well developed.

Leaving a Legacy

Legado is actually the Portuguese word for legacy, and the name was selected with the same care and thought that they have put into every other aspect of their venture. It is in fact their goal - to honour the legacy of the other parts of the coffee industry they work with, with special focus on the farmers, and to help create a legacy of speciality coffee in their corner of the country and beyond.

But Bean There is more than just a brand or even just a coffee roaster. It's an important part of South Africa's speciality coffee heritage, as well as a uniquely specialised importer of some of the best African coffees. They have been roasting coffee since 2005 in Johannesburg, and in the Cape Town branch that we work with since 2011.

African Single Origin Specialists

Some people don't even realise, but one of the things that makes Bean There special is the fact that they only import, roast & sell African coffees. In fact, one of the driving forces behind Bean There's creation was the desire of its founders - brother & sister, Jonathan & Sarah Robinson - to showcase some of the best coffee the continent has to offer.

This focus allows them to provide a unique variety and quality of African coffee beans throughout the year, which in itself is a great reason to get to know them and their coffees. However, it's not only what coffees they source, but how they source them that makes them particularly special.

Supporting Farmers Through Direct Fair Trade

Bean There are pioneers in direct fair trade in South Africa, and in fact, they were the first roasters of Fairtrade Certified coffee in the country. They have personally developed relationships with the people that grow and process the coffees they roast which helps them to ensure that their purchases are benefiting the communities that the coffees come from, while also maintaining a very high standard of quality.

Bean There actually pays a premium, above market price for the coffees they buy, as a way of ensuring that the producers of the coffee are fairly rewarded for their work. This represents part of their commitment to supporting African coffee farmers.

A Coffee & People Culture

One of the things that we love about Bean There is their culture, which seems to shine through in every member of their team that we've met. From founder Jonathan Robinson, to Rojeanne who leads the Cape Town roastery, to their baristas, packers and admin staff, they all have an uncannily similar warmth and kindness about them, as well as smiles that seem to reveal a genuine love for what they do.

If you're in Cape Town, be sure to pay them a visit at 58 Wale Street, and if you're in Joburg, take the opportunity to visit Bean There's original home at 44 Stanley. We're also thrilled to be able to offer all of their African fair trade coffees for delivery anywhere in South Africa, right here at Cape Coffee Beans.

The thing is, a good number of the people you'll find in the café have been coming to Origin for the better part of a decade. They don't just love Origin's coffee, they learned to love coffee at Origin. That's true for many of the newcomers as well as the old-timers. You'll often see them perched at the manual brew bar asking questions of the many knowledgeable and helpful members of the Origin team.

A Place To Learn About Coffee

It's perhaps this element of education and exposure that makes Origin so special. It seems to play an important role in many of the things they do. You can visit Origin and watch a talented coffee professional brew you a coffee in pretty much any method you'd like, from espresso to an Aeropress. If you're so inclined, you can even take a course, from short introductions to full professional training, while learning from people who really know their coffee. This is why you'll find many people who came through Origin in other coffee businesses here in Cape Town.

Perhaps even more importantly for us, Origin also provides wonderful opportunities to learn through the coffee itself...

Origin's Coffee

Having been established in 2005, back when Cape Town didn't have a speciality coffee industry, Origin has had the time to build scale, deep experience and important sourcing relationships. These resources allow them to bring in an unmatched variety of coffees from around the world, while still maintaining the highest standards of quality. This means that every couple of months, there's an entirely new batch of single origin beans to try, each having been carefully profiled and skilfully roasted by Origin's roasting team. Origin also undertakes to create a new espresso blend for each season, made up of some of the fantastic coffees they have found.

You can learn a lot about coffee just by making sure you try every one of Origin's offerings for a year - we certainly have learned a lot that way. In addition to the sheer variety of aromas, flavours & bodies, you'll also get to learn a little about the coffee's origins, processing and roast - information that we do our best to share in detail on each Origin coffee's product page here on the site.

With all this knowledge and experience to share, it's not surprising that some people (including us) like to call Origin the 'Grand Daddy' of speciality coffee in Cape Town.

