Welcome to the latest edition of the Cape Coffee Awards! As we usher in a new year, we’d like to take one last look back at what happened in 2025. We’ve now made it a tradition to analyse and rank our customers’ favourite products from the previous year. Below you’ll find the results of that analysis across a number of key categories, from espresso machines to manual brewers to coffee grinders, both manual and electric, to coffee beans and even accessories. Read on to learn more about the winners in each area.

While some perennial favourites continue to appear on the latest Cape Coffee Awards list, we’ve added a lot of new products in the last few months and there have been some important changes in quite a few key categories. As we do every year, we’ve also updated the competition categories to reflect the changes in our industry and our product set. Where it felt appropriate, we’ve highlighted ties and runners up, and we’ve also made some honourable mentions for those brands that have made a big impact in the year gone by. Read on to find out more about our customers’ favourites in 2025!

Please note that this is a purely quantitative list. Winners have been selected solely based on sales volume, and are not necessarily our subjective favourites (though some of them definitely are).

Coffee grinders of the year

To enjoy great coffee, you need a good coffee grinder. Whether manual or electric, having a reliable, consistent, and accurate grinder can make the difference between an enjoyable cup and a disappointing one. Below you’ll find our customers’ favourite grinders in 2025, as well as an honourable mention.

Manual grinder of the year

For 2025, the manual grinder of the year goes to what is now an iconic piece of coffee gear around the world: the Timemore Chestnut C2S. Thanks to its reliable, and sizable, 38mm set of burrs that is easy-to-adjust with a stainless steel dial, and more than 30 settings to experiment with, the Chestnut C2S is perfect for manual brewing methods, offering you consistency across profiles so you can dial-in great flavour.

Favoured by scores of pour-over and filter brew enthusiasts, you may remember that we previously offered the C2S's predecessors, the Timemore Chestnut C & the Timemore Chestnut C2, both of which were winners in their respective categories of the Cape Coffee Awards in prior years. The Chestnut C2S is the latest in this line of approachable, affordable, and easy-to-use manual grinders which give coffee drinkers exactly what they need: consistent and reliable grinding. Offering small but significant upgrades, Timemore has continued to make our most popular hand-grinder even better with every new edition, so it’s no surprise that the Chestnut C has clinched the most popular spot, yet again.

Honourable mention: Mylo Coffee

Since entering the South African specialty coffee market in 2024, Mylo has already made a lasting mark by offering excellent value for its small but mighty lineup of locally-designed manual coffee grinders. While its popularity is yet to match that of Timemore, Mylo’s homegrown entrepreneurial venture and high-quality range of products has captured many coffee lovers’ attention and is definitely worthy of a special mention.

Started by three KZN-based doctors with a shared love for great coffee, Mylo is driven by a desire to help bridge the gap between consumer gear and professional equipment. Last year, Mylo’s SG1 and SG Mini grinders took the second and third places for most sold manual grinders, and in 2026 we know that Mylo will continue to offer premium quality at reasonable prices.

Single-dose grinder of the year

This was a new category for the Cape Coffee Awards in 2024 but for 2025 single-dose grinding garnered even more popularity. With more coffee lovers wanting to experiment with different coffees, as well as minimise waste, and use precise brewing variables, traditional grinder form factors are being abandoned in favour of a new breed coffee grinders that are versatile in their grinding capabilities but designed with the home brewer in mind.

Once more, Timemore’s Sculptor is the champion in this category, thanks to its tasteful, minimalist design and impressive set of features. Available in both filter-only, and espresso-capable versions, everything about the Sculptor range encourages its users to experiment, to try out different beans and get the most out of them every time. Thanks to large sets of precision-engineered burrs, the Sculptor range is as precise as it is versatile.

Building on the success of the Sculptor, Timemore also released a brand new, more affordable, conical-burr grinder in 2025 which immediately had a big impact around the world and with our customers. The more affordable, and smaller sibling, the Bricks 01S, managed to grab second place in its first year on our shelves which is an impressive feat in its own right.

Between the affordable Bricks and the flagship Sculptor, Timemore has now demonstrated itself to be as dominant in the single-dose space as it is in the hand-grinder space. We can’t wait to see what they come up with next!

Domestic espresso grinders of the year

For the fourth year in a row, the Eureka Mignon Manuale has kept its lead as our customers’ favourite domestic espresso grinder. If the Manuale has retained its popularity so consistently, it is undoubtedly because of its affordability and reliability. It offers the basics you need to do the job of grinding for espresso well, including 50mm hardened steel burrs, stepless adjustment and anti-clumping technology, with no additional bells and whistles to speak of. By eschewing the frills, Eureka has managed to keep the Manuale significantly below the price point of the rest of the Mignon range, making it an obvious entry-point that we are always happy to recommend for the home barista.

Nevertheless, some home baristas want more than the basics, and for those looking for a premium home espresso grinder, the Rancilio Stile has become an obvious choice and retained its overall second place in our domestic espresso grinder rankings.

Like the Manuale, the Stile has stepless adjustment, but it also houses a much bigger set of 58mm stainless steel burrs and hefty 250W, 1200RPM motor. It has a touch-screen display that allows you to programme single, and double shots, and thanks to these features and the option for a larger hopper, it’s as practical in a low-volume commercial coffee operation as it is at home. For those looking to get serious about espresso, it’s an obvious upgrade. It’s worth mentioning that it also has a more affordable, non-prommable sibling in the Stile SD which retains most of the performance of the Stile but does not include the touch-screen interface.

Commercial espresso grinder of the year

This year we have a newcomer taking the spot for most-sought after commercial espresso grinder. From HeyCafe, the Buddy on-Demand Espresso Grinder has gained massive popularity by offering commercial-grade, German-engineered burrs, and convenient, time-saving features at a surprisingly modest price point. Manufactured by the Hemro group, the parent company of both Mahlkonig and Anfim grinders, the HeyCafe Buddy boasts 64mm hardened-steel burrs, which deliver exceptional grind uniformity, and flavour clarity of the level typically seen in high-end grinders. With a durable, cast-aluminium body that features a 3.5-inch touchscreen display, and stepless adjustment control for precision dosing, the Buddy is a perfect espresso grinder for the modern cafe environment.

Check out all of our grinders here

Espresso machines of the year

South Africa has an espresso-based coffee culture, and this is unlikely to change any time soon. In 2025, we saw a continued boom in small, single-site coffee operations, and also a continued interest from amateur baristas in making high-quality espresso drinks at home. Both business-owners and coffee enthusiasts are spoiled for choice these days with the equipment available, and we saw a significant overall rise in the number of machines sold. Below you’ll find some information on the most popular among these with some familiar faces and some new arrivals!

Entry-level domestic espresso machine of the year

Last year’s winner, the Gaggia Classic has lost the title of South Africa’s most popular entry-level home espresso machine to its long-time, closest competitor, the Rancilio Silvia home espresso machine. Despite losing the lead, the Gaggia still showed a strong second place performance, highlighting how it still holds a special place in many home baristas’ hearts.

2025’s winner for entry-level domestic espresso machine, the Rancilio Silvia, is prized for its reliability, and durability, thanks to its commercial-grade components. Unlike many other entry-level options, the Silvia features a solid brass boiler, and a 58mm group head, providing the thermal stability and pressure necessary to produce cafe-quality espresso. It has particular renown for its steam output, which outperforms others in its class, allowing home baristas to create their desired silky, microfoam. While it requires a bit of a learning curve at first, its straightforward, serviceable construction ensures that with basic maintenance, the Silvia can reliably serve great coffee for decades. Now in its 6th edition, the Silvia has been a popular choice for home baristas for decades.

Prosumer domestic espresso machine of the year

Last year’s runner up, the Lelit Bianca has stolen the show by taking the title for ‘prosumer’ domestic espresso machine of 2025. Beating out the previous year’s favourite, the Rancilio Silvia Pro X for the top prosumer spot, the Bianca is not only a favourite on our HQ bar, but it has swayed our customers looking for a premium at-home espresso experience thanks to its extensive set of features

With dual-boilers, and a whisper-quiet rotary pump, it is actually easy to see why the Bianca has taken the top spot. Its host of features, like PID temperature control, walnut accents, variable pressure profiling, OLED display, as well as customisable pre-infusion, shot timers, and energy-saving modes make many people see it as an ‘end-game’ machine choice. It also comes at a price point that is more approachable than other machines with similar features.

Commercial espresso machine of the year

For the top spot of commercial espresso machine of the year, we actually have a tie! We sold the exact same amount of the Classe 5 S commercial espresso machine from Rancilio, and Lelit’s compact, and affordable commercial offering, the Giulietta X, in 2025. Both machines are reliable and impressively affordable for full-size commercial machines, but each offers a slightly different set of features that appeal to different types of budding, and established, coffee businesses.

The Rancilio Classe 5 S is available in both one and two group models, with semi-automatic brewing controls. It’s a heat-exchange-powered workhorse with a sizable boiler, and the basic controls a barista needs to make great coffee. Thanks to a gas-powered option, it’s an obvious choice for mobile coffee stations, and all two-group versions are ready for high-volume operation without missing a beat.

The Giulietta, on the other hand, is a more petite and eye-catching machine with a striking aesthetic as well as programmable automatic controls, PID temperature control, and a simple digital interface that allows for a fair bit of customisation. With its smaller form factor and all-chrome exterior, it’s the perfect choice for those who want to make a statement in their cafe space and serve more modest volumes of coffee. It also offers fantastic value for money.

Between the Rancilio Classe 5 S and the Lelit Giulietta X, independent coffee business owners are bound to find a commercial espresso that suits their budget and purposes. It’s no wonder that dozens of coffee businesses installed one of these two espresso machines in 2025!

Browse espresso machines here

Other coffee brewers

While South Africa may still have an espresso-based culture, there’s no question that there is a surging interest in alternative brew methods, which makes us happy. More and more coffee lovers are realising that they can make a delicious coffee at home without an espresso machine, and that frothy milk is not what it’s all about. In fact, manual brew methods can sometimes offer an even better way to enjoy and appreciate the nuances of high-quality specialty coffee.

Bear in mind that there is a huge variety of manual brewers out there, both around the world and on our shelves. While there are some clear winners in terms of popularity, part of the magic of brewing by hand is being able to affordably try lots of different tools. That being said, there are the manual brewing tools that our customers favoured in 2025.

Coffee maker of the year

Our winner for the top coffee maker is once again, the Bialetti Moka Express. Though once challenged by the Hario V60 in the Cape Coffee Awards, the iconic, and durable Moka Express has retained its popularity for decades, despite sporting a design that has been virtually unchanged since the 1930s. It is a true classic, in every sense of the word. It’s also an easy and affordable way to make tasty coffee and specialises in making high-strength brews that can quell that espresso craving without the need for an espresso machine.

The runner up for coffee maker of the year also goes to another great Bialetti product, the Moka Express’s stainless steel sibling, the Venus. Compatible with induction as well as gas and electric heat sources, the Venus adds versatility to the Bialetti range, as well as additional durability, thanks to its more modern materials. Nevertheless, it works exactly the same way as the Moka Express, so it’s an easy alternative to consider, particularly if you like curves more than angles.

Pour-over brewer of the year

While moka pots are still the most popular way to manually brew coffee (pretty much everywhere), pour-over brewing is a clear second and seems to be growing faster, so it feels appropriate to highlight the most popular choices in this category as well. Representing the 3rd and 4th place spots in coffee makers overall, we have two pour-over brewers to highlight for you

It was actually a close contest, as the top contenders for most sold pour-over brewer of 2025 were neck-and-neck. Ultimately, the Hario V60 took first place, albeit by a small margin, demonstrating that its longstanding reputation as the go-to for pour-over brewing stands relatively firm. We love this dripper, and clearly so do our customers, but if you want something slightly different from Hario take a look at their immersion brewer, the Switch.

Hot on the heels of the V60, the still relatively new Air Dripper from Origami came in a close second place. While still less well-known than Hario’s iconic offering, the Origami’s unique aesthetic and feature set are rapidly winning over new adherents both at home and in the cafe. The Origami Dripper is compatible with both cone-shaped filters, like Hario’s, and wave-shaped filters like Kalita’s. Origami even manufactures its own version of both. Leading the charge on a rapidly expanding second generation of Japanese pour-over brewers, we reckon that Origami is a brand to watch in years to come.

Not only was the competition between Hario and Origami pour-over brewers intense in 2025, but the figures for both brewers closely rivalled that of the Bialetti Venus, potentially indicating a shift in home-brewing habits.

Take a look at more coffee brewers here

Batch-brewer of the year

2024’s winner for the most sought-after batch brewer, the MoccaMaster KBG Select from Technivorm came out ahead once again last year, and we think the reasons behind its return to the top are pretty clear. Put simply, it is not your average drip-filter brewer, either in terms of functionality or aesthetic. Unlike other filter coffee machines you may have seen on kitchen counters that inelegantly dump scalding hot water onto your grounds and continue cooking your coffee while it sits in the server, the Moccamaster has a precisely controlled heating element, and a pulse-pouring system that mimics the gentle act of hand-pouring. These qualities have earned the MoccaMaster international acclaim and recognition from the Specialty Coffee Association. It also has a striking aesthetic, and is available in a beautiful range of colours that make it as appealing to the casual drinker as it is to the coffee nerd.

Browse batch brewers

Bean-to-cup machine of the year

If it were up to us, everyone would brew by hand, but we understand that in certain environments where there are multiple users, and varying levels of coffee-making motivation, like offices, a bean-to-cup may be the most appropriate solution. We also understand that for some people, convenience is king, and we’d still like those people to use fresh, artisan-roasted coffee beans rather than pre-ground, instant, or pods. That’s why we also sell this type of fully-automatic machine, and in 2025 the Gaggia Magenta Automatic Coffee Machine took the crown for best-selling bean-to-cup coffee machine. In the previous year, this spot was claimed by its bigger sibling, the Cadorna.

Thanks to the Magenta’s consistency, quick warm up and attractive price point, it has become a popular choice for coffee automation, particularly in low-volume environments. The Plus model is great for those looking to solve their daily black coffee fix. With one button tap, it can prepare 5 different types of black coffee beverages, and has a steam wand to warm milk. If frothy, milky beverages are your go-to, the Prestige version of the Magenta has an automatic milk frother, and detachable carafe, to store milk in the fridge. Since they are from Gaggia, you can be sure that both Magenta models were designed and built by people with a deep consideration for good coffee.

See our range of automatic bean-to-cup machines

Accessories of the year

Here we would like to celebrate the most popular peripheral coffee-making items that we offer. While they may not be as inherently exciting or appealing as the central pieces of coffee-making gear, we believe that the right accessories, and even consumables, can improve your routine and the quality of the coffee you make. We’ve selected categories based on what types of items are the most popular overall, and then highlighted winners within each category.

Scale of the year

Timemore’s premium coffee-making equipment continues to dominate the Cape Coffee Awards for 2025, with both first and second places for best-selling scale going to the Shanghai-based brand’s Black Mirror series. Both scales are super responsive, hardy and designed with Timemore’s recognisable, stylish, functional, and minimalist approach.

In first place, the best-selling scale of the year goes to the Black Mirror Basic+ 2. With 0.1g precision, a water-resistant nano-coating, and a physical switch to preserve the 1600mAh battery, the Black Mirror scale provides you with the consistency needed to remove any guesswork from your recipes. To refine your pouring technique the latest version even includes a flow-rate indicator.

In second place is Timemore’s espresso-specific variant of the Black Mirror, the Black Mirror Mini. It is fundamentally the same scale, but the Mini is ultra-compact and tailored to the tight work zone of a drip tray. Also noteworthy, is the dedicated espresso mode, which automatically tares your cup, and triggers a timer at the first drop of espresso from the portafilter, before stopping precisely when your flow finishes It displays final yield as well as duration.

Honourable mention: Presso Coffee Scales

In 2025 our customers bought so many Presso coffee scales that we feel an honourable mention is due. The Presso coffee scale has become the go-to entry point for home baristas looking for their first, or additional scale for their coffee setup without breaking the bank. It comes in two sizes, standard - suited for manual brew methods - and the mini for espresso. Both are an affordable, and reliable alternative to the scales of premium brands like Acaia, Hario or Timemore.

Kettle of the year

Pour-over brewing takes more than just time and conscious effort; it also involves a bit of technique and precision. A good pour-over kettle should kick your brewing up a notch with the help of variable temperature control and a goose-neck.

While the gooseneck form-factor and temperature control technology have been around for quite some time, Timemore seems to have applied its expert design and engineering in this category in the same way it has with other types of accessories. As a result, the best-selling kettle of 2025 was the Timemore Fish Pro Variable Temperature Pouring Kettle. The Fish Pro reaches the desired temperatures quickly, and pours straight down with minimal start or stop delays. With a large effective capacity, for non-stop pouring, a precise gooseneck spout giving you control over the flow and direction of your pour, this variable temperature kettle has everything our customers appreciate.

Puck-prep accessory of the year

Puck prep received a lot of attention in 2025, both in terms of the approach and the hardware. People have rightly realised that how you prepare the coffee after grinding, and before you pull your shot, has a huge impact on the quality and flavour of the final espresso or espresso-based drink. There are now hundreds of devices available to help with this, and we’re proud to sell some of the best. Here are the most popular within our range.

First place goes to the simple and affordable Brew Tool Coffee Needle. Like any good WDT (Weiss Distribution Technique) tool, the Needle from Brew Tool utilises thin, steel needles to rake through the ground coffee in your portafilter, homogenising and distributing your grounds, to break up any clumps and reduce the chances of channelling. We stock a range of WDT tools, but thanks to its approachable price tag, Brew Tool's Needle has clinched another win in this category.

In second place, our customers love the more highly-engineered, and cafe-ready NCD, or Nucleus Coffee Distributor. Placing it atop your portafilter and giving it two spins, levels your waiting grounds for easier tamping, and gives you uniform puck distribution. It is quick to use, and is easily repeatable. It’s also the latest version of the very first wedge distribution tool of this type. Its sturdy build and recognisable brand make it one of the top choices in a busy professional environment, but it’s also easy to use at home.

WDT tools and wedge, fin-based distribution tools work in different ways (and at different speeds). Some very dedicated and meticulous enthusiasts opt for using both: first using a WDT tool to declump, and then using a distributor like the NCD to level the surface.

Espresso accessory of the year

When it comes to investing in an espresso setup, baristas soon realise that it is not just about the machine and grinder. You also need the right accessories to make your workflow manageable and repeatable.

The Sonner Knock Box is a receptacle for the spent pucks from your portafilter. Winning this category for the third consecutive year, the Sonner resembles an ice bucket, with a ledge inside to knock the side of your portafilter against. Designed to provide low impact, to improve your workflow, and make your espresso-making routine a little more enjoyable, this knock box is budget-friendly and makes a great gift for any espresso-lovers in your life. It’s perfectly at home in a busy café or on a kitchen counter, which explains why it’s so popular with our customers.

If you want to show your support for your favourite go-to supplier for all things coffee, this durable, BPA-plastic free bin is available with the Cape Coffee Beans logo on the front.

In second place for most-sold espresso accessory in 2025, we have the IMS Precision Espresso Filter Basket. The reputation behind IMS is far-reaching and if you are reading this, then you have probably already heard about its unique shape and patented, laser-precise, perforated construction. IMS Filter Baskets are engineered to optimise extraction and aid puck drying and expulsion. They are a breeze to clean up and they genuinely make better-tasting espresso. Because they are solid pieces of steel, they’re suitable in a busy cafe, but they’re also an affordable way to upgrade your espresso at home.

Rounding off our podium for the espresso accessories category, our third place podium finisher is thePeakabrew Adhesive Milk Jug Thermometer. For baristas honing their latte art, or home espresso-enthusiasts getting to know their steam wand, heating milk to the right temperature takes more than a little practice. In a café environment a few degrees Celsius can be the difference between a happy and angry customer. Instead of relying on intuition, and muscle memory, many of our customers opt for this handy sticker’s assistance, to consistently reach that perfect milk temperature.

Non-coffee consumable of the year

This is a new category for the Cape Coffee Awards and, while it will always be coffee itself taking centre-stage, the integrity of any brew relies heavily on water chemistry, and equipment hygiene. The three finalists in this category are consumable products that help you achieve the consistency necessary to honour the profile of any coffee you brew.

The longevity and performance of brewing hardware depends on consistent and effective cleaning, requiring a cleaning detergent like Caffenu Espresso Machine Cleaning Powder. Taking first place, as 2025’s most popular non-coffee consumable with CCB’s customers, when used regularly and correctly, it eliminates the buildup that could compromises the taste in your cup, and efficiency of your machine.

In the runner-up position, second place for the best-selling non-coffee consumable goes to the Third Wave Water Mineral Sachets. These useful packets give you a convenient way to control your water quality. Third Wave Water blends offer the ideal balance of minerals for coffee extraction in any context. You simply add them to distilled, or reverse osmosis water (which is devoid of minerals) to create the ideal brewing water. All four variants of our sachets have grown in popularity recently, and they narrowly beat out another form of mineraliser which rounds off our podium.

In third place for non-coffee consumables of 2025, is the replacement cartridge filter for the BWT Magnesium Mineraliser Water Filter Jug. Using BWT-filtered water not only protects coffee equipment, such as espresso and filter coffee machines, from limescale, it also balances mineral content, giving you a marked improvement on the flavour of any brewed coffee.

Browse all of our accessories here

Coffee book of the year

One of the amazing things about coffee is how much there is to learn. At all stages in the supply chain, so many variables can affect the quality of the final brew. As a barista, you also have a huge amount of control over what you taste, which is only aided by a better understanding of what happened to the coffee before you got your hands on it. For all those reasons, and many more, we think coffee is a topic worth studying, and it seems that many of our customers agree as we sold a lot of coffee-related books in 2025!

For a second year running, James Hoffman’s second book, How To Make the Best Coffee at Home has taken the prize for most popular coffee book available here at Cape Coffee Beans. Almost every coffee nerd who walks through our doors is familiar with “the Hoff” and his informative (and quirky) YouTube videos. It is easy to see why his practical book about coffee-making is so popular. The stylish hard cover contains easy-to-understand advice about brewing coffee as well as his personal research about how to achieve excellent extractions, no matter your brew or coffee preferences.

How To Make the Best Coffee at Home covers many relevant topics for the home enthusiast, from how to find good beans to keeping your equipment clean, as well as the basic principles of many coffee brewers. Also included are helpful brewing recipes for each method, designed to be repeatable and easy to execute.

Check out more books here

Top 3 coffee brands of the year

And finally, we arrive at the end of the Cape Coffee Awards, but we saved the best for last. After all, it’s the coffee itself that’s most important, right? Because of coffee’s importance, we’d like to pause, before announcing the volume-based winners, to acknowledge all of our roasting partners who undertake the all-important tasks of sourcing, selecting, and roasting the ingredient that makes our beloved beverage. We believe they are all phenomenal and worthy of accolades, but when it comes to the numbers, our customers clearly favoured three particular brands.

3. Bean There Coffee

For the first time, we’re thrilled to see Bean There in our top three. Offering a range of phenomenal African coffees, we believe that Bean There’s growing popularity is a result of their unrelenting focus on quality. It was probably also helped by some fantastic limited releases under the Olga’s Reserve label.

Founded in 2005, Bean There was not just among South Africa's first speciality coffee roasters, they were also SA's very first roaster of Fairtrade-certified beans. Bean There partners closely with African producers to source some of the continent's best coffee beans, and is committed to making a sustainable difference to the lives of the people who grow them.

Listen to the Bean There CCB podcast episode with Jonathan Robinson, where we get to know the unique aspects of their approach. Buy their Fairtrade beans here.

2. Cedar

For the third year in a row, second place for roaster of the year goes to Cedar! Given that Cedar is a passion project that started just four years ago, gaining this much popularity is an impressive accomplishment. For those who have met them, Cedar’s success is easily attributable to founders Winston and Leigh’s dedication to quality, exacting standards, and serious work ethic. They’ve built a world-class coffee roasting business in an incredibly short space of time and they are still growing it rapidly, just having opened a new café space.

Hear from Winston and Leigh themselves on our podcast, and pick up some tasty Cedar beans here.

1. Tribe

When it comes to first place within our stable of amazing coffee-roasting businesses, there is an undisputed champion in terms of sheer volume, and that is Tribe. Cape Town’s favourite artisan coffee brand has been around for many years, and has been through many changes recently, but Tribe still roasts the coffee that people want to drink, and that’s clear in our numbers. Tribe’s success is supported not only by the army of coffee lovers who buy their beans from us every day, but also from the dozens of small businesses who buy their wholesale offering from us to serve to their customers across the country.

If you want to know more about Tribe, read up on them here, or give Tribe’s episode on the CCB podcast a listen. And, if you want to buy some of their delicious beans (we know many of you want to) click right here.