Quaffee is the passion project of Warren, the owner and founder, who began exploring his love for coffee in a personal capacity more than two decades ago. As a friend of some of the pioneers of small-scale roasting in South Africa, Warren got to know the industry from the outside and luckily for us, in 2006 he decided to start his own roasting business - what better way to pursue the world's finest coffees?!

Why Quaffee?

The name succinctly captures what Quaffee is all about. To quaff means to drink with enthusiasm, something that Warren, the rest of the team and Quaffee's customers definitely do with their coffee. Quaffee's focus is also very much on quality coffee - so the name is also an abbreviated conjunction of those two words.

What's with the frog?

You can learn a lot about Quaffee through the story of the Frog Quaffer. In the early days, Warren was working on potential designs for a logo and in one sketch, he made an attempt to put some eyes on a coffee bean. His daughter, who was two years old at the time, saw the picture and remarked that it looked like a frog. Tickled by this, Warren decided to pursue that direction and Frog Quaffer was born.

Today, the logo serves as a reminder to Warren and the entire Quaffee team of what they stand for - the pursuit of great coffee before commercial gain and respect for future generations through a focus on sustainability. You can see these principles in everything they do, from the use of recycled packaging to the supply of great coffees at fantastic prices.

Quaffee today

While Quaffee remains small and focused, Warren has picked up some collaborators over the years including Mzukisi (pictured). Mzukisi was originally hired as a driver for Quaffee but Warren quickly recognised that he had an aptitude for doing a lot more. He decided to invest in flying Mzukisi to the US to train with Stephen Diedrich, the maker of Quaffee's roaster, and the rest is history. Mzukisi's talents have flourished and he now does most of the roasting for Quaffee. He and Warren are joined by Maya and Sino, and together this small team supplies a dedicated base of customers with some truly exceptional coffee beans.

All of this makes Quaffee a very unique roasting business. It's small and understated but punches significantly above its weight in the variety, quality and rarity of the coffees that it roasts. We'd highly encourage you to explore what Frog Quaffer has to offer!

For us, that cup was an Ethiopiean Yirgacheffe prepared meticulously as a pourover by Oli, a barista whose skills helped put Rosetta Roastery on the list of the 10 most memorable Baristas of 2013. We're happy to say that we immortalised that particular preparation (even if in a somewhat blurry manner - see attached photo) as it genuinely was a memorable moment in our journey of coffee discovery. It didn't taste at all like what you might expect from a cup of coffee. It was bright and fruity, with a natural sweetness, and incredibly distinct berry flavours - delicious and also completely different to your typical cup of joe.

Having spent some more time with the guys at Rosetta Roastery since then, we now know that this is exactly the kind of eye-opening coffee-experiences one can expect there. Even better, you only have to strike up a conversation with one of the guys behind the bar to get a real education in the coffee you're drinking - where it comes from, how the beans were prepared, how they then roasted them and what it is that gives it its unique characteristics. It's that focus on those unique characteristics that sets Rosetta Roastery apart.

About Rosetta Roastery - Cape Town's Single Origin guys

Founded in 2010, you could call Rosetta a fairly new kid on the block, but their reputation within the world of South African coffee is much bigger than the business's age would suggest. Their unique approach to coffee and passion for what they do is undoubtedly what has made their name as well known as it is to coffee aficionados. They place a great emphasis on the sourcing of the beans they use - scanning the globe for quality coffees with unique flavours. Once they have sourced their coffee beans, they take great care in finding their roasting profiles - the roast that will best accentuate their natural characteristics. They then sell those beans to their lucky customers in this unadulterated form.

Their focus on Single Origin rather than blended coffees already sets them apart from most of the Cape-area coffee roasters but their dedication to educating their customers about what each coffee-producing region of the world has to offer makes them quite unique. That's why Rosetta Roastery is a great place to visit when you're ready to start exploring coffee in more depth.

What we love about Rosetta Roastery

As is probably already clear, we really love Rosetta Roastery's unrelenting focus on Single Origin coffee. We're as fond as the next person of a delicious coffee blend but finding a different approach to coffee is refreshing and only helps expand one's appreciation for this drink we consume ever day. We also love their passion for the topic - having a chat with Jono or Rob about coffee is inspiring and educational. What makes visiting Rosetta even better is that they are as friendly and welcoming to their customers as they are passionate about coffee. You'll always be greeted and served with a smile and often you'll be lucky enough to benefit from their deep knowledge of the industry.