See all of our partnered roasters here

Bring on 2026

If you’ve read our full Awards post and have just arrived at the end, we admire your dedication, and appreciate your attention. We also think it’s fun to reflect on what was popular with our customers in 2025. This feels like an appropriate moment to say thank you, to you and all the members of our community who make fun projects like this possible.

We have a lot of exciting things lined up for 2026 including new gear, new beans, expos, festivals, workshops, and much much more. Please stay in touch by subscribing to our newsletter and finding us online or in-store whenever you want anything coffee-related.

Happy New Year & Happy Brewing!

On the 3rd of October, 2025, Johannesburg hosted its first The Barista League competition and I was lucky enough to be in attendance. I must admit that I didn’t have a clear idea of what I was going to witness but, in retrospect, I feel fortunate to have been at the first instalment of what is now going to be an annual event on the South African coffee competition calendar. The Barista League isn’t like any coffee event I’ve attended before, and I’ve attended a few over the years. I believe it’s going to make an important mark on the South African coffee scene thanks to all the ways in which it is different, which I think are worth reflecting on.

For context, I wound up at Johannesburg’s The Barista League event, not because I was competing, but because I was part of a small local team representing the Rancilio brand, one of the key sponsors of the event, and also one of the brands we are proud to work with at Cape Coffee Beans. Standing behind the Rancilio Specialty RS1 (more on this later) offered the perfect vantage point from which to appreciate the significance of this coffee gathering, the first of its kind in Africa.

A different type of competition

While The Barista League has been around for many years and has hosted competitions all around the world, my expectations of barista competitions are based on events of a very different sort. South Africa has hosted more traditional annual competitions for almost two decades. Most of these are quite formal affairs with elaborate sets, meticulously crafted speeches and beverages and serious tones and atmospheres. I’ve attended many of these and they are unavoidably the benchmark against which I was comparing this new event. It became pretty clear upon entering the venue that this was going to be something different.

A different approach

Before reflecting on my experience on October 3rd, it’s probably helpful to touch on the philosophy and approach of The Barista League; it is definitely different by design. Perhaps the most profound difference between The Barista League competition and the ones we are more familiar with in South Africa is the required preparation.

Traditional barista competitions allow the competitors to choose their coffee, which has inevitably led to a huge emphasis on lot selection. With the possibility of gaining an advantage by simply selecting a higher-end, more expensive coffee to compete with, a huge part of the preparation is finding and securing those competition coffees. Needless to say, that immediately places a big barrier to entry in front of a potential barista competitor as there are very few baristas in South Africa (or in many other parts of the world) that would have the independent financial means to secure a competition-worthy coffee. In practice that means that successful competitors tend to have big organisations behind them to assist with this process.

At The Barista League competition, every competitor is using the same coffee, provided by the organisers. That completely obviates the coffee-sourcing part of the competition and focuses the baristas on the elements that are the key parts of their jobs: quality beverage preparation, speed, accuracy, and presentation.

While there is huge merit to this idea of a level playing field in any geography, I can’t help but reflect on how important this aspect of the competition is in South African. The unfortunate reality is that baristas tend to earn very modest wages and so affordability is an unavoidable factor in traditional competition preparation and success. The Barista League has found a way to remove that element entirely, and that can only be a good thing for local baristas.

A different focus

This key format difference between The Barista League and other barista competitions is one of many things that shift the focus of the competition from the coffee and other extrinsic factors to the baristas themselves. This is an event that celebrates the skills that these coffee professionals leverage every day in doing their work, and puts them to the test in front of an audience and a panel of judges, on a totally level playing field. This different focus might explain why I saw more new faces among the competitors than I typically do at barista competitions. There were familiar faces on stage, of course, but it wasn’t just the usual suspects.

A different set of tools

While this may not have stood out to everyone in attendance I couldn’t help but take note of the equipment on the stage as well. The competitions that I’ve attended in South Africa historically have generally been sponsored by a small handful of respected international brands, all of which manufacture fantastic tools for the barista, to be sure, but it felt refreshing, and appropriate, to see something different at the centre of the Barista League competition.

The irony is that Cape Coffee Beans has worked with the Rancilio brand for more than a decade—Rancilio manufactures some of our most popular domestic and commercial offerings—but none of us had seen any of Rancilio’s higher-end equipment before this competition. Especially imported for The Barista League event, the competitors worked on the Invicta, and we had the privilege of demonstrating the flagship, Specialty RS1, to the people in attendance. It felt in line with the general theme of including something different from what we’re used to seeing.

A different experience for the attendees

With all of these novel things to experience, I couldn’t help but notice that the event was also very different for the attendees, as much as the competitors. In the crowd were many of the South African coffee industry’s familiar faces, the same ones I see at many other events, but the interactions felt entirely different. There was time and space for longer form conversations, not just fleeting hand-shakes and hellos. The atmosphere made people feel more relaxed, and no one was really there to sell anything, which made it easier for interactions to be led by people’s curiosity rather than their professional goals. I think that was a big part of what made it fun for me to be there, personally.

A different vibe

All of this was helped and amplified by the very different feel of The Barista League event. Instead of the usual trade show dynamic, The Barista League competition felt like it was part-party. From the playlist to the aesthetic, and even to the venue, the evening was thoroughly enjoyable in all its aspects, with a coffee-meets-nightlife atmosphere that seemed to add to everyone’s enjoyment. This event was fun to attend, even for the non-industry people.

Something different is coming next year

Suffice it to say, I’m very excited for next year’s The Barista League competition in Johannesburg, and I expect that many other people will be too. It’s already scheduled for October 4th, 2026. I think this event is going to have a positive and profound impact on the South African coffee industry.

To add to the excitement, our new friends at The Barista League tell me that next year’s competition is going to be even more different from what we’re used to than this year’s was. In keeping with the emphasis on doing things differently, The Barista League is going to be entering a new era of competition with a new format, a new set of rules, and a focus on innovation and leadership.

I’m looking forward to hearing more about what’s in store, and seeing it for myself at next year’s event. I hope to see even more coffee lovers and coffee professionals at The Barista League competition in Johannesburg in 2026.

Did you attend 2025’s Barista League competition in Johannesburg? Would you like to attend in 2026? What are your thoughts on The Barista League’s format? Leave your comments below!

About the author

Phaedon is the founder of Cape Coffee Beans. He's a former strategy consultant turned eCommerce guy who came to South Africa for 6 months and wound up staying more than a decade (and counting). Back in 2013, he decided to try to turn a budding interest in coffee into a business and so Cape Coffee Beans was born. These days he spends most of his time thinking about how to expand the reach and elevate the standards of specialty coffee in South Africa by arming people with the right tools, beans and information.

It’s that time of year again! Welcome to another addition of the Cape Coffee Awards! As cliché demands, we tend to get pretty reflective when a new year rolls in, and so we’ve made a tradition of looking back and ranking our items that sold best in various categories over the previous year of sales. 

We added a lot of new stuff to our shelves last year, and we’ve also shaken up some of the categories compared to last year, so while a lot of reigning champs have defended their titles for another year running, there have been a few interesting shake ups too. Read on to find out which machines, brewers, beans and more our customers loved best in 2024!

Please note that this list is purely quantitative. Winners are chosen solely based on sales volume, and are not necessarily our subjective favourites (though some of them certainly are).

Coffee grinders of the year

Aside from your coffee maker or espresso machine itself, your grinder is the most important piece of kit in your brewing arsenal. Don’t take our word for it. Ask any home coffee enthusiast and they’ll likely tell you that their first good grinder was the piece of gear that sent them truly spiraling down the specialty coffee rabbit hole. 

A good grinder is characterised by its adjustment precision and versatility, as well as the consistency of its grind. Nothing contributes more to a consistently good cup of coffee or shot of espresso than a grinder that is easy to operate and reliably consistent. Below you’ll find some of the very best grinders on the market, and our customers’ favourites for 2024.

Entry-level manual grinder of the year

For another year running, Timemore’s Chestnut C2 retains its spot as South Africa’s favourite entry-level manual coffee grinder. You could argue that it’s a little on the pricier end of entry-level, but after just a few uses we’re sure you’d agree that you get your money’s worth out of this now-classic hand grinder.

With a reliable set of 38mm burrs, an easy-to-adjust dial with over 30 clicks to play with, and Timemore’s typically stylish design, the Chestnut C2 is more than capable of grinding for just about any manual brewing method, and offers plenty of manoeuvrability to get the most flavour out of any particular coffee.

Prosumer manual grinder of the year

Also holding onto its position from last year, Commandante’s C40 MK4 was South Africa’s best-loved premium manual grinder for 2024, and if you know anything about it you shouldn’t be surprised. The C40 is an absolute powerhouse of a hand grinder, and essentially an industry staple that features in numerous brewing contests worldwide. 

With its patented Nitro Blade burrs made from high nitrogen martensitic steel, it can tear through even the densest light roast beans with ease, and with some 40 clicks worth of adjustment it can grind for everything from a coarse French press to a fine espresso. Plus, if you find the 30 microns of adjustment per click a bit too broad for you to really fine-tune your espressos, you can add on the Red Clix upgrade to make the C40 truly unbeatable in quality. Really, it’s the grinder that can do it all, and, with its various stunning colour options and stylish bean jars/catch cups, it looks great while it does. 

Electric filter grinder of the year

A familiar name takes this category for another year running too, though in a slightly different form than in years past. Baratza’s Encore electric filter grinder was already tough to beat, but the newer ESP model simply outclasses other grinders in this category. A set of 40mm stainless steel burrs can churn through beans with ease, and with minimal heat or noise too thanks to Baratza’s motor design. What’s more is that the Encore ESP can actually grind for espresso too, thanks to an ingenious adjustment system. While there are 40 clicks worth of adjustment in total, the finest twenty only adjust by half as much as each click of the coarsest 20, making it possible to dial in espresso shots more precisely. That said, we think the Encore ESP shines best as a filter grinder, and it seems that so does the rest of South Africa.

Entry-level espresso grinder

For the third year in a row now, the Mignon Manaule takes the top spot in the entry-level espresso grinder category, proving once again that Eureka’s range of home espresso grinders are top-of-the-line. The Manuale features everything that makes the Mignon series of grinders so coveted, like a powerful set of 50mm hardened steel burrs, stepless micrometric adjustments, and Eureka’s own ACE anti-clumping technology, all fitted into a pretty compact package. 

The only thing it really lacks compared to its Mignon brethren is a digital display and automatic dosing options, but this brings the price down to something remarkably attractive by quality espresso grinder standards, making the Manuale really tough to beat in the entry-level espresso grinder space.

It's worth mentioning that the trusty, tried & tested Rancilio Rocky, a previous winner in this category, still held its own in the entry-level espresso grinder space, and was a close runner up.

Prosumer espresso grinder of the year

Finally, a fresh face! The Rancilio Stile is still a bit of a newcomer to the premium home espresso grinder space, but it’s clearly already made a significant name for itself, narrowly inching out last year’s winner and this year’s runner up, the Eureka Mignon Specialita. 

A set of 58mm burrs and a 1200RPM motor make pretty short work of even those heftier double espresso doses, and a large and bright touchscreen display makes it easy to choose and adjust your two automated dosing options. There’s also a manual option activated by the push of a button right where your portafilter sits if you’re dialing in or topping off a dose. 

Adjustment is manipulated via a snazzy micrometric stepped dial accessible on either side of the machine, with enough options to even grind for filter brews, though we don’t recommend switching between filter brew and espresso settings – dialing back in can be a real pain. 

All of this is packed into an elegant, minimalist package. And, if the asking price is a little high for you, you can still get everything great about the Stile minus the touchscreen and automatic doses if you spring for the Stile SD. 

Single-dose grinder of the year

This is a new category for the Cape Coffee Awards, and we decided to add it in specifically due to the striking popularity of its winner. Timemore’s Sculptor hit our scene right at the beginning of the year, and between its gorgeous design and premium spec sheet it immediately began turning heads. 

Designed from the ground up for single dosing, and available in both filter-only and espresso capable versions, everything about the Sculptor encourages its users to experiment, to try out different beans and get the most out of them every time. That’s where most of the fun in specialty coffee lies, after all.

Timemore is known for the quality of its grinders in particular, and we feel that the Taiwanese brand’s really outdone itself with the Sculptor. Clearly the rest of South Africa’s coffee lovers agree.

Commercial espresso grinder of the year

Commercial grinders face a unique challenge compared to other espresso grinders. They typically have to go through kilos of beans a day and grind out doses quickly and in rapid succession to keep up with customer demand – no small task indeed, but one that the Rancilio Kryo 65 OD is more than up for.

With a beefy set of 64mm burrs, three easily programmable and activated time-based doses, and a throughput of 2.5-3.5 kilograms of beans per hour, the Kryo 65 is a total workhorse, and the perfect companion for even a busy café.

Check out all of our grinders here

Espresso machines of the year

Many enthusiasts consider espresso to be the pinnacle of coffee interest, and equally enjoy the techy, mechanical intrigue of snazzy espresso machines. Given this and how easy it is to geek out over machine specs and features, we think it’s fair to say that this may be the most exciting section of the Cape Coffee Awards, even if its winners are becoming increasingly familiar. 

Entry-level espresso machine of the year

No surprises here, the humble Gaggia Classic (specifically the most current model, the Evo Pro) once again claims the title of South Africa’s most popular entry-level home espresso machine, though the Rancilio Silvia wasn’t far behind this year. 

It’s easy to see why the Classic clinched it, though. Technically, all you need to brew real espresso is a machine that can push water through a puck of coffee at 9 bars of pressure, and the Classic does exactly that for a seriously competitive price by espresso machine standards. It’s compact, reliable, stylish (to certain tastes, in any case) and, best of all, leaves plenty of room for after-market upgrades and accessories. It really is the little espresso machine that could, and has been for its entire life so far. 

Prosumer espresso machine of the year

Rancilio’s entry-level Silvia may have narrowly lost in the entry-level category, but its more talented older sibling, the Silvia Pro X, took the prosumer title once again, and by a large margin too — the runner up Lelit Bianca, though also excellent, comes at a significantly higher price. 

With dual boilers for back-to-back espresso and steamed milk, a built-in PID, and variable soft infusion, the Silvia Pro X boasts all the bells and whistles you’d want for brewing professional-quality espresso and milk drinks, plus a strikingly stylish build, all for a significantly lower asking price than its nearest competitor.

Honestly, you can tell the Pro X exudes quality just by looking at it, let alone touching it, which is exactly why it was 2024’s most popular premium home espresso machine at CCB.

Commercial espresso machine of the year

Rancilio clinches this category once again with another familiar name, the Classe 5 S commercial espresso machine. The Classe 5 is available in one and two group models, with semi-automatic brewing controls and boasts a bevy of premium features, like both boiler and pump pressure gauges, pressure control, and an independent heat exchanger. This all makes it the perfect choice for any new coffee venture, from bustling cafés to smaller setups like mobile coffee trailers and small stands. 

What’s more is that the two group model is also available with a gas-heated boiler option which might not be as coveted as it was at the height of load shedding (touch wood), but still cuts the Classe 5’s energy use, and therefore your electricity bill, pretty dramatically. All of this and a very reasonable asking price by commercial espresso machine standards is exactly why Rancilio’s Classe 5 was our most popular commercial machine for the third year in a row. 

Browse espresso machine here

Other coffee brewers

Of course, there’s more to coffee, particularly specialty coffee, than espresso. After all, most coffee lovers’ gateway drug into the world of coffee as a whole is something manual and filter-based, like a French press/plunger or moka pot, depending on your household. Below are some of our customers’ favourite coffee making devices for 2024, from instantly recognisable manual brewers to more hands-off automatic machines. 

Coffee maker of the year

No surprises here — it’s Bialetti’s Moka Express again. Though unseated by the Hario V60 last year (which is this year’s runner up), the Moka Express had an absolutely belter year in 2024, and was our most-purchased coffee brewer by far. 

Not only is the Moka Express easy to use, it’s also pretty darn durable, making it perfect for any brewing environment, from the kitchen to the campsite. It can also last a lifetime if cared for properly, and we regularly have folks come in to buy spares for moka pots that have been in their family for literal generations. Some may call it old-fashioned, but we like to call it timeless. 

There’s no debate to be had — the near-century old Bialetti brand and its Moka Express brewers are coffee royalty, and will in all likelihood remain so for a long time to come.

Take a look at more coffee brewers here

Batch-brewer of the year

We skipped this somewhat unorthodox category in 2023, but we’ve decided to bring it back once again, mostly because we saw some pretty high-demand for batch brewers (also known as electric filter or drip coffee machines). 

Technivorm’s MoccaMaster KBG Select came out ahead this year, and it’s clear why. Its retro-aesthetic and range of flashy colour options are reminiscent of your classic American diner-style filter coffee brewer, though rest assured that this brewer makes much better coffee. 

With a precisely controlled heating element and pulse-pouring system meant to imitate hand-pouring, a gentle heating pad that won’t cook your coffee in the server, and automated full and half batch options, the MoccaMaster KBG select is a versatile, consistent, quality electric filter coffee brewer that’s perfect for both home and office use. The only thing it doesn’t do is grind its own beans — we can’t leave it all to the machines now.

Browse batch brewers

Bean-to-cup machine of the year

Or can we? Well, while we at CCB enjoy the time and intentionality involved in manual brewing and all its component steps, we recognise that some coffee-lovers value ease-of-use and convenience just as much, particularly in busy contexts like an office or on frantic workday mornings when you don’t have time to go through a whole coffee ritual to get your fix. For this, good bean-to-cup machines can be just the ticket.

Gaggia reappears in our list to take the win in this category with its excellent Cadorna automatic bean-to-cup coffee machine. With a quick heat boiler, easy-to-read digital interface, and a host of adjustment and profiling settings, the Cadorna can brew 6 to 14 different beverage options (depending on whether or not you spring for the version with the automated milk frother) at the push of a button, and offers a host of customisation options so you can have your coffee just how you like it — all at the mere push of a button. 

And, because it’s Gaggia rather than a generic kitchenware brand, you can be sure that the Cadorna was designed and built by people with a genuine love for and understanding of coffee, so the quality of your beverages is all but guaranteed.

See our range of automatic bean-to-cup machines

Accessories of the year

This is a bit of an oddball category full of items that don’t seem to have much in common at first glance, but that doesn’t diminish their importance. These peripheral bits and pieces are the unsung heroes of any coffee devotee’s arsenal, and are all but essential to consistently making delicious coffee, and taking your brewing game to the next level. 

Scale of the year

You could easily argue that a scale, alongside a grinder, is the most essential coffee-making tool you could own. Quite simply, it’s the only reliable way you could hope to know what your brewing recipe actually is, and the only thing that can tell you what to repeat or change, as the case may be, to get the best results with your brewing. And not just any scale will do. While the kitchen scale you didn’t realise you had might be fine when you’re just starting out, for coffee you really want something that at the very least can weigh in 0.1g increments, and you usually want something with a built-in timer too.

Though most famous for its range of handheld espresso brewers, it was the Exagram coffee scale that shone the brightest out of Wacaco’s catalogue in 2024, and for very good reason. The Exagram, like most of Wacaco’s products, is an eminently portable and reliable scale that fits right in your pocket. It’s splash proof, so don’t worry about damaging the internals with a little spillage, and because it lacks some of the more advanced features of more premium coffee scales it’s also very well priced, making it an attractive buy for any fledgling home brewer or as a secondary travel scale for the established enthusiast. 

Puck-prep accessory of the year

This is a new category for the Cape Coffee Awards, but one we think deserves to be included now more than ever. When it comes to espresso, aside from your grind, the most important factor that influences the quality of your shot is easily your puck prep, how you distribute the grinds around your portafilter before tamping, locking, and pulling your shot. As the specialty coffee and home espresso scene expands, and as once-niche knowledge becomes more ubiquitous, more and more home baristas are starting to recognise the importance of good puck prep, and so good puck prep gear has rapidly become a hot commodity.

Undoubtedly one of the most effective puck prep tools is a wire distribution tool (WDT), so it makes total sense that this year’s most popular puck-prep accessory was the Brew Tool Coffee Needle. Like any good WDT, the Coffee Needle rakes through the ground coffee in your portafilter with ease, allowing you to gently distribute your grounds and break up any clumps that would otherwise cause channelling. It’s tough to overstate just how much of a difference this can make to your espresso, but even small espresso tools have a tendency to cost an arm and a leg. Fortunately, Brew Tool’s WDT sports an appealingly modest price tag, which is why it was so attractive to our customers in 2024.

Entry-level espresso accessory of the year

As mentioned, espresso can be a pricey game, even when you’re just looking for something small and simple. Fortunately, there are still plenty of budget-friendly items available designed to improve your workflow, and make your morning routine a little easier and more enjoyable, such as the Sonner Knock Box.

Winning this category for the second year running now, the Sonner is a slightly unorthodox little knock box that ditches the usual cross bar and square look for something more oblong with a sort of ledge at the back. You might be a little sceptical about it at first, but this design actually makes the knock box easier to clean. Trust us; we use it every day. It’s also made of durable, BPA-free plastic and features a handy no-slip rubber bottom, and, if you want to, you can get it with our logo slapped across it to show your support for your favourite one-stop coffee supply shop.

Premium espresso accessory of the year

On the other end of the espresso accessory spectrum is the premium category, where eager aficionados can push the boundaries of optimisation, efficiency, and extraction. After all, if you’re serious enough about espresso to be brewing it at home, you probably want to get the most out of your setup.

For those committed espresso experts (or experts in the making), their favourite piece of premium espresso equipment for 2024 was the IMS Precision Espresso Filter Basket.

For those in the know, IMS hardly needs an introduction, and has been engineering top-of-the-line espresso accessories for nearly 80 years now. Their premium espresso baskets can be found in the best cafés in the world, and feature a unique shape and patented perforation style. These baskets are engineered to optimise extraction, aid puck drying and expulsion, and simplify cleaning—all of which elevate your espresso and workflow, whether you’re a home enthusiast or a professional barista behind the bar. 

Browse all of our accessories here

Coffee books of the year

Once you start seeing coffee as more than just your daily caffeine delivery device and begin crawling down the hobbyist rabbit hole, the first thing you tend to learn is that there’s a lot to learn. From the various coffee origins to different styles of brewing, the intricacies of the coffee supply chain to what it takes to run a successful café, there are tons of little nodes of coffee-centric knowledge to get obsessed with. Call us old-fashioned, but we think that one of the most engaging ways to learn is with a good book, and fortunately for us there are now plenty of coffee-related books available to the studious coffee lover. Check out some of South Africa’s favourites in 2024.

Best book for beginners

The inimitable James Hoffman took this category again in 2024, though this time with his other coffee tome, How To Make the Best Coffee at Home. Between its stylish hard covers you’ll find a wealth of knowledge covering just about everything (and we mean everything) that you should consider if you’re determined to make the best coffee possible at home. 

With the distinctly digestible delivery that makes Hoffman such an approachable coffee authority, How To Make the Best Coffee at Home covers everything there is to know about coffee from the home enthusiast, from shopping for good beans and caring for your brewing gear to the basic principles of every conceivable style of coffee brewing. He also includes repeatable brewing recipes for each method, giving you the perfect jumping off point to start experimenting.

Best book for professionals

Once again, What I Know About Running Coffee Shops won in the professional book category for 2025, and it’s not surprising why. Running a coffee shop takes a lot more than making good coffee, and anyone who’s done it will tell you that it can be a seriously daunting task. 

Fortunately, four-time Irish Barista Champion Colin Harmon has condensed everything he’s learned running the internationally renowned 3fe Coffee in Dublin (and his various other coffee ventures) into a 227 page book that we feel is required reading for anyone thinking of getting into the professional field of coffee. Seriously, if you're planning to run (or are already running) a coffee business, you should read this book.

Check out more books here

Top 3 coffee brands of the year

Here at last! Welcome to the final and likely the most auspicious category of the Cape Coffee Awards: coffee, of course. Though we think all of our partnered coffee roasters are winners, below are the top three roasters whose coffee was best loved (in terms of sheer volume) by our customers for the year 2024. We’d love to be able to rank each of them on a coffee by coffee basis, but given the sheer number of coffees we’ve been lucky enough to try this year we’d probably be at it until 2026. 

3. Truth. Coffee Roasting

Truth. is essentially Cape Town royalty at this point. Their steampunk-themed café and HQ on Buitenkant Street was named the best café in the world by The Telegraph in 2016, and continues to feature on numerous dining and touring recommendation lists today. Their roastery’s motto is “We roast coffee — properly”, and clearly our customers, both in Cape Town and around the country, agree,

Find out more about Truth here on our blog or here on our podcast, and pick up a bag of their delicious coffee beans right here.

2. Cedar

Maintaining their spot at second on our roaster podium this year is Cedar! The passion project of “two simple guys from Cape Town”, Cedar is still one of the younger names in the specialty coffee space, making it all the more impressive that they’ve shot to stardom so quickly.

Impressive, but perhaps not surprising given the pedigree of Cedar’s owners. Winston Thomas has been the South African barista champion a handful of times in his coffee career, and Leigh Wentzel (previously Rosetta’s roastery manager) was for a time on the team that won Coffee Magazine’s Roastery of the Year award in 2018 and 2019. 

Winston and Leigh have actually just expanded their staff for the first time, so they’re no longer doing everything themselves, but their new team members, like them, are totally committed to making specialty coffee more accessible and showing South Africa, as they put it, “how deep the rabbit hole goes”.

Hear from Winston and Leigh themselves on our podcast, and pick up some tasty Cedar beans here.

1. Tribe

Taking the top spot for the 5th year in a row now is none other than Tribe, the roastery that is clearly still “roasting the coffee that people want to drink”, to the surprise of no one on the CCB team. If you ever visit us in-store in Claremont try asking someone just how much Guatemala Chocolate Block we tend to sell on a weekly basis. 

Tribe is a staple name in the South African coffee scene at this point, headed by industry vets and devoted to providing delicious coffee to its sprawling customer base. They tend not to venture much into the realm of fruity, light roast specialty coffees, but they occupy the classic coffee niche with a reliability and a quality that has built them a consistent customer-base in the thousands. 

If you want to know more about Tribe you can read up on them here, or listen to Tribe’s episode on the CCB podcast here. And, if you want to buy some Tribe beans, click right here.

See all of our partnered roasters here

A note about all of our coffee partners

While we’ve chosen to spotlight just 3 of our partnered coffee roasters for the purpose of this list, we firmly believe that each coffee brand we work with is exceptional and shines in its own way. Coffee is a huge industry no matter where you go, and, as you can tell by our list here, we only work with a handful of roasters we believe offer something of the very best for every occasion, budget, and taste preference. Otherwise, we wouldn’t work with them! 

To all of our roasters, know that we appreciate you, and we’re grateful for your continued support and partnership. As always, we’re looking forward to all of the fantastic coffee you have in store for us in 2025. 

What’s next?

If you’re reading this section, wow, thank you. These lists aren’t short, so we appreicate you taking the time to read all the way through to the end. 

Moreover, we want to take a moment to thank each and every one of our brilliant customers, old and new, who supported us through 2024. It’s been a big year, what with both Specialty Expos and a slew of events in our new retail space, and while working at CCB is its own reward a lot of the time, obviously we couldn’t do it without you. As always, we’re entering the new year with excitement for what’s to come and, as always, a commitment to being the best one-stop coffee shop we can be for you. Here’s to 2025. Let’s make it another big one. 

What do you think about our list? Have any thoughts on the winners? Any categories you think we could include next year? Let us know in the comments!

Once again, thanks for reading, and from all of us at CCB:

Happy brewing!

Recently, I was lucky enough to travel with part of the Cape Coffee Beans team to the Johannesburg Specialty Coffee Expo (SCE). In its third year, the relatively young annual event had already received positive reviews from many of our partners in the industry, and we were keen to check it out, especially after the fun we had at the first Cape Town instalment of the SCE last year.

It was a wonderful experience and I left impressed with everything from the venue to the organisers, the exhibitors to the attendees. I know we’ll be back next year, but I felt compelled to document some of the impressions that this special event left on me. Here are some that I wanted to share, in no particular order of importance.

Cape Coffee Beans has friends in Gauteng, many of whom we’ve never met

Part of the fun for all of the team members that attended was the chance to interact with customers who we’d not yet had the chance to meet in person. Rather conspicuously branded in our CCB t-shirts, we all enjoyed being approached by people who recognised the Cape Coffee Beans logo.

Personally, I was thrilled not only by the number of customers that happened to be at the Expo, but also to hear first-hand how many of them had been shopping with us for years. It was a pleasant reminder of how many supporters we have in other parts of the country, including our metropolis. Serving them as well as we possibly can remotely is something that’s an extremely high priority for us. In this way the Expo served to reaffirm why we do what we do.

The specialty coffee industry has come leaps and bounds in recent years

The other thing that immediately struck me as I wandered around the Expo on the first day, taking in the brand names, many of which I hadn’t heard before, tasting the incredible coffees and soaking up the atmosphere, is just how far the specialty coffee industry in South Africa has come in the last decade. The Specialty Coffee Expo left no doubt about the growth in the space; from the thousands of attendees to the exceptional coffee being served, there were clear signs that there is in fact a strong specialty coffee community here in South Africa.

The sheer quality of the coffee on offer also struck me. I tried coffee from many roasters I’d never even heard of, and in almost all cases, I was thrilled with the flavour of what I was served. It wasn’t just the fact that there were so many high-quality coffees available; it was the realisation that many of the roasters had only been up and running for a couple of years, but were already sourcing and roasting such special lots. I feel compelled to mention that I always asked where roasters I hadn’t encountered before were based and invariably (with only a couple of exceptions), the answer was Pretoria. It seems that there’s something interesting happening in that part of the country!

I also think it’s worth acknowledging that one of the things that has allowed the industry to grow in the way it has is the availability of specialty green (unroasted) coffee in South Africa. Never before have small-scale roasters had access to such quality or variety. I know that a new generation of importers and distributors have played a big role in this, and their coffees featured at many of the stands I visited. I think Sabores, And Sons, and Zuka deserve special mention.

Last but not least, I was also pleasantly surprised to see the sheer appetite for premium specialty coffee among the visitors to the Johannesburg Specialty Coffee Expo. Nowhere was this more visible than around the cupping table, which featured a new session every hour. It also was made clear by the prices that many consumers were willing to pay for the very best and rarest lots available to taste at each stand. Clearly, there is a newfound understanding of the inherent value of top-end specialty coffee, and it seems that many Joburg coffee-lovers are willing to pay for it. I think that’s a great thing for everyone, all along the supply chain, from the roasters, all the way back to the farmers.

We work with some of the best roasters in the country

Having given some very deserved praise to a few of our new roasting friends, I should now mention that at the SCE I was also reminded of the fact that we’re lucky at CCB to already work with many of the best specialty roasters in the country, some of whom were in attendance with us or exhibiting at the Joburg Specialty Coffee Expo. Our partners include new brands making a splash, like Cedar, but also businesses that have been around for many years like Origin, Truth, Tribe & Bean There. These partners were there, and even if most of them are of an older generation than some of the up-and-coming roasters that I’ve mentioned, there was no doubt in my mind that the roasters we work with are still every bit as relevant as they ever were, and serving equally delicious coffees. More than that, it’s also worth acknowledging that they’ve paved the way for the newer generations.

Unfortunately, not all of our roasting partners were at this edition of the Joburg SCE, but I hope to see more of them at future events, including the Cape Town instalment. I firmly believe that they are all of national calibre.

There really is a specialty coffee community

I’ve already made passing reference to the South African specialty coffee community a few times in this post, but I think it’s a concept worth reflecting on in its own right. It’s somewhat ironic that I would be reminded about the importance of community when travelling far from our home base, and to an event I’d never attended before no less, but the weekend really did inspire an overwhelming sense of community in me.

Of course, part of this was shaking hands with and saying hello to industry professionals that I’ve been lucky to know for some time, but I also noticed how many of the people I met for the first time at the Expo were open and friendly in a way that one shouldn’t take for granted.

There seemed to be a recognition among all the participants in the Expo that, despite being competitors on-paper, everyone was participating in this blossoming of the South African specialty coffee space that I tried to describe above. There was a real, palpable sense of a common cause, or at least a common passion. I felt this from most of the exhibitors I spoke with, but also from many of the attendees. Yes, everyone had their own personal interests to advance (as we all do) but there was also a feeling of doing so arm-in-arm with the people around them. It’s a hard thing to really put into words, but I think it was an important part of what made the event special, at least for me.

It seems that there are great things ahead for this industry

Given everything that I’ve described above, it should be no surprise that I have high hopes for the future of the specialty coffee industry in South Africa. It’s not just that we have access to more and better specialty coffee than ever before; it’s not just that we have more and more talented entrepreneurs and artisans entering the space; it’s not even that there are more and more people ready to support this budding industry. It’s all those things combined with the real shared excitement and passion that I see in the community, and that was easy to spot at the Specialty Coffee Expo.

At the risk of employing a cliché, I have this sense that things are only just getting started, and that this industry is going to continue to grow leaps and bounds in the coming years.

We’re all excited for the next SCE

I don’t think it’s overstating it to say that the Specialty Coffee Expo itself is playing an important role in the current growth of the SA specialty coffee scene. The Joburg edition is now in its third instalment, and we’re looking forward to the second Cape Town edition coming up soon. I only met the organisers, Cezanne & Jason, recently, but I’m already so impressed with what they’ve done with this event in such a short time. Aside from their obvious talents for event-planning and organisation, I think it’s clear that they are very much part of the specialty coffee community and that they’ve found a way in which they can significantly contribute to it.

I’m excited about future South African Specialty Coffee Expos, and I am definitely planning to make Cape Coffee Beans part of them. I hope everyone who reads this will be part of them too.

About the author

Phaedon is the founder of Cape Coffee Beans. He's a former strategy consultant turned eCommerce guy who came to South Africa for 6 months and wound up staying for more than a decade (and counting). Back in 2013, he decided to try to turn a budding interest in coffee into a business and so Cape Coffee Beans was born. These days he spends most of his time thinking about how to expand the reach of specialty coffee in South Africa.

The Cape Coffee Awards began back in 2020, and as much as the day-to-day absurdities of that year are finally beginning to fade into distant memory, at least somewhat, we can’t deny that everyday life in 2023 still felt a little stranger than it did before the inaugural year.

Nevertheless, despite its numerous and varied troubles, there was plenty of good to be had through the last year. With that sentiment in mind, let’s take a moment to reflect by taking a look at some of the most popular items and brands in Cape Coffee Beans’ catalogue in 2023. Who doesn’t love a good listicle to round out a year?

This year’s Cape Coffee Awards are a bit different to those that came before it. While some categories and category winners remain unchanged, there are a few notable new champions in the mix and several exciting new categories to cover.

This year’s awards are especially different to the previous ones because we’ve decided to highlight some of the most popular brands in each award category rather than only focus on individual items. In some instances, certain brands won in both an individual item category and the overall brand category so in places you’ll see the same names coming up multiple times. In other instances, the individual products that were winners were not from the winning brands. With such a broad range of items vying for top place in each category, we thought it would be interesting to see how both our individual products and featured brands performed over the last year, and thought you might too.

Read on to learn what South African coffee fanatics loved most in 2023!

Please note that these awards are purely quantitative. They are based on the products that sold the most throughout the year and not necessarily our top picks or favourites (although many of them are).

Coffee grinders of the year

Given how vital a good grinder is to the coffee-making process, it's probably unsurprising that this is one of our favourite awards categories, particularly because freshly grinding coffee at home is usually the budding coffee enthusiast’s first step into the world of specialty coffee. This rings truer and truer as the market expands and innovates each year: after the beans themselves, a good grinder is the cornerstone of your setup, and should arguably be the first investment that you make before you start browsing new brewers.

We have become relatively spoiled for choice in recent years as the manual grinder space has grown both quantitatively and qualitatively, and there are now more options than ever for high-quality hand grinders in a range of price categories. Here are South Africa’s top picks for 2023.

Overall manual coffee grinder of the year

Maintaining its seat as the overall winner in the grinder category three years running now was the Timemore Chestnut C2. We certainly aren’t surprised. For its price point, the C2 is classified as being on the pricier end of entry-level, but in terms of quality, it’s premium through and through.

Even if it lacks some features present in more expensive grinders, like a wider variety of grind settings, the C2 sports hardened steel conical burrs, machine cut for sharpness, and a dual bearing system that holds the inner and outer burrs stable to deliver excellent grind quality in a robust yet stylish package.

Overall manual grinder brand of the year

While Timemore isn’t exactly the new kid on the manual grinder block anymore, it’s still a relative newcomer to the category, which makes its undeniable popularity all the more impressive. In just a handful of years, at least two of which having been especially difficult for just about everyone for pandemic-related reasons, Timemore has established itself as one of the best-loved coffee grinder brands in the world, and was the most popular manual grinder brand overall at Cape Coffee Beans in 2023.

Timemore offers an impressive range of products across applications and price points, though it is best known for its C range of grinders. And, just as a good grinder should be, Timemore is consistent – consistently excellent, promising exceptional quality and value for money with every item it sells.

Premium manual coffee grinder of the year

Comandantes's C40 line took the win in this category yet again this year and remains the undisputed champion of the premium hand grinder category for the third year in a row. This year, same as last, saw the C40 MK4 at the top of our premium hand grinder list, which isn’t surprising given that many still consider the C40 the face of the premium hand grinder space.

Fitted with Nitro Blade burrs made from high nitrogen martensitic steel, the MK4 boasts an extremely wear-resistant burr set suitable for everything that is sure to last years before even hints of dullness begin to crop up. And, with a grind adjustment of around 60 clicks, you can fine-tune your grind to suit everything from coarse immersion brews to extra-fine espresso and Turkish coffee. The MK40 really can do it all, and do it well.

Premium manual grinder brand of the year

Comandante also came out on top in the premium manual grinder category this year, perhaps thanks to additions and upgrades to its focused range. The German brand arguably launched the premium manual coffee grinder space, being the first to offer a popular hand grinder that could cover anything from coarser French press grinds, to a classic pour-over, to espresso.

Simply put, Comandante’s stylish, handmade grinders are fantastic, and beloved by established professionals and home enthusiasts alike, both of whom are more than happy to pay a premium for the brand’s undeniable quality, hence their place in this list.

See all our manual coffee grinders here

Electric filter grinder of the year

While manual hand grinders are definitely at the forefront of the filter grinding space, electric filter grinders are still popular for their convenience. Two grinders have typically fought for the top of this category: the Baratza Encore and the Severin Coffee Grinder. It seems 2023 was the Encore’s year as it unseated the Severin, last year’s winner.

Both grinders are fantastic, and their conical burr sets are actually quite similar. The major difference in features is the Encore’s 40 grind settings, over the Severin’s 10. The Encore is also fitted with a bigger motor and grinds somewhat more consistently than its competitor, which evidently made it more popular this year despite it being more expensive. And if the original Encore isn't quite versatile enough for you, the newer Encore ESP is essentially the same machine recalibrated to also grind well for espresso. As it doesn’t cost much more, value-for-money-wise, it’s hard to beat.

Electric coffee grinder brand of the year

This year’s top electric coffee grinder brand was Baratza. The Seattle-based brand has offered high-quality, affordable electric grinders since it hit the specialty scene in 1999.

It is best known for its broad range of domestic grinders, for which it has won numerous awards, including from the Specialty Coffee Association of America, and offers something for just about every budget and purpose.

Whatever you need, be it a reliable manual brewing grinder or a high-end domestic espresso grinder, Baratza has you covered, which is probably why it is this year’s winner in the electric coffee grinder brand category.

Home espresso grinder of the year

Holding its position from last year, this year’s top espresso grinder was once again the Eureka Mignon Manuale. Eureka’s Mignon domestic grinder line has claimed this title for three years running now, with the Mignon Specialita unseating the Rancilio Rocky in 2021.

The Manuale is Eureka’s most affordable grinder, and while it lacks some of the features available in more expensive Mignon grinders such as timed dosing and a larger motor, it still sports a stylish, quiet, compact build and the same quality burr set as its brethren in the Mignon line. The Manuale is a fantastic choice for making espresso at home on a budget, without compromising quality or consistency and that’s probably why it was the favourite in this category yet again.

Commercial espresso grinder of the year

Given that the vast majority of all coffee made in the commercial space begins with espresso, a quality grinder is the most vital piece of equipment for a coffee shop after the espresso machine itself. It needs to be fast, consistent and reliable, and this year’s most popular commercial espresso grinder, the Hey Cafe HC-600 On Demand Espresso Grinder, offers all of that without breaking the bank.

Featuring 4 independent dosing modes, a set of 64mm hardened steel burrs that run quickly and relatively quietly, an edgeless design and hands-free grinding, the HC-600 is tough to beat at its price point, and is perfect for any small-to-medium-sized cafe. We should mention that while the HC-600 was 2023’s most popular commercial grinder, it has since been replaced by Hey Cafe’s Hey Buddy on-demand grinder. Not to worry though – it’s essentially the same machine in many ways, with a few upgrades to boot.

Espresso grinder brand of the year

Without a doubt, Eureka is one of the most famous and lauded names in the world of coffee grinders, and for good reason. Each of its state-of-the-art machines is hand-made in Florence, Italy, and offers premium features at attractive price points, which is likely why the brand was Cape Coffee Beans’ most popular espresso grinder brand of 2023.

While the company got its start in the commercial space and has long been contracted by other big names in espresso to manufacture their grinders, it has also recently taken the domestic espresso world by storm with its Mignon line. If you’re looking for quality and versatility in an aesthetic package, you’ll surely find it in Eureka’s grinders.

Check out all our espresso grinders here

Espresso machines of the year

While the grinder categories saw some notable changes between 2022 and 2023, 2022’s espresso machine winners have managed to maintain their positions as South Africa’s favourites in 2023 too. The only difference is in the form of a new “Espresso machine brand of the year” category, whose winner shouldn’t be all that surprising given some of the winners in other espresso categories this year.

Entry-level espresso machine of the year

The Gaggia Classic tends to vie with the Rancilio Silvia for top spot in the entry-level space, even though they're in quite different price and size brackets. The Classic ‘Pro’ released in 2019, boasts a bevy of impressive features in a tiny package, including a 3-way solenoid valve in the group head to help release pressure after pulling a shot. This makes cleanup a lot easier and is a feature many lower-end home espresso machines lack. It also uses a standard 58mm grouphead, rather than the proprietary (read, "hard to find accessories for") groupheads of some of its competitors.

With features like this, a stylish build, available in several colours, and a very attractive price tag, it's easy to see why the Gaggia Classic was this year’s most popular entry-level home espresso machine yet again.

Prosumer espresso machine of the year

The Rancilio Silvia Pro maintained its seat as South Africa’s most popular premium home espresso machine in 2023, specifically in its ‘X’ variation, and it’s not hard to see why. In value for money and feature-richness, it’s tough to beat.

The original Silvia Pro featured dual boilers so you could steam milk and brew espresso simultaneously, and a pair of advanced PID controllers that allowed for temperature control with less than 0.5° of deviation, all packed into a retro, minimalist frame.

The new Silvia Pro X adds variable soft infusion to prevent channelling and improve extraction, and a boiler pressure gauge, all for a much more affordable price than machines with comparable specifications, which explains why it came out ahead of the pack once more in 2023 in its newer incarnation.

Commercial espresso machine of the year

Despite being best known in the home machine space these days, Rancilio again claimed the commercial category with the Classe 5 S, now for the second year running.

The Classe 5 S is a no-fuss, first-rate machine, made with high-quality commercial components like a built-in volumetric pump, boiler pressure control gauges, and a heat exchange boiler. It’s also available in several sizes, and, perhaps most excitingly, offers a factory-fitted gas-heating option, which cuts down on energy usage significantly and even lets you keep brewing even during load-shedding.

All this, for what is comparatively a very affordable price as commercial machines go, makes the Rancilio Classe 5 S the perfect machine for your restaurant, small cafe, or mobile coffee kiosk.

Espresso machine brand of the year

Given how close it came to sweeping the Cape Coffee Awards’ espresso machine section, it's not surprising that Rancilio was this year’s espresso machine brand of the year overall.

Rancilio got its start making high-end commercial espresso machines in Italy in the 1920s. In the late ‘90s, the brand released its Rancilio Silvia, which set the home espresso space alight and played a significant role in the third wave of coffee.

Now in its 6th iteration, the Silvia is just as popular as ever, and Rancilio has become one of the best-known and most celebrated names in espresso as a whole, and shows no signs of slowing down just yet, which is why it was 2023’s most popular espresso machine brand at Cape Coffee Beans.

Explore all our espresso machines here

Coffee maker of the year

Much as we love to talk espresso, and we do, most South Africans (and coffee enjoyers worldwide) don’t start their day using home espresso machines. Your average coffee enthusiast tends to opt for more manual brewing methods like percolation or immersion, and 2023 arguably saw somewhat of an upset in this space. After dominating the home-brewing scene for almost a century and winning this category in all prior Cape Coffee Awards, Bialetti’s Moka Express has finally been unseated by…

The Hario V60 pour-over coffee dripper

The only thing that comes close to the Bialetti Moka Express in terms of popularity is Hario’s V60 pour-over dripper. This year, at least in South Africa, the V60 didn’t just come close in popularity to the Express but actually managed to defeat the 3-time Cape Coffee Award champion.

Hario is the manual brewing equipment manufacturer of choice after Bialetti, and the V60 is now a staple in the world of specialty coffee, having become a more common point of entry for many budding coffee devotees.

Beautiful in its simplicity and yet affordable, the V60 brews fantastic coffee without fuss but makes a truly delicious cup if you take the time and effort to understand how it lets you control your brewing variables, which is probably why it was this year’s most popular piece of brewing equipment in South Africa.

Coffee maker brand of the year

While no individual Bialetti coffee maker was the most popular this year, Bialetti was still far and away our most popular brand in the manual brewing space for 2023, as it has been in years past. It hardly needs to be explained.

In 1933, Alfonso Bialetti completed his design for the aluminium Moka Express. Fast forward to the present day and the Italian brand and its iconic moustachioed man logo are arguably the face of the coffee world at large, and you’re more likely than not to find a piece of Bialetti equipment (or at least a third-party knock-off) in any household where at least one person drinks coffee.

Since the 1930s, Bialetti has expanded into an Italian coffee & kitchenware giant and has added new variations on the original design to its range, but the original Moka Express and its younger cousins are still the face of the company, and collectively outsell just about any other brand in the coffee space, which is why Bialetti was South Africa’s most popular coffee maker brand in 2023.

Check out all our coffee makers here

Accessories of the year

This was a new category last year, mostly because ‘accessory’ is such a broad category of products with entirely different functions that it’s quite difficult to fairly and meaningfully compare them. However, we still want to shine some light on some of the most important categories of ‘peripheral’ coffee equipment without which we could hardly make coffee.

Coffee scale of the year

A scale is one of the most essential tools in the coffee lover’s arsenal. Measuring your variables is the only real way to keep them consistent and ensure quality results each time you brew – how can you repeat a great brew if you don’t even know what to repeat?

These days there are many great coffee scales in several price categories available to both home and professional baristas, but the one that South Africa loved the most in 2023 was Wacaco’s Exagram.

Conveniently compact and suitably splash-proof (don’t soak it, though), the Exagram has an accuracy of 0.1 gram and a built-in timer, which is just about all you need in a scale. Furthermore, because it eschews the frillier features like Bluetooth connectivity and various automatic modes, it’s fantastically affordable, making it especially attractive for new coffee enthusiasts who haven’t upgraded to a decent scale because of the cost or barista road warriors who are looking for a secondary scale for travel.

Espresso scale of the year

Making espresso with a scale is more consistent but it presents a unique challenge. While weighing your beans is no different than for a manual brew like a V60, if you want to weigh your shot of espresso as you’re pulling it to ensure consistently great results, you’ll need a scale that’s small enough in diameter to fit comfortably on your drip tray, and also flat enough to fit between the drip tray and the cup, portafilter, and group head.

In 2023, South Africa’s favourite scale for this specific purpose was Timemore’s fittingly named Black Mirror Nano. At 10 cm long, 11 cm wide and 2 cm thick, it would be tough to find anything significantly smaller than the Nano, making it perfectly compatible with even the most compact of home espresso machines. It also has several handy features to help improve your espresso, like a timer that starts automatically when you begin pulling your shot. It also happens to double as a great travel scale for those who want something higher-end.

Stovetop kettle of the year

You’re not going to get very far with most brewing equipment without a kettle, so it's safe to say that it’s a fairly vital piece of kit for any coffee lover. A good kettle is even more important for increasingly popular pour-over brewing, like with the Hario V60. It’s fitting then that Hario, having won in the most popular coffee maker category with the V60, had a matching win in the kettle category.

With an elegant gooseneck spout and comfortable grip, Hario’s V60 Buono Drip Kettle is the ideal manual brewing companion. It works perfectly for just about any manual brew method, but is especially suited for pour-over makers like Hario’s own V60 dripper, and has long been the benchmark for gooseneck kettles in the world of specialty coffee.

Variable temperature kettle of the year

In case you haven’t explored this particular niche just yet, variable temperature kettles are even more useful, if highly-specialised, pieces of coffee gear. They heat water to a specific, predetermined temperature and keep it there, allowing you total control over one of the key variables in your brew, so you can fine-tune your coffee-making method right down to the degree.