For those who are ready to get to know the coffee they are drinking much more intimately and are in the Cape Town area, a visit to Rosetta Roastery at the Woodstock Exchange is a must. We're thrilled to be able to sell their coffees, from each region of the world, at Cape Coffee Beans so that you can try what they have to offer from home. Have a look at their page on the site and discover your favourite coffee-producing regions!

The truth is (no pun intended) that this coffee shop would be worth visiting regardless of what they served, just to take in the look and feel of the place. Fortunately for us coffee-lovers, this is far from the only reason to take an interest in Truth.

About the Truth Coffee Cult

Truth was founded in 2009 by David Donde, a true evangelist of excellent coffee. David has been involved in specialty coffee for more than a decade and has been a central part of the coffee revolution that has been happening in the Cape Town area over the last few years. We were lucky enough to have the chance to chat to David about coffee recently and his passion and depth of knowledge immediately shone through. We picked up some great tips on how to make our coffee better, and started to understand the dedication that was behind this brand of coffee which has attracted such a cult following.

What we love about Truth

There are a lot of things to love about Truth: the fantastic HQ coffee shop (recently named best coffee shop in the world), the clean, simple design of the bags and the passion of its team to name a few. All of that is secondary to the most important thing about Truth however: the coffee is amazing!

If you have a chance visit Truth in person, at the HQ on 36 Buitenkant, you will be served a Truly mouth-watering coffee. The flavour of Truth's beans is incredibly bold and rich, without even a hint of bitterness. It's the kind of flavour that will stay in your mind for days afterwards and give you uncontrollable cravings for another cup.

The best part is, Truth's coffee is also amazing when you make it at home. When we first tried Truth coffee in our humble coffee press, we quickly realised that Truth's slogan - We roast coffee. Properly - was right on the money. The amount of flavour you can extract from freshly ground Truth coffee beans really demonstrates that the people roasting them know exactly what they are doing.

So if you're in the Cape Town area, don't miss out on the chance to have an amazing cup of coffee at the best coffee shop in the world but even if you can't visit, order a bag of Truth coffee from Cape Coffee Beans and try it at home - you will not regret it!

Beside that machine were some bright blue bags of coffee with a name that we immediately concluded must have been European: häzz. Undaunted by the queue and intrigued to find out why this European coffee was drawing such a crowd, we waited patiently and ordered some cappuccinos. Those who have been lucky enough to have a häzz coffee at the Stellenbosch market won't be at all surprised to hear that we were blown away by the coffee we were served.

I think we left that day still thinking that we'd sampled some fantastic European coffee, confused about why we hadn't heard of this international brand before. Once we started returning to that market, the häzz coffee stall quickly became our first stop and eventually, the people working at the stall enlightened us.

About häzz

Needless to say, we learned quickly that häzz wasn't a European brand of coffee but rather a proudly South African one. With headquarters at a beautiful cafe in Stellenbosch, häzz is South Africa's best answer to the big European coffee brands. The makers of häzz realised that South African consumers were having to make a choice between a recognisable brand and a fresh locally-roasted coffee and so they created a coffee to fulfil both needs. häzz keeps it simple, much like the European brands that inspired its creation. There is only one häzz blend, it's freshly roasted every day and it's just plain excellent.

What we love about häzz

We love the straightforward approach that the makers of häzz have taken. The South African consumer can be overwhelmed with choice when trying to pick freshly roasted beans from some of the Cape's roasters. For those who just want a consistent, excellent cup of coffee, no matter what your brewing method, häzz is your answer.

On top of that, we think that the makers of häzz have succeeded in creating a strong brand (one for heroes) which is accompanied by an amazing coffee experience. To see what we mean, pop into the cafe on Ryneveld street in Stellenbosch the next time you're in the area. You'll enjoy a fantastic cup of coffee and a real taste of cafe culture to rival the best that Europe has to offer.

So if you're the type of coffee-drinker who seeks out single-blend big coffee brands at the grocery store, why not give South Africa's answer a try: häzz - coffee for heroes