Timemore’s Fish Variable Temperature Kettle was South Africa’s favourite of its kind in 2023. With the ability to heat your water to within one degree of a set temperature and hold it there for up to 12 hours, it’s easy to see why. Like all good coffee kettles, the Fish sports an elegant gooseneck for perfect pouring precision, and, like all Timemore’s products, it has a stylish, minimalist design sure to suit your kitchen and take your coffee to the next level.

Entry-level espresso accessory of the year

Espresso machines are expensive on their own, but making espresso requires a host of pricey peripherals too, which is why we’re always excited to see great espresso accessories at attractive prices.

The Sonner Knock Box is just that. Not only does it beat out most other knock boxes in affordability, but it also wins on convenience because, thanks to a unique and stylish design that eschews the knock bar for a ‘ledge’ of sorts, it’s much easier to clean.

The Sonner Knock Box is also made of durable, BPA-free plastic and features a handy no-slip rubber bottom, which is why it was South Africa’s (and CCBHQ’s) favourite entry-level espresso accessory in 2023.

Premium espresso accessory of the year

If you’re willing to look (and pay) for it, there’s no end to the amount of specialised gear you can get for your espresso machine. And why shouldn’t you? Making ever finer improvements and adjustments to your shots is the espresso enthusiast’s calling, right? Moreover, because espresso machine upgrades and accessories have a serious capacity for nuance (and price), potentially big upgrades with affordable price tags are all the more attractive.

This year, South Africa’s espresso lovers seem to have concurred, given that their favourite piece of premium espresso equipment was the IMS Precision Espresso Filter Basket. IMS has been crafting top-end espresso accessories since 1946, and its precision filter baskets are among the best you can find.

Thanks to a unique shape and patented perforation style, these baskets are designed to optimise extraction and facilitate puck drying and expulsion, making cleanup a breeze and improving both your espresso and workflow. For home brewers, these baskets are a reasonable price to pay for a tastier espresso, and in the commercial space with higher shot volumes, they could even be considered an essential.

See all our accessories here

Coffee books of the year

One of the first lessons you learn when you decide to dig a little deeper into the specialty coffee rabbit hole is that coffee can be pretty complex. Interest in specialty coffee continues to grow and with it the number of aspiring but confused new coffee devotees, intimidated by just how much there is to learn. Fortunately, we have a collection of books for the amateur and professional alike, and the following were some of South Africa’s favourites in 2023.

Best book for beginners

If you’ve just entered the world of specialty coffee, James Hoffman’s The World Atlas of Coffee is the book for you. James Hoffman himself is somewhat of a celebrity in the coffee world, and his YouTube channel is a famous starting point for the newly coffee curious.

The World Atlas of Coffee was Hoffman’s first book, originally published in 2014, and is now widely considered the ultimate introduction to coffee, covering everything from coffee cultivation and origins, to the science of roasting and a detailed exploration of various brewing techniques.

It’s also beautifully illustrated and comes as a large, stylish hardback, perfectly suited for your coffee table; the writing also mirrors the author’s own witty, colourful and effortlessly informative timbre. We say it’s the perfect addition to any coffee and/or book lover’s shelf, and it appears that our customers agree.

Best book for professionals

Anyone who’s ever worked in a coffee shop knows that making and serving coffee is only half the battle. After all, the coffee business is equal parts coffee and business. And while there are numerous books you could find on the art of making a good cappuccino, you’ll have a harder time coming by a practical guide for running a coffee shop.

Or, at least that used to be true. Fortunately for the coffee professional, Colin Harmon published What I Know About Running Coffee Shops back in 2017, which contains in its 227 pages many of the things you’ll need to know to embark on your own commercial coffee venture, from the most exciting epiphanies to the mundane but all-important details.

In case you’re wondering about Colin’s credentials, he’s a four-time Irish Barista Champion and owner of the internationally renowned 3fe Coffee in Dublin, which he built from a humble one-man cart. The man has paid his dues and he knows his stuff, which is why his book was one of South Africa’s favourite coffee books in 2023.

Top 4 coffee brands of the year

We come now to the final and arguably most important category of the Cape Coffee Awards: coffee itself. This year we’re doing things a little differently than we have in the past, as we feel that naming just one excellent brand was getting a bit boring (especially given the consistency in the top spot). As always, we’d love to be able to compare these brands on an individual coffee basis, but because most of our coffees are single origins, and available in limited quantities over specific periods, it’s neither easy nor entirely fair to declare a single or even several winners. We think they’re all winners anyway, but the following were South Africa’s four most popular coffee brands in 2023.

Truth’s motto is “We roast coffee – properly.”, and we, and evidently the rest of South Africa too, are inclined to agree. Truth’s steampunk-themed HQ in Cape Town was crowned the best coffee shop in the world by The Telegraph in 2016, and it is there that some of the best coffee in the country is carefully hand-roasted in vintage cast-iron drums and then shipped off to satisfied customers all over South Africa.

While Truth does offer single origins, its real strength is in its masterful blends, which bring out the best flavours of several great coffees while limiting their bitterness to a negligible degree. Find out more about Truth here on our blog or here on our podcast, or pick up a bag of its delicious beans right here – they’re sure to satisfy.

What sets Rosetta Roastery apart is its unwavering focus on single-origin coffees. It sources its beans with a rigorous dedication to quality and ethicality and takes great pains to fine-tune the perfect roast profile to best highlight the unique characteristics of each of its coffees on offer.

This care and consideration is clear in the end result – each cup of Rosetta coffee is uniquely delicious, with brilliant flavours characteristic of the region it hails from.

If you’re keen to get to know the coffee you’re drinking more intimately, Rosetta has everything you’re after, and if you’re in the Cape Town area, a visit to one of its cafes on Bree Street or at the V & A Waterfront could very well change your entire perspective on coffee.

Learn more about Rosetta from our blog here, check Rosetta's feature on our podcast here, or pick up some Rosetta beans here.

Cedar is one of our newest brands. In fact, Cedar is one of the newest additions to South Africa’s growing collection of coffee roasteries, having existed only since around September 2021, making it all the more impressive that Cedar was one of Cape Coffee Beans’ top-selling brands in 2023.

Not only is Cedar new, but it's also pretty small, run by only two coffee professionals, Winston Thomas and Leigh Wentzel. Nevertheless, between them is a truly vast wealth of coffee expertise. Winston’s been the South African Barista Champion a few times in his career, and Leigh, who worked his way through the ranks of Rosetta Roastery to eventually manage the roastery for a time, was part of the team that won Coffee Magazine’s Roastery of the year award in 2018 and 2019.

On their About page, Leigh and Winston state, “We all started our journey drinking instant coffee, let us show you how deep the rabbit hole goes”. We don’t think you’ll find a much better guide to brilliant coffee than Cedar, and we’re sure that the droves of South Africans who bought and enjoyed its coffee in 2023 would agree.

Hear more from Winston and Leigh themselves on our podcast here, or pick up some tasty Cedar beans here.

You’re not surprised to find out that Tribe was the number 1 most popular coffee brand at Cape Coffee Beans in 2023, are you? After all, the Cape Town-based roastery has taken the win in all previous Cape Coffee Awards, and has quickly become one of the biggest names in the South African coffee scene with its focus on “roasting the coffee that people want to drink.”

Tribe is headed by veterans of the South African coffee industry, trailblazers dedicated to making delicious coffee accessible to everyone. Its blends are delicious, its limited edition single origins bright and exciting, and we have customers all over the country, and plenty just on our doorstep, who keep coming back for more. Nothing quite illustrates a brand’s quality more than a dedicated following.

If you want to know more about Tribe you can read up on them here, or listen to Tribe’s episode on the CCB podcast. Or, if you’re already convinced and can’t wait to pick up some Tribe coffee beans, look no further than right here.

A note about all our coffee partners

While we’ve highlighted only 4 of our partners here based on the volume of coffee we sold in 2023, we truly believe that every coffee brand we work with is a winner in its own right. Coffee is a massive industry, and there are hundreds of coffee businesses in South Africa. We’ve very carefully chosen a curated handful of partners, each of whom has something unique to offer for every occasion, palate and budget, but who are all the same in one key way: they make fantastic coffee.

We’re incredibly grateful for having had them on board through 2023 and look forward to a bright future alongside them. Please support them all – they truly deserve it!

Browse all of our coffee brands and roasters here

What’s next?

If you’ve made it this far, thank you for reading this post. Moreover, thank you to all our fantastic customers who supported our business in 2023 and prior years. It’s been a big year for Cape Coffee Beans, and we know it’s cliché but we truly couldn’t have done it without you. We’re excited to see what 2024 holds for us, and hope you’ll stick around to experience it all alongside us.

What are your thoughts on this year’s Cape Coffee Awards winners? What would you like to see from CCB in 2024? Leave all your thoughts, questions and comments below.

Thanks again for reading, and from all of us at Cape Coffee Beans: Happy brewing!

The "official" Cape Coffee Awards were born at the end of 2020, right in the thick of a strange and challenging time for most people, including us at CCB. The tradition continued in 2021, though that year also wound up being a difficult one on a global scale.

We're not going to say that 2022 was without its challenges, particularly here in South Africa, but it seems like it was a better year overall, for us, for the world, and hopefully for everyone reading this. That sentiment feels like a great starting point for a look back at 2022.

We've always enjoyed reflecting on the things that were most popular in the year gone by, but the official Cape Coffee Awards give us an opportunity to shine a spotlight on the most sought after items in several important categories. We've learned that many people enjoy finding out what was most popular with South African coffee lovers.

As was the case last year, we have some unchanged category winners as well as some emerging undisputed champions, but we also have some noteworthy changes, as well as some new categories. Read on to learn which items were most popular with South African coffee lovers in 2022!

Please note that these awards are purely quantitative. They are based on the products that sold the most throughout the year and not necessarily our top picks or favourites (although many of them are).

Manual coffee grinders of the year

In 2020, when the Cape Coffee Awards began, we witnessed a boom in the sale of manual coffee grinders. This probably had a lot to do with more people brewing at home, but another important driving force was the evolution of the hand grinder space.

In recent years, manual coffee grinders have come leaps and bounds. Not only are there more models out there (and there certainly are) but the quality and consistency of the grind that many of them produce is impressive, especially when compared to what was available a few years ago. They've also become much easier and pleasurable to use, on average.

This means that manual coffee grinders now offer specialty coffee lovers great value for money. They are the starting point we recommend for many people considering brewing at home for the first time. Here are South Africa's favourites.

Overall hand grinder of the year

To anyone who owns one, this should come as no surprise. The best-selling hand grinder in 2022 was the same as in 2021, by a pretty huge margin. That was the Timemore Chestnut C2! Last year, we put the C2 in its own category, separately highlighting the best-selling entry-level and premium grinders. While the latter category remains (below), the Timemore Chestnut has eclipsed all other entry-level offerings in terms of sheer popularity.

Interestingly, while almost all other grinders went up in price in 2022, the Timemore Chestnut C2 did not, making it even better value for money than before, certainly when compared to other grinders out there. It's hard to beat the C2 as an entry-point into quality grinds.

Premium hand grinder of the year

The change in this category has been a small one. Last year, the most popular premium hand grinder was the Comandante C40 MK3 and this year, it has been supplanted by the newer Comandante C40 MK4. These are not drastically different grinders, so there are no big surprises here. Comandante is the brand that basically pioneered the premium hand grinder space, and many still consider the C40 range to the benchmark against which all other premium grinders are measured.

Having said that, one of the brands that has shaken things up in the premium grinder space is 1Zpresso, based in Taiwan. Some have even ventured to say that 1Zpresso's grinders rival or even improve upon the quality of the Comandante range. It's worth noting that as a brand, 1Zpresso actually out-sold Comandante in 2022 at Cape Coffee Beans. The fact that any single 1Zpresso model didn't defeat the MK4 could be attributed to the much larger variety of models to choose from.

Electric coffee grinders of the year

It is true that hand grinders are booming and regaining in popularity, but there are still lots of people out there who value the convenience of electric. This is a space where we've seen a changing of the guards in 2022.

Electric filter grinder of the year

It seems that this category in the Cape Coffee Awards is destined to be a contentious one. Two grinders have duked it out, neck and neck, for this category over the last 3 years. They are the Baratza Encore and the Severin Coffee Grinder. In 2020, the Severin just claimed first place; in 2021, the more full-featured Encore took top spot; but in 2022, the Severin is back in the lead, but only just.

These two grinders actually have a pretty similar conical steel burr set, so the relatively significant difference in price between the two is driven by the feature set. The Encore has 40 grind settings and a bigger motor. The Severin on the other hand has only 10 grind settings, but is much more affordable. It seems there are people swayed by both value propositions, and they both make great choices for manual or filter brewing at home.

Espresso grinder of the year 

There was an interesting shakeup in the previously consistent espresso grinder category, this year. For the last two years, the most popular espresso grinder was the Eureka Mignon Specialita Espresso Grinder. The Specialita had actually overtaken the always popular Rancilio Rocky which would have been the winner in all years prior if the Cape Coffee Awards had been running.

Very interestingly, the Rancilio Rocky actually overtook the Eureka Mignon Specialita in 2022 by quite a margin, but alas, it still was not destined to claim the top spot, because a new champion has emerged. Eureka's newer, stripped down and more affordable Mignon grinder, the Manuale, sold in quantities almost equivalent to the two other grinders combined. Given that the Manuale offers some (but not all) of the features of the Specialita, at the price of the Rocky, it seems to have hit the sweet spot in terms of bang for your buck for many espresso lovers.

Espresso machines of the year

While last year was a year of change in the espresso machine space, 2022 was very much in line with 2021, at least in terms of home espresso machines. The most popular choices remain unchanged on the domestic front, but we did see a big change in the commercial space.

Entry-level espresso machine of the year

While the Rancilio Silvia Home Espresso Machine continues to become more popular every year but, since the arrival of the new Gaggia Classic, there has been a clear winner in terms of sheer quantity purchased at Cape Coffee Beans. To be fair, there is a big price gap between the little Gaggia Classic and the heftier Rancilio Silvia.

The Gaggia offering seems to appeal specifically to first-time home baristas, and there's no arguing that the Classic makes an excellent and affordable choice on that front. Now available in various colours and with several modification options, there are even more reasons to choose a Gaggia Classic as your starter espresso machine.

Prosumer espresso machine of the year 

While the Rancilio Silvia may have a less expensive rival to contend with in the entry-level space, the Rancilio Silvia Pro has no such issues in the premium home espresso machine arena. In terms of feature set at the price point, nothing really comes close.

The Silvia Pro, and now the newer Pro X, includes dual boilers, PID and lots of programmable options at a much more affordable price than other machines with similar specifications. That explains why it was the clear winner in the prosumer category for domestic espresso machines in 2022, as it was in 2021.

Commercial espresso machine of the year 

This category didn't even exist in 2020, and we were thrilled to see the commercial espresso market open up again last year. In 2021, the Wega Lunna was the most popular choice with proprietors of cafes, restaurants and other coffee operations.

We're happy to report that 2022 was a good year overall for investment in the coffee industry, but there definitely was a change in preferences. You could say that Rancilio came close to a clean sweep in the espresso machine space. The most popular commercial espresso machine was the Rancilio Classe 5 S. Available in several sizes, this commercial offering from Rancilio is robust and affordable. Perhaps its most prized feature is the option for factory-fitted gas-operated heating, making it a viable option for serving coffee during load-shedding. 

Coffee maker of the year

All right; enough with all the espresso talk. After all, that's not how most people make their coffee at home. All over the world, and here in South Africa, most people still use manual brew methods to make their morning cup of coffee and, when it comes to manual brew methods, the most popular option has basically been the same, all across the globe, for almost a century.

And the winner is...

Once again, the Bialetti Moka Express takes the title of the most popular coffee maker of the year. It really is the most popular coffee maker, period.

Given its lifespan, its ease of use, its iconic design and its sheer longevity, it's still the most popular way to make a cup of quality coffee in your kitchen. We have customers that come in to buy spares for Bialetti Moka Express pots that are older than some of our team members and are still going strong.

It may be old-fashioned (many of the best things are) but there's no denying that the Bialetti Moka Express is an icon in the coffee space, and it likely will remain so for many years to come.

Check out all our coffee makers here

Electric filter coffee makers of the year

This was a new category for us last year, but we think it's an important one. You may remember your parents making coffee on a filter coffee machine. Don't get us wrong; we know that there are lots of terrible drip coffee makers out there, but there is a new trend towards "batch brew" emerging across the specialty coffee world. The new generation of filter coffee, drip coffee, or batch brew coffee machines (they go by many names) are much more precisely engineered and consistent, and they offer a great way to make a larger volume of coffee at home, at the office, or even in the cafe.

Domestic filter coffee machine of the year

On the home front, the most popular brand has not changed but the specific coffee machine actually has. Last year, the most pouplar choice was the iconic Technivorm MoccaMaster KBG Select but this year the winner was the Technivorm MoccaMaster KBGT 741.

Although not available in as many fancy colours, the KBGT swaps the glass jug and the hot plate for an insulated thermos, maintaining both the temperature and the quality of your brew for many hours. Visitors to CCBHQ will have spotted that we have one of these babies on the brew bar for making smaller batches, and we really love it. It seems that so do many other South African coffee lovers!

Commercial batch brewer of the year 

In the commercial space, business owners seem to have made the opposite tradeoff and swapped the thermal insulation of last year's winner, The Coffee Queen Thermos Filter Coffee Machine, for the convenience and aesthetic of the more traditional Coffee Queen M2. Having said that, we know that there was an availability issue with regards to thermally insulated Coffee Queen machines for part of the year, so we feel compelled to mention the close runner up: The Coffee Queen Mega Gold which is CQ's higher end offering for commercial operations, which we also use at CCBHQ for bigger batches.

Coffee Queen filter coffee machines are surprisingly affordable; they may represent the best value option for businesses that want to offer quality coffee on a small budget. You can buy just one brewer and as many flasks or decanters as you need, and you could serve an army. You don't even need a trained barista. It may not be as trendy as espresso, but we really believe in batch brew as a commercial offering, particularly on smaller scales and smaller budgets.

Accessories of the year

Finally, we come to this year's new category: accessories. We've shied away from this part of our product range in years past, simply because there are literally hundreds of different products to look at, many of which serve entirely different purposes. We can't evaluate or compare them all, but we have decided to include awards for two of the most important types of accessories, this year.

Scale of the year

Any true specialty coffee lover will tell you: you can't make great coffee without a scale. Many people will snigger the first time they see a scale under a pour-over brewer, but the reality is that you can't make consistently delicious coffee without controlling at least your brew ratio, and also ideally your extraction time. That's where coffee scales come in.

We actually have lots of different scales of all sorts of shapes and sizes available. We love them all, but there was one that clearly was the most popular with our customers in 2022, and that was the Timemore Black Mirror Basic+. It ticks all the boxes for manual brews and does the job of variable control perfectly, for coffee lovers across the country and beyond.

Kettle of the year 

Kettles! If you think about it, they're actually pretty darn important. There's no coffee without hot water, and as specialty coffee lovers quickly learn, controlling your pour as well as your temperature can make all the difference. Most coffee kettles these days have recognisable goose necks, but beyond that they differ in material and type quite a bit.

We were thrilled and intrigued to discover that the most popular kettle among our range is still the classic Hario V60 Buono Drip Kettle. Perhaps load-shedding played a role here, but it seems our customers favoured the classic stovetop over many of the fancier variable temperature electric offerings out there. There's no question that the Hario V60 Buono has done the job of pouring beautifully for many many years, and has stood the test of time.

Coffee of the year

The final awards go to the coffee brands that the people of South Africa ordered the most in 2022. We would love to do this on an individual coffee basis, but as most of our coffees are single origins, available in limited quantities for a limited time, it's not really possible to declare a winner. We actually think they're all winners anyway. However, we can tell you which brand of coffee our customers ordered most!

Coffee brand of the year

The most popular brand by sheer volume has now been the same for three years running: Tribe Coffee Roasting. It seems that "roasting the coffee that the people want to drink" continues to be a great strategy.

Tribe has had a big year, moving and upgrading their roastery and expanding. We ourselves have seen lots of growth in the orders of Tribe, not only for home consumers but for commercial coffee operations across the country.

If you want to know more about Tribe, why not listen to their episode on the CCB podcast or read our blog post about them. Of course, you should also buy their delicious coffee beans.

Coffee blend of the year

While we can't fairly compare the popularity of our single origin offerings, we can at least offer a comparison of the performance of the perrenial and seasonal blends.

When it comes to the most popular blend that we offer, there was has also been a clear winner, for several years, and that is häzz, South Africa's coffee for heroes! These bright blue bags fly off the shelves at CCB and make their way to homes and offices across the country in impressive numbers. You can try the blend by buying a bag online or at HQ or visiting their cafes in Newlands and Stellenbosch.

A note about all our coffee partners

We are definitely repeating ourselves here, but we think it's a message worth repeating... While we may have sold more Tribe coffee than any other brand, and more hazz coffee than any other blend, we feel very strongly that all the coffee brands we work with are winners. After all, there are hundreds of coffee businesses in South Africa and we've very carefully chosen our partners. Each one of them has something unique to offer and they cater to many different budgets, palettes and personalities, but they are all providing coffee of the highest quality. We're proud to work with them all! Please support them. They deserve it!

What's next?

We want to thank everyone who has read this post and supported our business in 2022 and prior years. It's quite something to be able to work in this amazing space and call it our job.

We're excited about 2023 and have a few interesting plans in the works. We'd love to hear from you too though. What would you like to see from CCB in 2023? What awards would you like to see on next year's post? What feedback do you have for us from 2022? Leave your comments below!

Happy brewing!

While we've always enjoyed taking a look back at the things that were most popular in the year gone by, last year was our first "official" Cape Coffee Awards. Since so many people enjoyed finding out about the category winners, we're very pleased to continue the tradition this year with an expanded set of awards.

Some things remained unchanged, but there were also lots of newly emerging award-winners. Find out which items were most popular with South African coffee lovers in 2021!

Please note that these awards are purely quantitative. They are based on the products that sold the most throughout 2021 and not necessarily our top picks or favourites (although many of them are).

Manual coffee grinders of the year

In 2020 we saw an explosion in the manual coffee grinder market, both in terms of interest and in terms of variety. This has only continued in 2021. It's fair to say that there are more manual coffee grinders and better coffee grinders available in SA than there have ever been before.

This may have to do with the fact that more people started brewing at home because of the pandemic, and that doesn't seem to have changed. Perhaps people are also taking advantage of the incredible consistency and versatility of the newest generation of grinders.

This is good news for coffee lovers, because whether you want something very affordable, or something as consistent as the very best professional grinders, you have a bunch of options available to you now. Here are South Africa's favourites, in three distinct categories.

Entry level hand grinder of the year

Admittedly, this winner isn't a new one. The tried, tested & trusted Hario Skerton Plus Manual Coffee Grinder has maintained its top spot from the year before. It's been around for a long time, but it really still is one of the best entry-level grinders out there, balancing affordability and functionality.

It is one of the most affordable quality entry points to burr grinders and it doesn't cost much more than an electric blade grinder (which is something no coffee lover should ever use). With its ceramic conical burr set, it allows you to make delicious manual brews at home without breaking the bank.

Premium hand grinder of the year

OK, so maybe there hasn't been all that much change in the manual grinder space! The premium hand grinder award also goes to the incumbent. It's hard to beat one of the most reputable hand grinders in the world: the Comandante C40 MK3.

While the Comandante MK3 has many more rivals in 2021 than it had in 2020, it still retained its top spot in terms of the sheer number sold. Once you've used one, you really won't be surprised. It may be pricey for a hand grinder, but it produces grinds of a similar quality to professional grinders that are orders of magnitude more expensive.

Overall hand grinder of the year

But wait... we do have a surprise for you after all. The actual top selling hand grinder of the year was a brand new contestant: The Timemore Chestnut C2! We actually sold more of the Timemore C2 than the Comandante & Skerton combined. That is quite something!

You may be wondering, why didn't it unseat either of the previous champions in that case? The answer is that it's hard to put it either in the entry-level or the premium category. It sits comfortably somewhere in between. It's definitely not entry-level, but it also doesn't have quite the variety of grind settings that something like the Comandante offers. It's also a fraction of the price of the top-end premium grinders. You could think of it as the benchmark in a newly emerging category: the mid-tier manual coffee grinder. That makes it a great choice for most home brewers, and our customers seem to agree!

Electric coffee grinders of the year

Even though manual coffee grinders may be booming, there's never any shortage of people who value the convenience of electric. For espresso particularly, but also for manual brews, it's hard to beat the convenience of pushing a button.

Electric filter grinder of the year

Last year this was a very close call and this year was no different in that regard, but we have had a change of the guards, nonetheless. The Baratza Encore just overtook the Severin Conical Burr Electric Coffee Grinder as our most popular electric coffee grinder for filter and manual brews.

The fact that the winner this year was actually the more expensive grinder (largely due to greater versatility in grind settings and better consistency) speaks to the fact that manual brewers were clearly placing importance on quality in their home setups. As an entry point, the trusty Severin is still a fantastic choice, but the Encore's 40 grind settings and larger burr set won out this year!

Espresso grinder of the year 

It's pretty unsurprising to report that there was no change in the espresso grinder of the year category. It's pretty hard to beat the functionality, quality and sheer reliability of the Eureka Mignon Specialita Espresso Grinder. It pairs well with any domestic espresso machine from entry-level to premium.

Having said that, we were intrigued to find that one of the champions of old clawed its way back to a very close second. The Rancilio Rocky had a surprisingly good year. It may not have the bells and whistles of the Specialita but it is known for its reliablity and it is very affordable in comparison to other espresso grinders. Its return to popularity may be a result of so many new home espresso enthusiasts entering the market and choosing the tried and tested classic grinder to start their home barista journeys.

Espresso machines of the year

In the espresso machine category we saw quite a lot of change in 2021. The domestic machine space had a shakeup with lots of interesting new entrants. We also have added a new category for commercial espresso machines. 2021 saw a surge in coffee entrepreneurship as relaxed restrictions gave a welcome boost to the demand for coffee in the cafe.

Entry-level espresso machine of the year

There's no denying it... we had quite an upset in this category in 2021. The king, or rather the queen of home espresso, was unseated from her throne. 2021 was the first year that we sold the new Gaggia Classic and it stormed past the Rancilio Silvia Home Espresso Machine to claim first prize in the entry-level space. Of course, it's worth nothing that the Silvia did not actually lose any ground. She actually sold more than she did when she won the category last year!

How can that be? It seems that the affordability of the Gaggia Classic has simply opened up the world of home espresso to many people who may not have purchased a home espresso machine before. We think that's a great thing!

You can't go wrong with a Silvia or a Classic. They are both fantastic entry points into home espresso, depending on your budget.

Prosumer espresso machine of the year 

The tables turned in a similar way in the prosumer category in 2021. This had a lot to do with lots of new entrants into the space and it also featured an unexpected dethroning. You could say that Rancilio pushed up market, because the winner of the Prosumer category in 2021 was none other than the brand new Rancilio Silvia Pro, unseating the always dominant La Marzocco Linea Mini. The Linea Mini was still very popular but it couldn't quite keep up with the bang for your buck that the new Rancilio Silvia Pro offers home espresso enthusiasts. With dual boilers and PID at a price similar to many basic heat exchange machines, it's no wonder that so many espresso aficianados chose the new Silvia Pro as their vehicle of exploration.

Commercial espresso machine of the year 

It really gives us great pleasure to introduce this category for 2021. It was sadly almost non-existant in 2020 as so many businesses struggled to survive the pandemic and its accompanying restrictions.

2021 saw a real surge in coffee entrepreneurship with lots of new coffee startups across the country, often in smaller towns and cities rather than just the metropolitcan centres.

The coffee entrepreneurs had a lot to choose from this year, and the winner of the popularity contest, by just a hair, was the Wega Lunna. Solidly built, basic but hardy, it was an obvious choice for those dipping their toes into the waters of the cafe.

This is a category where it's definitely worth taking note of the runner up, which was the Crem EX3. Although it finished the year just behind the Wega Lunna, it only entered the race half way through 2021! In the second half of the year, it was clearly the most popular, most likely because of its surprisingly advanced feature set at a relatively affordable price.

Coffee maker of the year

With all this talk of espresso equipment, one might be tempted to forget that most South Africans, heck most coffee lovers around the world, don't make "true" espresso at home. Manual brew methods still offer an easy, affordable, high quality option for the average coffee lover.

When it comes to manual brew methods, the most popular option has basically been the same, all across the globe, for almost a century.

And the winner is...

Once again, the Bialetti Moka Express takes the title of the most popular coffee maker of the year. It really is the most popular coffee maker, period.

Given its lifespan, its ease of use, its iconic design and its sheer longevity, it's still the most popular way to make a cup of quality coffee in your kitchen. We have customers that come in to buy spares for Bialetti Moka Expresso pots that are older than some of our team members and are still going strong.

It may be old-fashioned (many of the best things are) but there's no denying that the Bialetti Moka Express is an icon in the coffee space, and it likely will remain so for many years to come.

Check out all our coffee makers here

Electric filter coffee makers of the year

But wait... there's more. This is admittedly a new category, and possibly one that we should have considered last year. Even though more and more people are getting into espresso, and more and more people are getting into manual brewing, there's a classic way to make coffee that is also seeing a resurgence.

Some call it filter. Some call it batch brew. Whatever you call them, the reality is that these electric machines offer a really easy and convenient way to make large volumes of coffee at home or in a commercial setting. Unlike some of the crummy drip pots that your parents had (and are still available in many stores), the new generation of filter coffee makers feature precise variable control and consistently delicious brews.

Domestic filter coffee machine of the year

In the home filter coffee machine space, there was a very clear winner. The Technivorm MoccaMaster KBG Select took the top spot by a huge margin, and 2nd place went to its thermally insulated sibling the KBGT 741. You could say it was a clean sweep.

If you've used one of these brightly-coloured beauties, you get it. It's so simple, yet it's so consisent. It looks good on your kitchen counter. It lets you whip up a litre or more of wonderful steaming hot coffee with so little fuss. That's probably why we see so many filter coffee enthusiasts picking one of these up as a secondary brewer. Pour-overs are great, but when it comes to serving a dinner party, or making that first cup bleary-eyed, it's hard to beat a MoccaMaster!

Commercial batch brewer of the year 

In the commercial space, things are different in terms of aesthetic. While she may also be royal, the winner isn't too focused on her looks, but there's no denying it; if you want to brew large volumes of consistent batch brew, there is an obvious choice: The Coffee Queen M Filter Coffee Machine.

The Coffee Queen is surprisingly affordable; it may represent the best value option for businesses that want to offer quality coffee on a small budget. You can buy just one brewer and as many flasks as you want, and you could serve an army. You don't even need a trained barista. It may not be as trendy as espresso, but we really believe in batch brew as a commercial offering. We'd love to see even more businesses pick it up in 2022!

Coffee of the year

The final award goes to the coffee brand that the people of South Africa enjoyed the most through 2021. Like last year, we selected this by brand as opposed to doing it by bean because many of our roasters change their offerings regularly and we didn't want this to be a disadvantage.

Coffee brand of the year

The result was clear and unchanged from last year. The coffee brand that sold the most bags of coffee in 2021 at CCB was Tribe Coffee Roasting, once again! There's no denying it. South Africa loves Tribe Coffee, and our friends at Tribe continue to succeed in "roasting the coffee that the people want to drink."

We have a lot of respect for the people and the products at Tribe and we want to congratulate them on their success! In 2021 we were lucky enough to offer some very special Tribe limited releases, and we hope to do more of that in 2022. Watch this space.

In the meantime, if you want to know more about them, why not listen to Tribe's episode on the CCB podcast or read our blog post about them. Of course, you should also buy their delicious coffees.

Coffee blend of the year

All right; we've relented. We received a fair bit of feedback last year complaining about the lack of a winner in terms of individual coffees. We've held back on that category simply because we offer dozens (if not hundreds) of single origin coffees across the year that are all available in very different quantities, for different amounts of time, and admittedly at very different price points. It doesn't make for an easy (or fair) comparison.

Still, we realised that we can look at the blends we offer. After all, most of them are available year-round (even if the components change seasonally) and many of our customers find favourites that they come back for again and again.

When it comes to the most popular blend that we offer, there was also a clear winner, and it was none other than Stellenbosch-based häzz, South Africa's coffee for heroes! These bright blue bags fly off the shelves at CCB and make their way to homes and offices across the country in impressive numbers. You can try the blend by buying a bag online or at HQ or visiting their cafes in Newlands and Stellenbosch.

A note about all our coffee partners

We may be repeating ourselves here, but we think it's a message worth revisiting. While we may have sold more Tribe coffee than any other brand, and more hazz coffee than any other blend, we feel very strongly that all the coffee brands we work with arewinners. After all, there are hundreds of coffee businesses in South Africa and we've very carefully chosen our partners. Each one of them has something unique to offer and they cater to many different budgets, palettes and personalities, but they are all providing coffee of the highest quality. We're proud to work with them all!

Thank you

Last but not least, we want to say thank you to all the South African coffee lovers in our community. It's a special kind of privilege to be able to spend our days focused on specialty coffee and call it our job. We couldn't do that without your support and we are incredibly grateful.

We're really looking forward to 2022 and serving our growing coffee community. We wish you a great start to the year, in all things, including coffee.

Happy brewing!

Coffee drinking and brewing is a rewarding hobby to have. You are able to experience flavours and aromas from across the globe in the comfort of your own home. It is a hobby that requires a certain amount of investment though. Not only do you need the right beans; you also need the right equipment.

At Cape Coffee Beans, we offer a broad range of equipment, accessories, and coffee beans to our customers, and we’re excited to offer payment methods that help to make them all more accessible. To that end, we’ve recently made a new way to pay available through MoreTyme.

What Is MoreTyme?

MoreTyme is a buy now, pay later solution developed by Tymebank, which we are able to offer through our partnership with Payfast. It is a payment option that allows you to pay off your purchase in three instalments over three months. What sets MoreTyme apart is that you pay no monthly fee, no interest and no fee when you buy, meaning that you don’t have to pay more than the price tag.

For coffee lovers in need of new gear, being able to make easy, interest-free payments for larger purchases is a significant benefit. All you need to do is open an account with Tymebank using their app, or use your existing Tymebank account to pay.

How To Use MoreTyme

To make a payment with MoreTyme via PayFast, you will need an account with TymeBank. If you don’t already have an account with TymeBank, all you need to do is download the app onto your smartphone and follow the prompts to set up your account. It’s a quick and easy process. You can do everything right from your phone, including verifying your identity by entering your South African ID number and taking a selfie.

Once your account has been verified, you can open the app on your smartphone, navigate to the MoreTyme settings, and activate this option. To make a purchase using MoreTyme, transfer funds into your TymeBank Account of at least 50% of the total purchase amount. Then, follow the quick and easy steps at checkout below:

• When you reach the payment page at checkout, select Payfast
• Once you’re redirected to Payfast, choose the MoreTyme payment option
• The PayFast payment page will pop up with a QR code
• Scan this QR code with the TymeBank app on your smartphone
• Once you have scanned the code successfully, the first payment of 50% of the purchase price will be deducted from your account
• The next two payments of 25% each will be deducted 30 days then 60 days after the initial purchase

You can use the MoreTyme function for purchases of any value between R50 & R25,000!

It is important to remember that, provided there are enough funds in your account for the upcoming payments, you will not be charged interest. You may be charged additional fees and interest if the funds are not available when the instalments are due.

MoreTyme To Brew

We think an interest free option to spread payments should be a helpful addition to our range of payment methods available via Payfast. It may allow you to make that special purchase that you’ve been eyeing that little bit sooner, without any additional fees, and give you that little bit more time to brew your favourite coffees.

2020 was a rollercoaster of a year, but through all the ups and downs and the restrictions that came and went, it seems that people kept on drinking coffee. Let's look at some of CCB's most popular products from the last year.

Note: these awards are awarded on a purely quantitative basis - products that sold the most throughout 2020 and not necessarily our top picks or favourites (although many of them are).

Manual coffee grinders of the year

The real winners of 2020 are without a doubt all the people that put in the grind and managed to get through (and even make a success from) what was an incredibly challenging year. Let's start with a shout out to all the hustlers and grinders out there... but of course, those aren't the grinders we are talking about.

Coffee grinders are our favourite category to look at (after all, we don't sell pre-ground coffee at all) and our range of grinders has expanded quite considerably in 2020. This year sees the introduction of a new category in the coffee grinder space with a whole range of premium hand grinders coming to market in 2020. With that in mind, there will be two grinder categories this year: entry-level hand grinders and premium hand grinders.

Entry level hand grinder of the year

This award goes to the trusty Hario Skerton Plus Manual Coffee Grinder. With the steep uptake we've seen in home brewing, it comes as no surprise that this entry level hand grinder has seen such success through 2020.

A burr grinder is an essential piece of kit for any home brewer starting out. There really is no substitute for freshly ground coffee, and the ability to adjust your grind settings will make a world of difference to your brews. The Skerton has been a favourite since CCB started. It's great to see that it still is so popular.

Premium hand grinder of the year

We were very excited to see a range of beautifully engineered and designed premium hand grinders entering the South African specialty coffee space in 2020. This included one of the most reputable hand grinders in the world: the Comandante C40 MK3. The people of South Africa loved the Comandante so much that it was our most popular premium hand grinder of 2020.

We were delighted to see how quickly coffee lovers snapped up these grinders, but what really excited us was how this reflected on the SA coffee community as a whole; it is a testament to the fact that South African coffee lovers really take their coffee brewing seriously and are willing to invest in achieving a high quality brew.

Electric coffee grinders of the year

Sticking with the theme of grinders, sometimes you just want a machine to do the heavy lifting for you. Here we have the most popular electric grinders in the filter and espresso categories.

Electric filter grinder of the year

This was an incredibly close call, so close in fact that we have to give a shout out to the Baratza Encore which sold just one unit less than the winner of this category... But there can only be one winner and the most popular electric filter grinder of the year is the Severin Conical Burr Electric Coffee Grinder.

The more we see coffee lovers trading in their blade grinders for burr grinders, the happier we become. If you have a blade grinder, it's time to upgrade to a burr grinder (the difference is huge) and you can't go wrong with the Severin Conical Burr Electric Coffee Grinder as a starting point.

Espresso grinder of the year 

This category was pretty cut and dry with the Eureka Mignon Specialita Espresso Grinder winning by quite a margin. This really is an incredible little grinder, at a fantastic price point. It's one of our go to grinders at HQ and we even manage to get great results on filter with it (a pretty unique feat for an espresso grinder).

Although we must say that we are very excited to see what happens over the next year with the introduction of the new Rocket Espresso Milano grinders competing for this title.

Espresso machines of the year

As our range of espresso machines grows, it seems like a good idea to break things down a little further. Here we have two categories: entry level espresso machines (which includes all espresso machines under R40,000) and prosumer espresso machines (which includes all espresso machines above R40,000).

Beginner espresso machine of the year

Despite a number of new products in the beginner home espresso category, the Rancilio Silvia Home Espresso Machine defended its title as the most popular beginner espresso machine and most popular espresso machine of 2020. There's a reason that these little beauties have been one of the most popular espresso machines in the world for over two decades (although there have been a few upgrade over the years). These amazing machines deliver barista quality espresso at a price point that is as small as the Silvia's footprint.

If you've mastered all the manual brew methods and are looking for a new coffee challenge for 2021, then it might be time to get into the espresso game with a Rancilio Silvia.

Prosumer espresso machine of the year 

The results for the most popular prosumer espresso machine came as a pleasant surprise to us - particularly given the challenges we faced around stock and logistics this year. The most popular prosumer espresso machine of 2020 was none other than the La Marzocco Linea Mini (we even managed to send one across the globe). Once again, it brings us great joy to see such fervent pursuit of quality and excellence from South African coffee drinkers!

La Marzocco have really earned their stripes in the world of commercial coffee and the Linea Mini lives up to that reputation in the home. 

Coffee maker of the year

And now for the award you've all been waiting for. The answer to the question, "How do South Africans like to brew their coffee?" Without further ado let's look at the most popular coffee maker of 2020.

And the winner is...

Once again, the Bialetti Moka Express takes the title of the most popular coffee maker of the year.

Given the lifespan of these incredible little coffee makers (we have a customer who comes in to buy spares for the one they bought in the '80s), we continue to be surprised at how popular they are. We are surprised because one would think that eventually everyone in South Africa would own a Bialetti Moka Pot (and they last for a lifetime), but year on year by a significant margin, the Bialetti Moka Express is undisputed as the most popular coffee maker.

Most popular new coffee maker

With our deserving overall winner having been invented in the 1930s, we couldn't help but take a glance at how the competition faired among newer contenders. When looking specifically at coffee makers released in the last 12-18 months, there was also a clear winner...

Standing on the shoulders of the already incredibly popular AeroPress Coffee Maker, the AeroPress Go just beat out the Wacaco Pipamoka for the title of most popular among our recently released coffee makers.

Check out all our coffee makers here

Coffee brand of the year

The final award goes to the coffee brand that the people of South Africa enjoyed the most through 2020. We selected this by brand as opposed to doing it by product because many of our roasters change their offerings regularly and we didn't want this to be a disadvantage.

And the winner is...

The coffee brand that sold the most bags of coffee in 2020 at CCB was none other than Tribe Coffee Roasting. It seems that the ethos of "roasting the coffee that the people want to drink" has paid off and made Tribe Coffee Roasting CCB's most popular coffee brand. We have customers all over the country, and plenty just on our doorstep, who keep coming back for more coffee from Tribe. These guys have a truly dedicated following.

If you want to know more about them, why not listen to Tribe's episode on the CCB podcast or read our blog post about them.

A note on all our coffee partners

While we sold more bags of Tribe coffee than any other brand we work with in 2020, we're very happy that, with our customers' support, we sold more coffee from all our suppliers than we ever had before, hopefully making a small contribution to plugging the gap left by cafes hurt by lockdown restrictions.

It also feels worth pointing out that there are literally hundreds of coffee brands in South Africa, and we have very carefully chosen the ones we work with. We think they are among the very best. That's why we work with them!

See all our coffee roaster & brands here

Thank you

We want to sign off with a massive, heartfelt thank you to all South African coffee lovers for your continued support throughout 2020. It's been an inspiration to see South Africans pursuing quality and excellence with their coffee despite a very challenging environment. It feels as though the local coffee scene is going through a renaissance of sorts, and going in to 2021, we are committed to continuing to support South Africa's love of great coffee.

Happy brewing!

Don't buy a coffee maker (yet)

It might seem like the obvious choice, but if they already have a coffee maker, don't get them a new one; at least, don't make it the first option you consider. It may seem like the obvious place to go, but it's not always the best choice. Although experimenting with brewers is something coffee lovers absolutely love to do, helping them improve their existing brews is even more powerful. You can arm them with the tools that will help them get better results from any coffee maker. Read on below to find out what those tools are. If you've made sure they already have these, then you can move on to some coffee maker recommendations further down!

Help them make better coffee

Our biggest piece of advice to you is quite simple but it warrants repeating: gift your coffee loving friends & family members the tools that will help make better coffee with the coffee maker they already have. The nice thing about these tools is that they can be used with all coffee makers and will have lasting value throughout their coffee journeys. Before looking at new coffee makers, a coffee lover must have the following pieces of essential equipment.

A quality burr coffee grinder

If the coffee lover you are buying a gift for does not have a burr grinder, then this is a no brainer; stop reading this blog post and get them a grinder. You might be thinking to yourself, "they have a blade grinder, so I think I'll get them something else," but you would be incorrect. If they are using a blade grinder, they desperately need a burr grinder. The consistency of any burr grinder is night and day compared to a blade grinder, and the ability to adjust the grind setting to suit their brewer and their taste preferences is essential for any true coffee lover.

Matt (our marketing man and resident coffee nerd) would even go as far as to say that if they have a basic burr grinder as well as everything else mentioned in this blog post, you would still be better off upgrading their grinder before buying them a new coffee maker. Matt may have some particularly strong opinions, but he has a point; a better grinder will yield better brews in every brew method. That sounds worthwhile doesn't it?

Here are some of our top picks for coffee grinders.

• Entry level manual grinder: The Hario Mini Slim Mill
• Mid-tier manual grinder: The Timemore Chestnut C2
• Entry level electric grinder for manual brewing: The Severin
• Mid-tier electric grinder for manual brewing: The Baratza Encore
• Entry level home espresso grinder: The Rancilio Rocky
• Mid-tier home espresso grinder: The Eureka Mignon Specialita
• Check out all our grinders here.

Measuring the variables

If you are not a coffee nerd, we can imagine that you don't understand the hype around scales. One of the most important factors in making better coffee is measuring your variables and, after grind size, the most important variable is your ratio of coffee to water. In order to measure this accurately, you need scale, and preferably a scale that measures in 0.1g increments.

Most coffee scales kill two birds with one stone and include a built-in timer in order to time your brews (another important variable). Being able to measure all these variable allows you to control them, change them and make tweaks to make your brewed coffee a little better. Perhaps most importantly, this allows a coffee lover to replicate a really great brew.

Modern coffee scales have come a long way, and while you can still get a scale that does the basics - it weighs and times - the addition of smart scales has made the world of coffee scales incredibly feature-rich. From connecting to your phone to record your brew recipes, to measuring more esoteric variables like flow rate (how fast you are pouring) to just measuring the basics, any coffee scales will help you improve your coffee, regardless of what end of the spectrum you are on.

Check out some of our top picks for coffee scales below.

• Basic scale: Timemore Black Mirror Scale or Hario V60 Drip Scale
• Smart scale: Acaia Pearl or Felicita Incline
• Espresso scale: Felicita Arc
• See all our coffee scales here.

The right temperature

The last variable that needs to be controlled is temperature. Most people just whack on the kettle and make their coffee, but coffee nerds like to control every single detail. The difference that a few degrees of temperature can make is huge, and having the ability to control that is just as important. This can be achieved through two means: a variable temperature kettle (which makes it a quick and easy task) or a simple thermometer.

Coffee kettles not only offer the ability to measure the temperature of your coffee, but offer precision pouring with gooseneck spouts. Although this might not be necessary in all brew methods, if you are buying something for a coffee lover who drinks pour-over coffee, a precision pouring kettle is an essential piece of kit.

These are some of our top choices:

• Variable temperature electric kettles: Timemore Fish Kettle or Felicita Square
• Precision pouring kettle: Hario Buono Drip Kettle
• Brew thermometer: Digital pocket thermometer
• Check out all our kettles here.

Now you should consider a brewer

If the coffee lover you are buying a gift for has all of the above, then (and only then) should you look at buying him or her a new coffee brewer. Below we've listed some of our top choices for someone buying a coffee maker as a gift, but we should mention that this is largely down to personal preference. We've gone with a few iconic (essential) brewers and a couple of slightly more "out there" options that are sure to intrigue and surprise a coffee lover while still making great tasting coffee.

If you want to browse all our coffee makers, you can see them here. There are lots of them!

The Chemex

The Chemex: it's beautiful, it's iconic and, despite its design being distinctly in line with the third wave coffee culture aesthetic, it has actually been around since the '40s. 

The reason we recommend the Chemex as a gift is that, not only does the Chemex brew incredibly delicious coffee, it is also one of the most beautifully designed coffee makers in the world. Having said that, there are many pour-over coffee makers to choose from, so feel free to browse and choose your own favourite.

• Learn more about the Chemex pour-over coffee maker here
• See some more pour-over coffee makers here

The Kalita Wave

Under normal circumstances, we wouldn't list more than one pour-over coffee maker on a blog post like this, but this one is worth considering for several reasons. The Kalita Wave has been particularly popular around very dedicated pour-over coffee lovers around the world for some time, but it only just recently arrived in South Africa. As such, there's a pretty decent chance the coffee lover in your life doesn't have one yet, and it is definitely an awesome coffee maker.

• Learn more about the Kalita pour-over coffee maker here

Wacaco

Although Wacaco is a brand and not a brewer, their products are unique, well-built, reliable and incredibly good at making delicious coffee. They all make great gift choices. Specifically, the Nanopresso makes surprisingly delicious espresso-style coffee in a portable hand pump form. Then there is the Pipamoka, a portable travel brewer that makes some of the most delicious vacuum brewed filter coffee that we have tried. Both these brewers are unique and a little bit quirky. Either would make the perfect gift for the coffee lover who already has lots of things. 

• Learn more about Wacaco here
• Learn more about the Nanopresso here
• Learn more about the Pipamoka here

The AeroPress

We couldn't possibly write about gifts for coffee lovers without mentioning the AeroPress. Its versatility makes it an amazing coffee maker, especially for a budding, coffee-curious home brewer. It allows you to isolate individual variables and tweak them to your preference. It provides you with full control to explore and experiment while remaining incredibly simple and easy to use. It's a great choice for a coffee newbie, or more advanced user. Just make sure that she or he doesn't have one yet, as many coffee nerds already do!

• Learn more about the AeroPress here

The most extravagant coffee gifts money can buy

If you've reached the end of this gift guide and you are thinking to yourself, "none of this is going to cut it," and, "I want bigger, I want better, I want the ultimate coffee gift," then it's time to bring out the big guns, the greatest coffee gifts that money can buy, the espresso machines.

If you really want to impress a coffee lover with the most extravagant and wonderful gift that money can buy, and give them a lifetime of exploration, then you can't beat buying an espresso machine. To gift a coffee lover an espresso machine is the ultimate gesture. It also may provide you with an easy source of flat whites.

• Browse all our domestic espresso equipment here and feel free to chat to our team about pairing an espresso machine with the right grinder and accessories.

Still Unsure?

If you are still unsure about what to buy the coffee lover in your life, we have a few fool proof options for you that are guaranteed to be appreciated.

The gift of coffee

It's the most obvious choice of all, really. One thing that all coffee lovers love and appreciate is good coffee. Having said that, good coffee is incredibly subjective. A lot of "non-coffee" people are of the understanding that intense and strong coffee is the same as good coffee, but this could not be further from the truth. There's much more to it than that, and personal preferences can point in a lot of different directions.

This is where we can definitely help out! Firstly, make sure to ask the right questions. You should ask, "do you prefer light or dark roasts", "do you take milk/sugar in your coffee", and "do you prefer delicate, fruity coffees or rich and intense coffees". Come to us with their answers and we can definitely find something that will be right up their alley.

• Check out all our coffee roasters and brands here

Bundle it up

We know that this is a lot to take in. If you're feeling a little overwhelmed why don't you take a look at our bundles page where we've done the work for you and put together some bundles that include everything you might need to make delicious coffee. Who knows, you might even find yourself a special deal.

• Check out all our bundles here.

Let them choose

Lastly, if it's all a little too much to take in, why not get them a Cape Coffee Beans gift voucher and let them choose the perfect gift for themselves? Gift vouchers also have the benefit of being delivered electronically. For last minute shoppers, this solves a lot of logistical problems!

• Get gift vouchers here

We're Here To Help

If you need any more help, feel free to contact us. Our customer service team would be more than happy to help you pick the perfect gift for the coffee lover in your life. If are lucky enough to live in the Mother City, pop into us at HQ and we can have a chat in person.

If you want some more, very specific suggestions, you can also check out our curated gift guide collections here. 

Not all water is created equal

You might be reading this blog post and thinking to yourself, "surely water is just water." Well, we are here to tell you that you this is not the case, and the relationship between water and coffee is far more complex than most people realise. Considering that water typically comprises of more than 98% of filter coffee and 88-92% of espresso coffee, it is not surprising that the impact it has can be huge. Luckily for us, coffee can be fairly consistent and likes to play by the rules, so to begin, let's look at a few truths that apply to the relationship between water and coffee. 

1. If your water is inconsistent, your brews will also be inconsistent.
2. If your water is bad, your brews will be bad, consistently.
3. Good quality water can drastically improve your brews.
4. Having one less variable in your brews allows you to more accurately tweak your recipes.

With these points in mind, let's look at what factors we need to be considering in our water in order for it to be optimised for brewing coffee.

Flavour

Almost all water contains a plethora of minerals. The amount of minerals in your water is referred to as its hardness or softness; the more minerals you have in your water, the harder it is and vice versa. This is measured as the total dissolved solids or TDS; the TDS of your water tells you what percentage of your water is dissolved compounds. Minerals in your water affect your coffee's flavour in two very distinct ways: minerals have their own unique flavour characteristics and minerals have a significant impact on your ability to extract coffee from the coffee grounds.

The taste of water

Let's start off with the obvious - we've all had tap water that tastes like chlorine, and it goes without saying that we don't want coffee that tastes like a swimming pool. The most common undesirable minerals found in water are chlorine and fluoride. Their largely unpleasant, chemical flavours are often strong enough to carry through the brew and can leave lingering unpleasant flavours. High quantities of metals such as iron can also result overpowering metallic flavours in your brew.

Not all minerals in water are bad though, and no minerals (distilled water) is worse (we'll get to that in the next section). Generally speaking, magnesium and calcium will improve the taste of your water and give it more texture. When applied to coffee, these two compounds will offer distinct differences in the body of your coffee, with calcium highlighting creamier, more textured body and magnesium highlighting a brew's vibrant and acidic characteristics. Of all the minerals found in water, magnesium is definitely the one that has the most notable positive impact.

Minerals such as salt can also act as flavour enhancers, activating certain taste receptors on the palate and making the flavour experience seem more full and nuanced. It might even bring new flavours forward. Having said this, these can quickly become overpowering and only the smallest amounts are desirable.

Water's effect on extraction

Minerals in water are also essential if you want to achieve good extraction of your coffee. To put it simply, the delicious compounds in coffee need something to bond to in order to be drawn out of the coffee grounds and into your drink. Water that is too soft or distilled water will result in low levels of extraction and coffee that lacks body and character.

Having said that, more definitely doesn't always equate to better. Water for coffee is a delicate balancing act. Although the right minerals have a positive impact on brewing, flavour and extraction there is a finite limit to the amount of soluble material that can be dissolved in water - ergo, if the water is too saturated with mineral ions, there will not be enough "room" for flavour compounds from the coffee to dissolve.

Water & your equipment

Limescale can be a massive issue when it comes to maintaining your coffee equipment. Limescale is a build-up of minerals inside your equipment that can have a huge impact on how well it works as well as its longevity. Limescale can build up on your heating elements, causing your machinery to become significantly less efficient, or inside your pipes, causing inconsistencies and even blockages.

This is where the double-edged sword of calcium comes into play. Calcium can be a wonderful compound for flavour, as it adds a distinct richness and texture to your coffee, however, calcium is the number one culprit in limescale buildup in automatic coffee machines. Although calcium is potentially desirable in manual brewing, it is something that you ideally want to avoid in your machines. It seems that all water is not created equal and how you're brewing can have an impact on what water you want to use.

Regardless of whether you are using hard or soft water in your coffee machines, limescale is something to be consistently aware of; even soft water will begin to cause issues over time. 

What is the solution (pun intended)

If you want the perfect water for coffee, there are a few options. Some take a little more work than others; it largely depends how much detail you're willing to go into and the amount of control you want to take.

DIY

If you fancy yourself a scientist, you can create your own water for coffee. You can experiment with adding various minerals, adjusting the TDS, tweaking the PH and creating the perfect water for your everyday brew. This option is no doubt for the extreme coffee nerd.

If this is something that interests you, the SCA has published guidelines on water for coffee, and this would be a great place to start. Check out the SCA's guidelines here.

Ion exchange filters

Ion exchange filters offer a fantastic everyday solution to improving the quality and consistency of your everyday drinking water. These filters remove unwanted chemicals and use an ion exchange to exchange minerals you don't want with minerals you do want. Essentially, the TDS of your water will remain mostly unchanged, but the compounds in the water will be far more suited to brewing tasty coffee.

We're particularly impressed by the BWT Penguin Water Filter. When stacked up against water designed specifically for specialty coffee on a cupping table, we actually found the BWT filter to offer the best tasting brew with several coffees.

Bottled water

Although we couldn't recommend this as a daily use case (the waste associated is astronomical), as a once off when you're out and about or on holiday, the right bottled water is a simple and accessible solution that will offer a great improvement on tap water.

It's all about the variables

Even though it might seem like an inconsequential thing, the impact of water on coffee will surprise you; everyone at CCB was quite taken aback by how much of a difference changing the water made in our HQ experiments. At the end of the day, brewing great coffee is all about managing variables; the realisation that water is not a constant (but with a little bit of work it can be) is a great step towards brewing better coffee every day. 

Leave your thoughts in the comments below. We'd love to hear about your experiments and experiences with water for coffee!

Many people are under the impression that drinking specialty coffee at home is out of reach. With bags of specialty coffee ranging from R100-R200 (and upwards for the really exotic stuff), and the initial cost of the setup being quite substantial a lot of people struggle to justify the costs of brewing specialty coffee at home.

The Economics Of Home Brewing

We've looked at the numbers and we disagree; after doing the maths, it actually turns out to be significantly cheaper. In fact, compared to drinking coffee at your local cafe or drinking capsule coffee, you can pay off an entry level home brewing setup in as little as a few months with just the money you save. If you would like to punch your own numbers in and do some of your own calculations, you can access our spreadsheet with all of our formulae here. Feel free to enter the details into your own version of the spreadsheet and see what your numbers deliver!

Below we have a number of specific scenarios that we have looked at. To start off, let's just look at a few assumptions we have made on the costs of coffee.  Most of this is based on averages, but if these numbers look way off from yours, try put yours into your own copy of the spreadsheet.

Basic Manual Brewing At Home vs Filter Coffee Out

What you need:

• Coffee maker
• Coffee grinder
• Scale

Given that this is the starting point, we looked at this scenario with a minimal, budget-friendly setup in mind. With the typical type of entry-level gear available, you can get a brewer, a grinder and a scale for just shy of R3000. Let's assume you would usually drink two cups of coffee a day, bought from a local cafe. The money spent on your home brew set-up will be made back in only three months! 

Obviously we understand that it's not just about the money, you might have a great relationship with your local cafe, and we think that's a great thing. It's actually still worth it if you want to split the difference and have one coffee at the cafe and and brew one at home. We adjusted the number of cups to one and the figures below show that if you do this, you will have the setup paid off within 5 months.

Although we looked at milk in our calculations, it made a negligible difference. The figures above were calculated using 18g of coffee per brew and drinking it black.

Batch Brew At Home vs Filter Coffee Out

What you need:

• Batch brew coffee maker
• Coffee grinder (you're probably going to want to go electric for this one)
• Scale

This option makes particular sense if there are a lot of people that need coffee! If you are feeding a family of coffee fanatics, or maybe live in a house share of coffee nerds, this is definitely a good option for you. A batch brewer, grinder and scale will set you back about R8000. The table below is based on 2 cups a day and shows that this setup will pay for itself in as little as 6 months.

Given that this setup is a great option for lots of coffee, we also looked at a scenario for a couple. If we double the number of cups per day, you suddenly have a really great setup that has been paid for in 3 months.

Basic Espresso Setup vs Espresso Coffee Out

What You Need:

• Entry Level Espresso Machine
• Entry Level Espresso Grinder

This is where we start to get to the big hitters and things start to get a little more interesting. The cost of milk in lattes and flat whites begin to make a big difference in the operating costs; they really do add up! Our assumptions here are based on a Rancilio Home Espresso Bundle which, at the time of writing this, will set you back in the region of R22000. We know it might seem like quite a chunk of change but based on 2 flat whites a day (using a standard 18g dose), this will be completely recouped in as little as 18 months. Given that this type of equipment can last many years if well cared for, this makes it a good investment!

High-End Espresso Setup vs Espresso Coffee Out

What You Need:

• High-End Domestic Espresso Machine
• High-End Domestic Espresso Grinder

The ultra premium domestic espresso setup really is a labour of love. Even with the savings you will make brewing at home, it is a long journey to pay off. This sort of set-up is for the real espresso enthusiast who is willing to dedicate time and energy into making the best coffee possible. It's tricky to put numbers to this setup; what we would consider a "high-end" domestic espresso setup ranges from in the region of R30,000 all the way up to R250,000 for the BEST everything. For argument's sake, let's use a ~R60,000 setup. Based on 2 x 18g flat whites a day, this espresso machine will pay itself off in 43 months. It's hard work, but if you love espresso, it is definitely worth it!

The Capsule Argument

We also included capsule coffee in our calculations. There are a few points about capsule coffee that you should be aware of. On the surface, it seems that capsule coffee is quite affordable, and in some cases, even more affordable than manual brewing. The graph below shows the cost of capsules (based on the price of a popular brand), compared to the cost of brewing a cup at home, however this cost is an illusion.

Most capsules only contain about 5g-7g of ground coffee; this is quite a vast difference to the 17g-20g used to brew most filter or espresso-based drinks. The calculation above shows the cost difference based on a one-to-one ratio. It treats one 15g manual brew as the same thing as one 5g capsule. Of course, not all coffees are created equal. The reality is that one capsule does not contain the same amount of coffee (or caffeine for that matter) as one manual brew. In the table below, we have included a calculation which adjusts the capsule cost to the same quantity of coffee. In other words, 1 x 15g cup coffee = 3 x 5g capsules.

As you can see, when you take into account the difference in the amount of coffee and the fact that you will not be satisfied with a 1:1 comparison of cups of coffee to capsules of coffee, it quickly becomes apparent that capsules are quite astronomically expensive. We included the cost of the capsule machine in our break even point calculation.

The Major Players

This has proven an interesting experiment for us. It helped us to realise that things are not quite as black and white as we thought they were. For example, we were convinced that milk would be a big deal, it turns out that while it has an substantial impact in the cost of flat whites and lattes, we were surprised that a drop of milk in your filter coffee is pretty much negligible, but we're still going to encourage you to drink it black.

Another surprising factor was that the cost of your coffee makes very little difference in the bigger picture. Using R120 coffee vs using R150 coffee has a difference of 27 to 29 months to pay off a R60,000 setup and makes no discernible difference in the time taken to pay off smaller setups. Brewing your own coffee will actually allow you to purchase more expensive specialty coffees. Isn't that a fantastic thing to realise?!

Another factor that proved to be far more significant than we'd initially thought was the adjusted cost of capsule coffee. At the same cost as a coffee in a cafe, capsule coffee just is not worth the money! If you're happy drinking just 5g of coffee a time (and don't mind it stale), then capsules might be for you, but if you want a proper cup, you're going to need another solution.

At the end of the day, the biggest factor that impacts how long it would take to pay off your setup was the number of cups you drink per day. The more coffee you drink, the bigger the incentive to make at least some of your coffees at home (and the fancier the coffee gear that you can justify buying)!

Final Thoughts

With all the numbers in front of us, we think that specialty coffee in the comfort of your own home is accessible to most of us, at least those that regularly drink coffee out. We kept the setup costs to the bare minimum here, but if you have been bitten by the coffee bug, you can keep going and upgrade your setup to include fancy carafes, pouring kettles and multiple types of brew methods. It seems that the economics of home brewing can easily justify it.

With that being said, we don't want this to be all about the money. While there are obvious benefits to your wallet when it comes to home brewing, there are also other benefits that are a little more difficult to quantify. Home brewing offers you the opportunity to learn a new skill and explore coffee brewing with newfound fervour. It will allow you to try different coffees of different processing methods, origins and roasters more easily. It will also get you involved in the sometimes frustrating but often rewarding process of getting those wonderful flavours out of those little beans. Our hopes are that it will take your appreciation of this wonderful beverage to a whole new level.

Once you’ve worked in the coffee industry for a while, it’s basically unavoidable. You will wind up participating in conversations about how coffee is just like wine. If you work in coffee in Cape Town, a city that is surrounded by world-class vineyards, it’s probably even more inevitable. I have to confess, I’ve probably been the one to lead a discussion on the parallels more than a handful of times over the years.

There are good reasons for these comparisons to come up of course. I think the coffee industry may be particularly fond of them because, whether due to longevity or better marketing, the wine industry has arguably done a better job of communicating with the public about how to appreciate the nuance, complexity and variety in wine. It’s helpful to use wine as an analogy when we specialty coffee lovers talk about terroir, fermentation, plant varieties, farming practices, and all these things that influence flavour in both of our beloved beverages.

My colleague Matt, has done a great job of expanding on some of these similarities in his companion blog post: 6 Reasons Why Coffee Is Just Like Wine.

Despite all those similarities and helpful parallels, I’ve found myself thinking more about what’s different between coffee and wine recently though. This may be a reaction to conversations I’ve had where people (who are in neither industry) have tried to draw conclusions about how to expand specialty coffee in South Africa, based on observations about what they see happening in wine around the world. They’re both specialty beverages derived from single crops, so the dynamics of the industries must be the same right?!

I don’t think so.

The more I’ve thought about it, the more I’ve realised how fundamentally different coffee and wine are, particularly from the perspective of the dynamics of the industry. There may be parallels in the influences on flavour, and there may be lessons to learn from the wine industry on how to communicate about flavour with the public, but the coffee industry is a fundamentally different beast. I think that understanding these differences is important both to the enjoyment of and success in coffee. Here are some of the most important ones.

1. Age is not coffee’s friend

Let’s start with an obvious (though not often reflected on) difference. Coffee lives fast and dies young. Most wines will have a couple of years in them once they’ve been bottled. Some will last the better part of a decade. Some of the best wines will be great for generations. I’ve tasted wine that was older than I was at the time. Thankfully, I haven’t had to go through that experience with coffee.

Roasted coffee will taste good for 4-6 weeks from roast on average. If it’s roasted dark, used for espresso, or perhaps just a coffee that seems to be in a rush, it can be a lot less than that. Even unroasted, coffees really only last 1-2 years. You’re basically never going to taste a coffee that wasn’t grown and harvested within the last handful of years, at least not a good one.

Why does this matter? It fundamentally changes the nature of consumption and conversation around coffee. For starters, no one is ever going to build a collection of coffee beans (at least I hope not) but many wine lovers will have their collection of wine. To add insult to injury, some of those stashed wines may actually be improving in quality as they sit there, provided the conditions are right and it’s a wine made to age. I don’t think any coffee is improving past a couple of weeks from roast date, or a few months from harvest.

How does this play out for coffee lovers? It means that a lot of the time, when you’re waxing lyrical about the amazing coffee you discovered a couple of weeks ago to your friend, you don’t actually have any more of it! Either you or your friend have to go get another bag, freshly roasted, and that’s only possible if the roaster still has more of that coffee. Inevitably, that coffee will disappear, and you will never try that lot again. You may never even try that farm’s coffee again. That’s just the ephemeral nature of specialty coffee.

2. The growers and makers of coffee are not the same people

For most of the specialty end of the wine industry, the people who grow the wine and make the wine are the same people. At the very least, they are part of the same company. Of course, there are exceptions, but generally speaking, wine is made on the vineyard that grew it. That has huge implications for how wine is made, traded and sought out.

Lovers of wine will know the vineyards that produce their favourites. Those predilections will unconsciously be associated with all aspects of wine production, from the variety, to the farming techniques, to the winemaking practices. Coffee lovers may discover their favourite roasters (as they should) and return to them for trusted guidance on what to drink, but those roasters will be offering up coffees grown by dozens of different farmers from around the world, and that selection will be constantly changing. Don’t get me wrong, I think this is part of the fun of coffee, but it’s a fundamentally different experience.

3. There’s one more key step in the production chain

There are of course dozens, if not hundreds of steps in the production of both wine and coffee. I don’t mean to oversimplify; however, if you look at these at a macro level, the reality is that coffee has at least one more important one.

Like wine, coffee is grown, harvested, processed & “made”, but unlike wine, that “made” part needs to be split into two parts. Coffee first needs to be roasted, and then it needs to be brewed. These are both critical steps and essential prerequisites to the enjoyment of a good cup of coffee. The reality is that this makes the production chain more complex. It introduces an exponentially larger amount of possible combinations of variables that may influence the beverage’s flavour, and this is in comparison to an already very complex beverage!

4. You actually need to make coffee!

It’s definitely worth zeroing in on this last step in coffee’s production chain as well. This may sound incredibly obvious, but the fact that you need to make coffee just before consuming it is an absolutely massive difference to the world of wine. Sometimes I envy people in the wine industry on this point. All their customers have to do is open the bottle and drink it. Maybe they have to serve it at the right temperature; they probably should buy some decent glasses, but really, it’s relatively hard for them to screw it up.

In coffee, on the other hand, you could hand someone the very best bag of beans you ever tasted, and they could make something horrible with it if they didn’t know what they were doing. You can’t make a great cup of coffee from bad beans, but you sure can make a terrible cup of coffee from excellent beans. Tragic, isn’t it?

This problem is compounded by the fact that there are dozens, if not hundreds, heck, if not thousands of ways to make coffee. Even worse, each one tastes a bit different! Someone can taste a great wine at a farm or a restaurant, and buy a bottle of that wine and enjoy pretty much the same flavour experience at home. Most people will never get close to replicating the same flavour experience that they have in a cafe at home.

5. Serving great coffee requires equipment

Part of the challenge of replicating those flavour experiences is skill, no doubt, but the other part is equipment. Coffee makers and grinders vary in price and complexity but you need at least one of each to make your coffee. What does someone need to enjoy a glass of wine at home? Basically, just a mouth; maybe a corkscrew, but even that is going out of fashion.

This is where the coffee industry often gets snagged, because what do specialty cafes use to make coffee? They use machines that cost more than your car did. Is it surprising then that many drinkers of coffee decide that they really can only enjoy high quality coffee when they’re out? I personally believe that they’re mistaken, but I don’t blame them for thinking that. The coffee equipment required is a serious impediment to the widespread appreciation of specialty coffee at home, albeit one that we’re working on!

6. Milk & sugar

Man, have I got beef with milk and sugar. The latter has an outright ban at Cape Coffee Beans HQ, and while I’ve relented on the former, no one gets to consume milk in their coffee without a quip from me about milk being a substance that exists to turn small cows into big ones.

Our task in the coffee industry is seriously hampered by the fact that the vast majority of the people who drink our beloved beverage love to mix it with other things. Why?! Imagine if the wine industry needed to contend with huge amounts of people sweetening or diluting their products with other drinks. I suppose the whisky industry can probably sympathise with us here.

We have a real challenge in coffee. Most people don’t like coffee, they like coffee-flavoured sweetened milk. Maybe they would like coffee, if they’d ever tried a decent example of it, but the reality is that most people react to the mention of black coffee with a face that looks like they just smelled a fart. They are probably remembering that one time that they had one sip of black instant or crappy robusta-based grocery store blends because they somehow managed to run out of both milk and sugar at the same time.

The wine industry is lucky not to have to contend with a cultural norm of adulterating their product. This is one thing that I particularly envy, because the reality is that once you put milk and sugar in them, the differences between good and bad coffees are definitely muted.

Coffee... It's complicated

If you’ve made it to the end of this writing rant (a wrant maybe?) you’re probably thinking, “sheesh, coffee is complicated!”

Bingo! Coffee is really complicated.

That is both a blessing and a curse. It offers a wonderful world of nuance, variety and exploration. It allows the consumer to participate in the process in a way that I don’t think any wine lover would even think of. The challenge is that it makes the barriers to entry into the wonderful world of speciality coffee quite a bit higher. It makes marketing and growing the industry and individual businesses much more challenging. It can make specialty coffee seem less accessible, and even make some less educated consumers doubt the value of what is on the other side of that barrier.

Thankfully, there are more and more of us who get it, and who are helping to spread the word. Yes, it’s complicated, but it’s definitely worth it!

About the author

Phaedon is the founder of Cape Coffee Beans. He's a former strategy consultant turned eCommerce guy who came to South Africa for 6 months and wound up staying a decade (and counting). Back in 2013, he decided to try to turn a budding interest in coffee into a business and so Cape Coffee Beans was born. These days he spends most of his time thinking about how to expand the reach of specialty coffee in South Africa. He's also pretty partial to a good glass of South African wine.

Initially, this blog post began with the title 6 reasons why coffee is nothing like wine. As you might have noticed, the topic of the blog has changed slightly. I'm Matt, the new(ish) marketing guy at Cape Coffee Beans, and I love coffee (particularly interesting and experimental coffee). I also love wine (particularly interesting and experimental wine). When Phaedon (the boss) suggested we write a blog post on why coffee is nothing like wine, I thought this was a great idea. That is until I began to write it, and I quickly realised that I think that coffee is quite a lot like wine.

So instead of the initial idea, I am writing this blog post with 6 reasons why coffee is just like wine and Phaedon is writing another blog post - 6 Reasons Why Coffee Is Nothing Like Wine. We'll let you read them both and make up your own mind, and we'd love to hear your thoughts!

So without further ado, here are 6 reasons why coffee is just like wine.

1. Flavour

Every time a coffee lover hears the expression “it just tastes like coffee”, something inside of us dies a little. If you are a wine lover, I’m pretty sure it’s tantamount to the expression “it tastes like red/white wine”. The reality is that coffee, like wine, is complex and nuanced, with a myriad of flavours to be found, explored and tasted.

You might be thinking to yourself “but wine has things like sommeliers and entire careers dedicated to professional tasting and quality control.” Well, coffee has these as well. They are called Q-graders, and they are highly respected within the industry. Admittedly, these sorts of careers in coffee are very much still in their infancy, but there is no doubt that they will evolve as the industry comes into its own.

2. Variety

I’m sure you’ve all heard the names of various grape varieties used in wine; words like Sauvignon Blanc or Merlot are firmly engrained in most of our vocabularies. Some of you might not know that the same amount of variation occurs in coffee fruit and with this variation comes very distinct flavour profiles. There are the more common varieties such as Bourbon and Caturra, then there are the highly prized and notoriously difficult to grow varieties such as Gesha, not to mention the rare and exotic varietals like Marogogype or Pacas, and there are even laboratory-developed varieties such SL28 or SL34. In short, there is no shortage of diversity.

Coffee lovers around the world are only just beginning to pay more attention to the coffee variety that they are drinking, but as the supply chain becomes more transparent and we have access to more information about our coffees, these details will become increasingly important. 

3. Viticulture & Wine Making

This leads us quite nicely to the topic of viticulture - the study of wine farming. Each variety needs specific attention and care. Some coffees grow better in sunlight, others in shade. Certain varieties are disease resistant, and others you need to be wary of. With so much variety and specialty coffee farming being a relatively new branch of the coffee industry, there is very little formal education in this field. The best education you can get in coffee farming is to study viticulture. Although the specifics might be different, the overarching agricultural concepts still apply! Many viticulture professionals are having a huge influence in the coffee-growing world and many people who studied viticulture are finding themselves more and more drawn into the world of coffee farming. 

Not only does the study of wine growing help coffee farmers, but due to the controlled fermentation that is needed to process coffee, knowledge of winemaking can also be invaluable to coffee producers. If you're interested in reading more on coffee processing, check out our blog post on the topic.

6. Culture

The cultural impact of coffee is going through a bit of a renaissance at the moment. For years, cafes were viewed in a similar vein to fast food joints: get in, get your fix, get out and get on with your day. This mentality is changing drastically. Cafes are becoming social hubs of the community, places for people to meet up, catch up, and spend time together. In a large way, the cafe is replacing the bar as the go-to gathering place. This is happening to such an extent, that cafes have begun to extend their opening hours into the evening and even started selling wine.

While there still is the existence of “fast food cafes” (for lack of a better term), the emergence of this new type of cafe, a cafe that is interested in flavour, quality and experience, has largely blurred the line of where cafes end and bars begin. The only inherent difference in the experience of going out for a glass of wine or going out for a cup of coffee is the liquid in your glass and perhaps the time of day. Although this is a relatively new culturural phenomenon in South Africa, this has largely been the norm in European countries since cafes began, and I, for one, am very excited about its arrival.

What's the point?

Well done, if you managed to get through my meandering thoughts on coffee and wine, I think we've both done a good job. Although, at this point, I'm sure you are wondering (as am I), what is the point of this blog post.

After some reflection, I think the point is that there is no such thing as "just coffee". It is diverse and interesting and the industry is blossoming into this beautiful behemoth with so much to offer!

There is so much to be gained if we start treating how we purchase coffee the way we treat purchasing wine; we all have our favourite wine grapes, some of us have a favourite wine region, many of us love wine produced by certain farms and producers. Let's start paying attention to these similar (albeit also quite different) details in our coffee. Let's learn about our coffee's story. Let's not just have a favourite roaster, but a favourite origin, variety, producer and process! 

I have to give credit where it's due, Phaedon said it perfectly succinctly in his blog post "Coffee... It's complicated".

About the author

Matt began his coffee journey as a humble barista. After working his way up through the years to eventually running a coffee roastery in Ireland, he realised that as much as he loved (and was mildly obsessed with) making coffee, he loved talking about it far more! This spurred a bit of sidestep in his coffee career where he moved into marketing and joined the team at Cape Coffee Beans where he gets to wax lyrical about the wonders of coffee all day long.

What is coffee processing

As you might know, coffee grows as a fruit that looks very similar to a cherry; it is in fact called a coffee cherry. This fruit contains a thin layer of fleshy fruit and usually two seeds. These seeds are what we know as coffee beans. Coffee processing quite simply refers to the method used to extract these seeds from the fruit. This process has a huge impact on the coffee it produces. It impacts every step of the coffee's journey from the farm to the roast to the brew.

Most notably, the processing method will affect the flavour of the coffee in a drastic way, not necessarily making it better or worse but making it taste significantly different. It also affects the density and sugar content of the coffee, meaning that roasters will need to approach how they roast these coffees completely differently. Lastly, different processing methods often lend themselves to being brewed differently, not referring to brew methods as such, but more to the nuances of one's brew recipe.

This article will explore the different processing methods, what they entail and what you can expect from them in the cup.

Natural processing / dry method

The method

The natural process is the oldest coffee processing method, dating back thousands of years to ancient Ethiopia. Naturally processed coffees are picked, sorted and laid out to dry in the sun. This means that the coffee cherry dries with all of the fruit still intact. The dried flesh of the cherry is then mechanically removed, leaving the green coffee, ready to be roasted.

Leaving the sugary flesh of the fruit intact during this process, leads to the fruit and coffee bean undergoing a lot more fermentation. While this fermentation can be desirable and lead to incredible tasting coffee, it requires intense monitoring and expertise to get right. If the layer of coffee is too thick, the fermentation can turn to rot; if the coffee is not turned often enough, the underside of fruit can develop mildew; if it is turned too often, you can stall the fermentation. It is a delicate art, but when done right, the reward is superb.

The natural process is the longest and most labour intensive as it can take up 4 weeks for the coffee cherries to dry sufficiently and the beans to reach the required moisture content of around 11% for export.

Cafe Imports gives an example of natural coffee processing in Ethiopia

What to expect in the cup

Drying the coffee in direct contact with all the sugars in the fruit gives natural coffees a noticeable and accessible sweetness, while the fermentation that it undergoes leads to these coffees having an intense and full-bodied mouthfeel. This sweetness and body mean that they are often favoured in espresso-style brews and would make a good option for those who enjoy milk in their coffee.

Natural coffees which are grown at a high altitude usually have berry-forward tasting notes (often intense blueberry or strawberry), while those grown at a lower altitude lend themselves towards chocolate, caramel and nutty flavours. Occasionally, the fermentation comes through in the taste of the coffee with a boozy sweetness reminiscent of sherry or late harvest wine.

When done well, fermentation can be used to highlight sweetness and fruitiness and add a lovely rounded body to a cup. This body and sweetness can come at a slight trade-off however, as natural coffees tend to have a much lower acidity than washed coffees. While this might seem like a good thing, the acidity in coffee is often what leads to the complexities of flavour in the cup. Without this acidity, naturally processed coffees can lack the diversity of other processing methods but when done with the meticulous attention to detail that you can see from an experienced producer, the additional sweetness can highlight the acidity while bringing balance to the cup.

In recent years, we have seen a resurgence in the popularity of natural coffees. This is due to a number of factors. We've seen producers begin to experiment with fermentation which has, in turn, led to some exceptionally exciting and unique coffees. Furthermore, the accessible sweetness and intensity of flavour found in naturally processed coffee mean that it tends to be a firm favourite for people new to the world of specialty coffee; you don't need an experienced palate or have a wealth of knowledge and understanding to have a coffee that tastes like a fruit bomb.

Check out all our natural coffees here.

Washed processing / wet method

The method

Washed coffee processing, also known as wet-processing, is the most common method of processing coffee in the world today. The process begins, as with most high-quality coffee production, with handpicking the ripest coffee cherries. These cherries are then sorted for defects (a simple float test - the cherries are submerged in water and defective cherries which float to the surface are then discarded) and de-pulped using a mechanical pulper. What is left at this point is a coffee bean covered in a sticky layer of fruit.

As with all processing, fermentation is a necessary part of the process, however, with washed coffee, the goal is to keep the fermentation as short and as controlled as possible. Fermentation helps to break down the sticky fruit layer (know as mucilage) and to help remove it from the coffee bean. There are two main ways to achieve this: either leaving the coffee to dry ferment, once it is de-pulped, or submerging it to ferment in water. The method used generally depends on the climate and coffee processing traditions of the region.

Once fermentation has reached an optimal level, the coffee beans are then submerged in a washing tank and left anywhere from a few hours to a few days, until all the fruit has been removed and what is left is a clean coffee bean. Some producers will wash their coffee multiple times to ensure that all the mucilage is removed

At this point, the coffee is laid out to dry. Producers must pay close attention to the drying stage of processing, turning the coffee regularly, as it is imperative that the coffee dries evenly and that mould or bacteria isn't allowed to grow on the coffee beans. Once the coffee beans reach ~11% moisture content (this varies in time depending on climate and whether the producer chooses to dry in direct sunlight, with a parabolic drier or shade dry the coffee), they are ready to be packaged and shipped. 

One of the downsides of this processing method is that it uses a significant amount of water that needs considerable processing before it can be returned to the local water table. As such, this method can pose problems in regions that don't have an abundance of water.

Cafe Imports gives an example of washed coffee processing in Peru

What to expect in the cup

Washed coffees are prized for their clarity, acidity and unique flavour profiles. They are able to achieve much more definitive origin characteristics; for example, a washed Ethiopian can produce intense florals and stone fruit flavours, while a Kenyan will give you bright grapefruit and raspberry and a Colombian can taste like a tropical melon salad. These coffees tend to be vibrant and bright with clear fruity acidity and layers of complexity.

Because these coffee beans spend less time in contact with the sugars, their sweetness is often more subtle and nuanced. Having said that, they tend to have a much higher acidity which can lead to higher perceived sweetness; for example, if you taste notes of raspberry in your coffee, you will associate this flavour with sweetness and, while the coffee won't have any more sugar compounds, it will seem to taste sweeter.

This ability to highlight the origin characteristics and more intricate flavours have led many coffee aficionados to believe that with washed coffee, you are tasting the coffee: the origin, the terroir, the bean varietal, the altitude; whereas with other processing methods, the dominant flavours come from the processing.

This brighter acidity, clarity and more nuanced flavour, often make washed coffees preferable on lighter brew methods that highlight the more delicate flavour profiles and complexity that can be found in these coffees.

Check out all our washed coffee here.

Pulped natural and honey processes

The pulped natural method

The pulped natural processing was developed in the '90s in Brazil. It came about when producers wanted to maintain the clarity and vibrance of washed coffee while achieving the body and sweetness found in naturally processed coffee. The result is the pulped natural process, a hybrid of the washed and natural processes.

In this process, the coffee cherry is de-pulped, similarly to in the washed process, leaving a layer of mucilage (sticky, sugary and mineral rich flesh from the coffee cherry fruit) on the coffee bean. These coffee beans are then laid out to dry. Leaving the flesh of the fruit on the coffee bean during this stage allows more fermentation to occur than in the washed process but less fermentation than with naturally processed coffees. Similarly to the previous processing methods, this stage of the process requires meticulous attention to detail to ensure that over-fermentation doesn't occur and that the beans dry evenly

Once the coffee beans reach the desired moisture content of ~11%, the mucilage, which has now turned into a dry husk, is mechanically removed and the beans are ready to be packaged and transported.

The honey processing method

In recent years, a group of Costa Rican producers began experimenting with controlling the pulped natural process. This resulted in the birth of the honey process. The differentiating factor between the two processes is controlling precisely how much mucilage is left on the coffee bean and how long it is fermented for. This allows further control on where between the washed and the natural processes the final coffee would lie. The following is what we ended up with.

Yellow honey: Yellow honey is processed with the smallest amount mucilage remaining on the coffee, roughly 25%, and is dried as quickly as possible in order to mitigate fermentation. Due to water shortages in Costa Rica, this process was primarily developed to be as similar to the washed process as possible, without having the water waste.

Red honey: The red honey process maintains about 50% mucilage on the coffee bean and is designed to provide an even balance between the characteristics of a washed coffee and those of a natural coffee. The producer can choose to dry these coffees quicker or slower in order to achieve more or less fermented flavours.

Black honey: Lastly, we have the black honey process. This is very similar to the natural process as it involves leaving 100% of the mucilage intact. The results are coffees with intense body and sweetness that share a lot of characteristics with naturally processed coffee.

Cafe Imports gives an example of honey processing methods in Costa Rica

A lot of producers believe that this processing method is where the future of coffee lies. The ability fine-tune the balance of sweetness, body and acidity in the final cup gives producers more control of the flavours in the coffee than they have ever had before. Furthermore, being a low waste processing method adds to its popularity with producers.

What to expect In the cup

It's hard to be specific about what to expect from these coffees as pulped natural and honey processed coffees cover such a broad spectrum of approaches and flavours. What we can say is that you can expect a cup that maintains the delicate clarity of washed coffees while bringing to the table the body and sweetness found in naturals. These tend to be beautifully balanced and delicious coffees that have a lot to offer in any brew method.

Check out all our pulped natural and honey processed coffees here.

Final thoughts

As is the case with a product as diverse as coffee, nothing is set in stone. While coffees of certain processing methods do tend in certain sensory directions, that does not mean that you can't get a vibrant and floral natural coffee with fruity acidity or a bold and sticky, sweet washed coffee.

Brewing and roasting have gone through an incredible renaissance in the last few decades, and we are now able to achieve things that we never knew were possible. We are seeing this mindset of progression and experimentation carry through to the coffee producers, and the results are increasingly delicious and varied. The world of coffee processing is no longer as simple as washed and natural coffees; we are seeing unique styles of fermentation such as anaerobic fermentation and more control over variables such as in the honey processes. The consistency and quality improvements we are seeing as a result of this are huge. It really is an exciting time to be a coffee lover and an even more exciting time to begin your journey into the world of specialty coffee.

Building a team definitely had some fits and starts. There were short term interns, quite a few mis-hires, and a steep learning curve on what managing a business, including the all-important human element, was really all about. With time, I started to figure it out, and before long the team started to come together.
Today, in the midst of the South African lockdown, I have six people who work with me full time. You can see them in the photo below, which we took just before the lockdown started. They range in time at Cape Coffee Beans from three months to two years, but each and every one of them has been amazing in the face of the current, very challenging circumstances.

The Cape Coffee Beans Team, March 2020
From left to right: Michaela, Theseus, Daleel, Me (Phaedon), Benry, Nicholas, Matt

I’m writing this on May 1st, 2020, Workers’ Day, which feels like an appropriate time to reflect on the importance of the people who work for me. Just yesterday, the South African Treasury released an estimate that up to 7 million South Africans might lose their jobs as a result of the lockdown. Even if that proves to be an overestimate, I believe that even a fraction of that is something to mourn. I am committed to doing everything in my power to ensure that my six colleagues aren’t among those people.

Cape Coffee Beans has been hit quite hard by the current government-imposed restrictions, and one of the most difficult parts of that reality for me is the potential threat to my ability to take care of my team. I am very lucky though, because every one of them has risen to the challenge we are facing and as a result, after 35 days of lockdown, I feel pretty optimistic about our ability to get through it all together.

My team has worked tirelessly and enthusiastically in the face of economic uncertainty. They’re all working by themselves, either at home, or at an empty CCBHQ for the team member who is packing all the coffee orders by himself. They’re a young bunch (I’m definitely the old guy) but they’ve demonstrated incredible maturity in how they have taken this situation in their stride. I shouldn’t be surprised; they had already demonstrated their resilience in working with a pretty demanding boss. It’s thanks to their efforts that I feel much more confident that we can navigate these uncharted waters.

So today, on International Workers’ Day, I’d like to say a public thank you to all of them. I’d also like to reiterate my commitment to seeing each one of them through the economic crisis ahead. It’s a commitment I feel much more able to make, because of their collective work and help. Please join me in showing them some appreciation. They deserve it.

Phaedon
Founder of Cape Coffee Beans

This is by no means a definitive list, and we should mention that these are just some of our personal favourites. We haven't included any of the companies that we work with, but you are already following them, aren't you?

People:

Matt Perger

Matt Perger is the World Brewers Cup Champion (2011) and the World Coffee In Good Spirits champion (2014). He is also the founder of St. Ali Coffee Company (Melbourne, AU) and the founder of Barista Hustle. Barista Hustle is a coffee blog that takes a scientific approach towards documenting and improving coffee flavour through improving extraction and consistency. Perger's scientific approach towards coffee brewing and coffee extraction has been turning heads since he founded Barista Hustle.

Over and above this constant drive to improve coffee, Perger is the undisputed king of coffee memes. If you love coffee and fancy a bit of a laugh, head over to his instagram! He's on and off of various online platforms, but we will link his website where he'll try to keep you updated on where to keep up with him.

James Hoffman

James Hoffman has been at the forefront of the specialty coffee industry since he took home gold at the 2007 World Barista Championship. He is a coffee writer, coffee blogger, coffee vlogger and the founder and owner of Square Mile Coffee Company in London.

His approach to coffee is informative but also directed at the the people, not the professionals. The World Atlas of Coffee is an amazing resource for any coffee lover; it discusses coffee in depth but without any of the jargon or technical terms that make a lot of specialty coffee concepts seem inaccessible to the average coffee drinker. 

The content that Hoffman puts out that we love the most is his coffee vlog on Youtube. It's as informative as his writing, but he brings some wit and fun and that wonderfully dry english sense of humour. If you are into coffee, James Hoffman is definitely worth checking out

Patrick Rolf

A slightly more obscure entry, and someone who might not have the same celebrity status (yes there are coffee celebrities) as some of the other entries, is Patrick Rolf, founder and owner of April Coffee in Copenhagen and host to one the most in depth and informative coffee podcasts that we have come across.

Rolf's podcast, Coffee with April, hosts some of the most influential coffee professionals in the world. From the founders of some of Europe's most prestigious coffee companies to barista champions, writers and progressive specialty coffee farmers. The discussions are passionate and informative stories of individuals' (often uphill) journeys through the early era of third wave coffee culture. It is interesting, entertaining and inspiring for anyone interested in the specialty coffee industry. 

Chris Baca

Chris Baca has a decade of experience in the world of specialty coffee. He cut his teeth working his way up the ranks at Verve Coffee, and in 2015 he co-founded Cat and Cloud - a values-based coffee company whose main goal is to leave people feeling happier than it found them.

He co-hosts a podcast and has a great youtube channel where he discusses what it means to be a values-based business and to constantly strive to add value to both customers' and employees' lives. All these discussions happen through the eyes of a coffee company and take on many forms, from how to make better coffee to how to be a good boss and all sorts of things in between.

Baca is a great one to follow, not only from a "how to make better coffee" perspective, but also from a "how to be the best version of yourself" perspective.

Not People:

Perfect Daily Grind

Perfect Daily Grind is the closest thing there is to a coffee university. Whether you are a barista, a roaster, or even now as a blogger and home brewer, Perfect Daily Grind is the number one resources and source of education for coffee professionals and coffee hobbyists alike .

Sprudge

Unlike Perfect Daily Grind, Sprudge's focus is more on specialty coffee as a lifestyle product. Cool cafes, exciting new products and equipment, brands worth following and coffee events is where their focus mostly lies. If you want to get more involved in the coffee industry and community, this is the place to start.

Honourable Mentions

We had quite a long list to whittle down to these six, and so we thought we would include a few honourable mentions that are no doubt very interesting people in the world of coffee, but weren't quite right for this list.

• Tim Wendleboe - Owner and founder to what is considered by many to be one of the best coffee roasters in the world
• Steve Leighton - Founder of HasBean coffee and host to the Youtube show "In My Mug".
• Colin Harmon - Author of "What I know About Running Coffee Shops" and Co-Founder of 3FE Coffee, Dublin
• Scott Rao - Highly opinionated coffee roaster, consultant, writer and blogger. Rao wrote what is, to this day, the most comprehensive handbook on roasting coffee.
• Oli Bradshaw - The epitome of dry British humour through the lens of specialty coffee. 
• Winston Douglas - Three time South African Barista Champion. Coffee Trainer and consultant.

The original idea for this blog post was "what do you actually need to brew great coffee at home", but after half a paragraph and 3 bullet points, the blog was finished. The reality is, as much as we all love our fancy toys and brewers, and a lot of us enjoy nerding out on coffee science, you need very few things to make great coffee at home.

With that in mind, we've put together a list of the different types of home brewer you can be and what your set ups might look like. With a bit variable control and good quality fresh coffee beans, all these home brew set ups will deliver a delicious cup of coffee! The question is, how deep down the coffee rabbit hole have you gone?

The No Frills Brewer

You wake up, and you want coffee. It's as simple as that. You want it fast, you want it simple, and you want it to taste damn good. Well, now is the time to dig out that dusty old french press in the back of your cupboard! The french press is like that old uncle at family gatherings who, despite being quite dated and a bit dusty, he always brings a spot of joy, and everyone loves him!

What is needed:

• Good quality, freshly roasted coffee
• A burr grinder
• A french press
• A timer
• A scale (Highly recommended, but in a pinch a measuring scoop will do)
• A go get 'em attitude!

If you want to go into a little more detail, check out our french press brew guide here.

The Discerning Consumer

So, you've dabbled in coffee a fair bit, you have your favourite roaster, you love your Aeropress, and you understand that, with a little bit of attention to detail, your coffee can be amazing! You have nailed your recipe; it's part of your daily routine, and it brings you a little bit of joy every morning! The Aeropress is your best friend, and it delivers, without fail, every time!

What is needed:

• Good quality, freshly roasted coffee
• A burr grinder
• An Aeropress
• Aeropress filters
• A gooseneck kettle
• A scale
• A timer
• A healthy curiosity towards specialty coffee

The Aeropress is an amazing brewing device. It is practical, easy and versatile. If you love your Aeropress and want to do even more with it, check out our brew guide on how to make an Aeropress for two.

The Coffee Nerd

You are really into coffee! You probably have quite a few different brewers at home. You love getting into the minutia of each and every brew. You've probably thought about competing the brewers cup or the Aeropress championships - maybe you even have competed. No doubt, this love affair with home brewed coffee began with the Hario V60 dripper.

What is needed:

• Good quality. freshly roasted coffee
• An electric grinder (you've done your time with a manual grinder)
• A Hario V60 dripper
• A Hario Range Server
• V60 Filters
• A variable temperature kettle
• A scale
• A bit of patience and a lot of attention to detail

Many specialty coffee connoisseurs and master home brewers began their coffee journey with the Hario V60. Why not check out how CCB brews a V60 with our brew guide.

The Coffee Hipster

Let's be honest with ourselves here; a lot of the coffee equipment you see out there is gorgeous. While each of the items on the list below is no doubt at the top of its class in quality and will definitely add value to your brews, there is almost always a more affordable option. Having said that, if you are the type of coffee brewer who is looking for the best of the best and a designer brew set up, to match your designer kitchen, then look no further.

What is needed:

• Good quality, freshly roasted coffee
• Chemex brewer
• Chemex filters
• An Acaia Pearl scale
• A Comandante grinder (Coming to CCB soon)
• The Felicita Smart Kettle
• A top-knot and rimmed glasses (optional; not for sale at CCB)

Forgive the sass, I am probably just jealous that I don't have a set-up this beautiful in my kitchen! If this is you, I imagine you don't need a brew guide - but why not check out our blog on seven factors that influence coffee's flavour? 

The Newbie Barista

From the moment you received that first flat white with a perfect rosetta in it, you wanted more. You had your first sip and the sweet and delicate but deliciously creamy drink was almost overwhelming. This is now all that you drink, and you have been spending your days perfecting those espresso shots and that latte art!

What is needed:

• Good quality, freshly roasted coffee
• A Rancilio Rocky Espresso Grinder
• A Rancilio Silvia Espresso Machine
• A tamper
• Acceptance for the fact that coffee snobs might judge you for drinking milk

If you have started down this journey and you need some guidance, we have put together a beginner's guide to making espresso!

The Prosumer

You remember the good old days back in college when this coffee obsession started. At first, it was just to keep you awake through exams, but 6 months later, you were wearing flannel shirts and slinging espressos in your local corner cafe. It was the early days of the third wave coffee revolution, and everyday was exciting. Unfortunately, college came to an end, and you had to get that career rolling, but there is a little corner of nostalgia in your kitchen in the form of a nice little espresso set-up. You already know all the tips and tricks, and you love to impress your dinner guests, but at the end of the day, this is your little corner of joy.

What is needed:

• Good quality, freshly roasted coffee
• A Eureka espresso grinder
• A Rocket Appartmento Espresso Machine
• A tamper
• A hopeless romantic attitude, with a tinge of nostalgia

You don't need anything else. You've got it all: The palate, the skills, the passion. You're a coffee darling and you still dream of opening that third wave cafe in the hipster quarter some day.

The Completely Coffee Obsessed And Maybe A Little Bit Mad

I have yet to come across one of you but I have no doubt that you exist! You are mad about coffee and nothing will get in the way of your pursuit of the perfect shot of espresso. You don't drink milk in your coffee, and you don't mess around. This is business.

What is needed:

• Good quality, freshly roasted coffee
• A Malkhionig E65S espresso grinder
• A La Marzocco Strada single group
• A Puqpress
• A tattoo that says "death before decaf"

If this is you, and you love to totally geek out on espresso, check out Matt Pergers guide to dialling in espresso. It might be just the thing you need to get that perfect shot.

Where do you fit into the wonderful world of coffee? Comment and let us know what kind of home brewer you are and don't forget to share your home brews with us on social media! We always love to see what you guys are brewing at home!

Given the surging interest in cold brew(ed) coffee, we thought we'd put together a primer for all those cold-brew-curious coffee lovers out there. What follows is a brief overview of what cold brew is, what it isn't, where it came from, what types there are, and how you can make it for yourself!

What cold brew is

What makes cold brew, cold brew is the fact that it's brewed cold! While that may seem like a lot of repetition for a single sentence, it's an important point to be aware of, as some beverages purport to be cold brew that really aren't (see next section).

When we say brewed cold, what we mean is not brewed hot like most coffee. Where you typically brew coffee somewhere between 80ºC and 96ºC, cold brew is made somewhere between fridge temperature (~º4C) and room temperature (~20-25ºC).

Now, before you run off and dump tepid water into your Aeropress hoping for tasty results, it's also important to note that cold brew almost always involves longer extractions as well... much, much longer. To counteract the slow extraction that results from the lack of heat, most recipes will recommend brew times somewhere between 4 and 24 hours.

Interestingly, almost all cold brew methods, makers and guides out there aim to produce coffee concentrate which you can then dilute with water, over ice, or even with some type of milk (if deep down you don’t actually like coffee).

What cold brew isn't (iced coffee)

The cup character of cold brew has a lot more to do with the fact that it is brewed cold than with the fact that it’s consumed cold. In fact, even if you warm cold brew back up (not as crazy as it sounds), it’s still going to taste different from hot brewed coffee from the same beans.

Where did cold brew come from?

Well, we don’t know for sure actually. You may hear cold brew referred to as ‘Dutch’ coffee or ‘Japanese cold drip’ and you’d be right in inferring that cold brew may have originated in one of these two countries. We do know that coffee has been cold brewed in those places for many years, possibly even as far back as the 1600s. Some theorise that it was the Dutch who introduced it to the Japanese, but nobody seems to know for sure.

The interesting part is that cold brew has actually been around a really long time. One has been able to buy concentrated cold brew in places all over the world for at least a few decades.

You could say that the modern history of cold brew started in the 1960s however, when Todd Simpson invented the Toddy Coffee Maker, which you can still buy today. Interestingly, he had the idea after a visit to Guatemala where he witnessed some bucket-based cold brewing in action. The origins may be very obscure, but there’s no question that Todd & his Toddy helped to (re)popularise the drink in the US, from where it launched its invasion of the rest of the world in the last decade.

For further reading, check out this article from Daily Coffee News

What’s all the fuss about?

If you’ve made it this far, you probably are at least a little bit interested in cold brew coffee, but it’s worth pausing to take a moment to reflect on why cold brew is so much the rage these days. In our eyes, it offers a few unique characteristics that have some coffee lovers hooked:

1. It’s cold - We may be stating the obvious, but some people don’t like to drink hot coffee on a hot day (we don’t have this issue).
2. It tends to be lower in tart acids - Because of the absence of hot extraction, cold brewed coffee can be a bit more mellow on the acids. Some companies even market it as more digestion friendly.
3. It’s got a full body and nice mouth feel - While it tends to be less acidic, cold brew is no slouch on body or mouth feel; the long extraction times see to that.
4. It can be brewed in big batches in advance - Aha! A reason for the lazy coffee lover to rejoice. You can whip up a couple of litres of cold brew and keep it in your fridge for a few days, rather than brewing fresh each time.
5. It lends itself to bottling - This explains its commercial success as a ready to drink, though we’d recommend making your own.
6. It’s what the cool kids are drinking - Let’s be honest, cold brew is all the rage.

There are two types of cold brewers

Perhaps you’re so intrigued by cold brew that you’re ready to start making some yourself. Before you immerse yourself (too easy), you’ll need to decide which one of two cold brewing methods you want to pursue.

Immersion

Todd’s famous Toddy is a great example of an immersion cold brewer. In immersion-based cold brew, you mix the water and coffee grounds in some sort of a vessel, and then filter at the end, after your desired extraction time has elapsed. Immersion cold brewing is usually cheaper and easier, but some coffee aficionados would argue that you lose some of the finer qualities of cold brew made by the drip method.

Cold drip

Cold drip is the cold brew method favoured by most speciality coffee establishments. The most famous example is probably the Yama Cold Drip Tower, which you may well see towering somewhere behind the espresso machine at one of your favourite coffee places.

Cold drip cold brew is definitely a bit more technical and requires a little bit of know how and ‘dialing in’. It also requires more expensive equipment, but the results can be particularly refreshing and tasty, as this method provides greater cup clarity and often helps to accentuate more subtle flavours and ‘top notes’ in your coffee.

There is a newer generation of cold drip coffee makers such as the Izac 700 for home available also these days. These can offer at least a more compact option, and in some cases a more affordable way, to make cold drip coffee at home.

How to start chilling out with cold brew

If you want to explore the world of cold brew, the easiest place to start may be coffee that’s been cold brewed by someone else (who knows what they’re doing). Bottled cold brew is unfortunately quite hit and miss. You’ve got to worry about things like freshness and the quality of the ingredients. If you happen to have access to a speciality coffee roaster or cafe that is brewing fresh batches every week, you should definitely pay them a visit.

We do think that a lot of the fun in coffee comes from making it yourself though, so when you’re ready to start cold brewing, check out our collection of cold brewing options. If you’re new to the cold brewing game, you don’t need anything fancy. Start with a simple and affordable immersion brewer like the Hario Bottle. You could even just use a simple coffee plunger for your first few attempts.

Once the cold brew bug has bitten and you want to explore the finer side of cold brew, you may want to invest in a higher end cold brew coffee maker. However, the result will only ever be as good as the quality and freshness of your beans will allow. You can’t make great cold brew from mediocre coffee. We’d suggest investing in quality, fresh beans (and a burr grinder), before any cold-brew-specific equipment.

If you need advice on which option to choose, we’re always here to help. Say hello on live chat or send us a message using our contact page.

Happy (Cold) Brewing! 

1) Brewing method makes a difference

When Phaedon first told me that certain coffees could taste different depending on the brew method, I must admit that I didn’t entirely believe him. I thought to myself, “how could a style of brewing affect a coffee’s flavor?”. I figured if a coffee was roasted a certain way, it would have the same flavor no matter which method you chose to brew it with. Through a bit of experimentation, I found that certain coffees that were less to my liking in a pour-over would taste great in a French press and vice-versa. The method of extraction seems to accentuate certain characteristics more than the others, creating two different cup profiles. I’m now taking note of which coffees I enjoy in which brew method.

2) You can brew a cappuccino at home with a simple machine

Whenever I thought of brewing a homemade latte or cappuccino, the first image that popped into my mind were those fancy espresso machines you see at cafes or restaurants. I knew those were out of my budget, so I’ve always opted for take-away lattes from my local cafe. Then I discovered the Bialetti Mukka. It’s an all-in-one cappuccino maker that is small, portable and brews coffee and froths milk on a stovetop. It may not be quite the same thing as a barista-made cappuccino, but I still think it’s a game changer as it hits the spot without the big investment. For cappuccino lovers who just want a single milky coffee drink in the morning, it may be just the ticket.

3) Don’t buy pre-ground coffee

Quality obviously trumps quantity when it comes to coffee. After settling for pre-ground coffee at home for most of my life, I had become used to the taste of stale coffee and I didn’t even know it. I always bought pre-ground because it seemed more convenient. I figured since pre-ground coffee is usually sealed tight, the coffee would stay just as fresh as coffee straight from a grinder. I came to realize within my first day of work at Cape Coffee Beans that I was wrong. Brewing coffee with freshly ground beans creates a flavor that is impossible to get with pre-ground coffee. I even started to drink my coffee black (which is something I usually never do). I’m really glad to be heading back to The States with my going-away-present Hario hand grinder, as I don’t think I’d be able to go back to pre-ground coffee after tasting it fresh!

4) It’s a lot of fun to try different coffees

My home town is a little area in The United States, located in the state of New Hampshire and is the complete opposite of a city. There a few different coffee shops but I had tasted all of their coffees and picked my favourite years ago. Instead of expanding my search in coffee, I would visit this same coffee shop weekly and buy the same thing over and over. I never knew I was missing out on so many unique coffee flavors. Working at Cape Coffee Beans and trying dozens of different coffees, from numerous different origins, opened me up to a new spectrum of flavour to enjoy. Each coffee has something unique to offer which adds a little bit of excitement to the usual morning coffee routine.

5) There are real coffee geeks out there

Before I started interning at Cape Coffee Beans, I would have almost considered myself a coffee geek. By knowing the different types of roast, all the different brew methods (or what I thought was all of them) and having knowledge of the different styles of coffee drinks, I thought I was the ultimate coffee lover. Having worked here opened my eyes to an entire world of coffee I didn’t even know existed. Talking to many different customers, I learned that South Africans are serious about their coffee. Cape Coffee Beans has a group of customers and clients who go above and beyond for a good cup of coffee. Some even go to the different brew competitions on the hunt for the perfect coffee and I aspire to reach that level of coffee fanaticism. I must admit that when I moved here, I didn’t even realize that people were weighing their beans to get a consistent brew ratio. Having lived with coffee-loving Capetonians for two months, I’ve learned I have a long way to go to become a real coffee geek.

6) Espresso doesn’t have more caffeine than a cup of coffee

Somewhere along the way of my coffee journey through life, I had gotten the idea that espresso has more caffeine than a regular cup of coffee. In reality, a double shot of espresso only has 80mg of caffeine whereas filter-style coffees can have a lot more. Whenever I thought of a latte or americano, I would associate it with a higher caffeine content. Little did I know that a regular cup of coffee would have done the trick even better than my espresso drink of choice. After switching to pour-overs, I could already see a slight improvement in my Monday morning work speed.

7) Entrepreneurship is worth the long-term efforts

My entire life I have wanted to open up my own business which is why I was so excited about coming to South Africa to work for Cape Coffee Beans. I needed the experience of working for a start-up company and being able to watch them grow. I had taken many entrepreneurship classes but I knew it would be more informative to experience a small business first-hand. I had the opportunity to work with two great entrepreneurs, Phaedon and Dianne, who own Cape Coffee Beans and Studio2Pilates, two successful small businesses that I was lucky enough to immerse myself in, while observing what makes them operate efficiently on a day to day basis. Although it involves hard work (and very few days off) I can see the efforts pay off when you are doing something you enjoy. Even just interning for two months, I started feeling a sense of satisfaction when CCB had a big day of orders or I saw more people at a pilates class. This has given me a little taste of what it would be like to open up a business and I feel grateful to have learned many tips that I will use in the future when it comes time to open my own.

About Courtney Malloy

Courtney is originally from the state of New Hampshire, in the US, currently attending Plymouth State University. She interned with CCB for two months and is continuing studies in business management and economics with a background in finance. She's a lover of surfing, snowboarding, hiking and coffee!!

You can follow Courtney on LinkedIn

Recently I’ve found myself wondering about what might be the most fundamental question: what is the point of this whole coffee thing? Why do I and so many people devote ourselves to this beverage? What is the appeal? What is the reason that it matters so much to even mere consumers of it?

One can’t deny the importance of coffee - it pervades our rituals, our cultures and our olfactory senses, at least in most urban centres. So many people enjoy it, many people even rely on it, and a small group of people have devoted themselves to pursuing it at its very best. So why all the fuss?

Is it merely a pleasant stimulant?

One might be tempted to give a simple answer to this question; it’s all about the kick. Coffee seems to be one of the few perceived vices that scientific research is condoning from a health perspective. It wakes you up and gets you going, at no significant cost to your health (apparently even with some health benefits).

For many people this may well seem to be the answer. In fact, much to my chagrin, I’ve witnessed plenty of participants in the industry turn the dialogue about coffee to the strength of its stimulant effect. The unfortunate reality is that for a large part of the coffee-consuming public, you may well be able to reduce coffee’s raison d’etre to the caffeine.

Yet there does seem to be much more going on here when one reflects a little bit on this reductive idea. In this day and age, stimulants come in much more potent and much more convenient packages, flavoured with sugar and all the tasty chemicals you could possibly dream of. One can’t deny that energy drinks have taken off in a big way, and yet coffee persists. It shows no sign of being replaced by easier to purchase and consume stimulants, which require no preparation at all. Plenty of people will still take the time out of their morning to either brew, or trudge to their nearest cafe for their coffee fix, even those people who might say that they only drink coffee for the kick.

Perhaps subconsciously, even those who drink coffee for its stimulant effect share a little bit of the perspective of the group of coffee drinkers I consider myself part of. There are those among us for whom the caffeine in the cup is very much a secondary consideration. We know we love coffee for the flavour, the ritual, the intrigue, the ongoing pursuit of the never quite attainable perfect cup. Don’t get me wrong, we also love our morning jolt, and it’s probably not a good idea to speak to us before our first cup, but that’s not what gets us excited, and that’s not what motivates us to spend hours of our week brewing coffee by hand. There are easier ways to get that fix.

Is it simply another food product?

One idea that shows some merit is that coffee is simply part of our broader love of food. There are very few people who don’t understand the appeal of a delicious meal, and food plays an even bigger role in our cultures and daily routines. We all love flavour, and human beings are hard-wired to get a lot of enjoyment through eating, so perhaps coffee’s underlying appeal is simply that it taps into this primordial pleasure center that is triggered by consumption.

The connection with food almost definitely plays some part in coffee’s following, but I think that this falls short of providing an adequate explanation, if for no other reason than the fact that coffee provides almost no nutritional value. There are virtually no calories in a cup of black coffee; it’s not a source of sustenance. Sure, it’s often accompanied by calorie-laden milk, cream, sugar and sometimes even more elaborate concoctions, but there are plenty of other dairy & glucose delivery systems out there.

In anticipation of the protests, it is true that coffee is actually quite a good source of antioxidants, but so are many other foods. I really don’t think many people are drinking coffee simply to add more antioxidants to their diet, though many do like to use the antioxidant factoid to justify the coffee drinking that they would do anyway.

For these reasons, I don’t think coffee can really be lumped into the food category. We don’t seek out coffee for sustenance - we consume it for something else.

Is it just another commercial product?

Of course plenty of products exist for no other reason than the fact that someone has spotted a commercial opportunity. In this day and age, a product doesn’t necessarily need to have much intrinsic value to capture the public consciousness; it just needs to have good marketing.

One could look at coffee through this lens. It is after all big business, and no writing about coffee would be complete without a hackneyed reference to it being the second most traded commodity on the planet. The reality is that commercial considerations have played a large part in elevating coffee to the cultural status it now occupies, but I would argue that this isn’t what keeps it there.

If you look at the coffee industry, it starts to become clear that the companies that are making big money are really just consumer goods companies - consumer experience companies even. They could be selling anything, and while that might actually seem like an argument in favour of the commercial hypothesis, I think it’s undermined by a look at the other parts of the industry.

Where real quality is pursued in coffee, I believe that much less profit made. As many people know, many of the growers of quality coffee (and commodity coffee for that matter) are poorly rewarded for their efforts, but I’ve also come to believe that the artisans, merchants and craftsmen further down the supply chain who have devoted themselves to high quality coffee aren’t setting themselves up for maximum commercial gain.

The most interesting part of the coffee industry, commonly referred to as speciality coffee, is definitely not the most lucrative. Almost by definition, costs are high, production scales are small and so the revenue and profit opportunities are limited. Yet this is the part of the industry that is doing the most interesting things, pushing the envelope and stirring the greatest passion in the consumers of coffee. It doesn’t seem that coffee is all about the money.

So what is the point of coffee?

All of the ideas mentioned so far in this essay do of course contribute to its prominence in our culture. Coffee would not be what it is if it weren’t tapping into our love of flavour, our desire for stimulation or our pursuit of profit to some extent, but I really don’t believe that any or all of these can account for its importance in our world. So what is all the fuss about?

I would argue that coffee taps into a desire we have to be more closely connected to the natural world, as clichéd as that might sound.

It’s worth reflecting on the fact that, in a world abundant with technology, almost all coffee brewing still amounts to little more than grinding up beans and adding hot water. Sure, a new coffee gizmo is released every day, and the top end of coffee machinery gets ever more elaborate and expensive every year, but this simply isn’t how most cups of coffee are made. Most coffee is still just made by adding hot water to ground beans, in some kind of simple receptacle. It’s quite a straightforward process, one that requires little more in the way of technology than something to crush the coffee and heat for the water.

I think this simplicity in preparation, and its inherent manual nature has a lot to do with the appeal, whether you’re executing the brewing process yourself or not. It makes you realise that it’s not about the brewing as such, it’s about the coffee itself. The process of brewing is releasing the flavour, comfort and enjoyment that already exists in this agricultural product.

The fact that coffee is an agricultural product is the second aspect of its appeal. We live in a world where the agricultural products that make up our food are ever more elaborately disguised. Thankfully, there are movements away from this trend, but they reveal another reality about modern agricultural that is potentially even more stark: that variety is sorely lacking.

Real food advocates like Dan Barber and Michael Pollan often talk about the incredible diversity that our ancestors had in their diets - dozens of varieties of carrots, hundreds of apples (if my memory serves me correctly) - but on today’s grocery store shelves we have just a few types of apples, and only one type of carrot. The situation in coffee is entirely different.

In the world of coffee, there are already dozens of varieties of Arabica that are standard fare in any speciality coffee shop, and what’s particularly exciting is that these numbers are growing. I’ve had the experience several times of late, of turning over a bag and spotting a variety name that I hadn’t even heard of before. Things are getting more diverse rather than less so.

It’s this diversity in coffee that ultimately drives a lot of its excitement as well. We drink coffee for the flavour, and what determines that flavour is in large part the variety of the coffee that is grown. Throw terroir, farming practices and postharvest processing into the mix, and you’ve got endless flavour possibilities, all determined by the simple ancient acts of planting, growing, harvesting and preparing seeds.

When we drink coffee, it’s the fruit of these labours that we’re enjoying. We look for the surprises in the cup that are the results of this very natural toil. The endless possibilities and variations, both subtle and significant are what keeps us coming back. I think they’re ultimately the reason that even the most stimulant-reliant coffee drinker is reaching for a cup rather than a brightly coloured can. Coffee is a unique opportunity to enjoy the fruits of nature and agriculture in all their glorious, unadulterated diversity. And of course, it tastes pretty good and gives you a kick in the morning too...

- Phaedon | Founder of Cape Coffee Beans

Recently I’ve had a few customers ask about the availability of pre-ground coffee, admittedly a question that comes up from time to time, so I thought it might be helpful to put the rationale for not making this option available in writing (other than the fact that Cape Coffee Grounds doesn’t sound nearly as good as Cape Coffee Beans).

Freshness

First and foremost, we don’t sell pre-ground coffee at Cape Coffee Beans because of freshness. Once coffee has been ground and has contact with the air, it goes stale within a matter of days. While you shouldn’t believe anyone who gives you too specific of a prediction (it definitely varies by coffee), whole bean coffee can last several weeks. I’ve rarely been disappointed with a coffee that was up to 4 weeks old, and I’ve sometimes been pleasantly surprised by a coffee that was as old as 8 weeks from roast.

If you don’t believe me about this, visit someone with a grinder (if you don’t yet have one) and perform an experiment: grind a coffee and let it sit for an hour; once the time has elapsed, freshly grind some more of the same coffee; finally, compare the smell of the hour-old and the freshly ground coffee. You’d have to be seriously olfactorily-impaired not to notice a difference. Now, just think about what that means for the coffee that was ground a week ago.

If we were to sell pre-ground coffee, it would be next to impossible to have it consumed at its best once the time from roaster to us, and from us to our customers was taken into consideration, let alone the time from when the bag was first opened to the time it was finished.

The ability to adjust your grind

Another important reason that we don’t believe in pre-ground coffee is that it removes the possibility of adjusting your grind setting. Coffee beans come in all kinds of different sizes, densities and degrees of solubility. For those (and other) reasons, you may find one coffee’s optimal grind setting for a given brew method may vary from the optimal grind setting for another coffee. For espresso, this is always true, but it’s true more often than you might think for manual brewing applications as well. If you’re buying pre-ground, you’ve committed to a setting, and you can’t even test for tastier results!

It’s worth noting that there’s an element of personal preference here as well. Your version of the optimal French Press extraction may be slightly different from what the roaster, or whoever else did the grinding, enjoys the most. You forego a lot of control over your coffee if you let someone else pick the grind setting for you.

Incidentally, if you have a grinder and you don’t ever adjust your grind setting, it’s time to start experimenting!

A grinder is a small but very worthwhile investment

“But a coffee grinder is expensive!” I hear some of you protesting. No, it isn’t. At the time of writing this post, our most affordable coffee grinder is the Hario Mini Mill which comes in at R499. Inflation may eventually raise this price point, but when factoring in freshness and adjustability considerations mentioned above, I can’t help but firmly hold onto my very biased opinion that anything near this is a small sum to pay for better tasting coffee.

The technology for keeping pre-ground fresh isn’t available in SA yet

Some of the more internet-inclined readers of this may object to some of the assertions here in this post based on things they’ve read about pre-ground coffee being sold in larger coffee markets. It is true that some companies, particularly in the US, have started using some very fancy technology to grind coffee in oxygen-poor environments and hermetically seal just the right portion sizes into pre-packaged doses. While this doesn’t address the issue of grind adjustment, it does obviate the freshness concerns as the coffee only has contact with the air once, just before the individual package is opened for brewing.

If this technology were readily available here in South Africa, it might change the considerations slightly, but as of right now, none of the good coffee roasters we’re aware of have access to or are using this technology. I personally think that’s absolutely fine, for reasons I’ll elaborate on below.

It shouldn’t be all about convenience

While some may consider this the least important point, I actually think it may be one of the most important. So many things in life these days maximise for convenience. I personally don’t want coffee to be one of them. There is more to the enjoyment of coffee than just the drinking thereof. There is a craft to making coffee, one that I think everyone should partake in, but at the very least I think everyone should appreciate. Whether you’re making the coffee yourself, or someone is making it for you, I think there’s value in that coffee being made by hand, from grind to brew. Call me a romantic, an idealist or just plain biased, but I’d love for coffee to be one of the things in our lives that we protect from the seductive powers of modern-day convenience.

NB: Even in an environment where the focus on convenience is unavoidable, like a large office, there are still plenty of solutions that don't necessitate buying coffee pre-ground.

Operational considerations

In the spirit of full transparency, I do need to acknowledge that there is also an operational advantage to avoiding pre-ground. We have a constantly changing selection of dozens of different types of beans, and getting them into the hands of our customers quickly and efficiently while ensuring maximum freshness is already quite a challenge. Throw three or four different grind settings into the mix and the logistical complexity would reach levels that may tempt me with early retirement. It’s a challenge we’d tackle if it weren’t for the reasons mentioned above, but given all these considerations together, it’s a bit of complexity I’m happy to avoid!

A word on our roasters and pre-ground

It is worth acknowledging, as a final thought, that all of our roasters make pre-ground coffee available in some, way, shape or form. This piece is in no way a criticism of that decision, and I do feel compelled to address the apparent contradiction.

I think the reality is that all of our roasters would prefer to only sell whole bean coffee for the reasons mentioned above, as well as a number of logistical and practical considerations. Nevertheless, when you’re dealing with walk-in trade, a big proportion of people just expect pre-ground, and I think it’s understandable that our roasters would not want to turn away that business. Being based on the internet, Cape Coffee Beans has the luxury of being able to find and focus on the people who are passionate enough about coffee to buy a burr grinder.

Equally, when you’re buying pre-ground direct from a roaster, they will often grind it for you just before handing it over. This difference of a couple of days between grind and brew is significant, and it’s not one that we can surmount when delivering by courier.

Back to the grind

So there you have it. These are the reasons that you can’t currently (or for the foreseeable future) buy pre-ground coffee from Cape Coffee Beans. If you have any thoughts or reactions to this rationale, I’d love to hear your feedback. Please use the comment section below.

- Phaedon | Founder of Cape Coffee Beans

We're excited to be one of the sponsors of this year's South African Aeropress Championship where local Aeropress aficianados will compete to see who has the best brewing recipe and technique. The winner will go to the World Aeropress Championship competition!

You can find all the details of the competition, which will take place on July 2nd 2017, and register on the host, Espresso Lab's site: https://espressolabmicroroasters.com/products/2017-south-african-aeropress-championship

New years are a great time to spend a moment reflecting, and so I thought I would take the time to look back at what I've learned about coffee in the last year and do my best to summarise it for those who are interested. In some instances, these learnings are a change of mind from previous perspectives, and it goes without saying that none of this is set in stone - I may change my mind about it again (coffee's complicated). Nevertheless, these are some of the ideas about coffee that I'm taking from 2016 to help get 2017 off to a great start.

1) Coffee freshness is a more obscure topic than we sometimes admit

When asked how long the beans we sell will stay fresh, my standard answer is "4-6 weeks from roast date, as long as they're stored in a cool, dark place in an airtight container". While that is still my best answer, I've now consumed enough coffee to realise that there is a huge amount of variance. Sadly, it's not actually that simple. I've had coffees that tasted great at 8 weeks old. I've had a couple of coffees that seemed to lose what made them delicious after 2 weeks. The truth is that it depends a lot on the specific coffee, and also its freshness pre-roast.

To make things even more complicated, I now also feel fairly confident that most coffees don't taste their best until ~7 days after roast, and that almost none taste their best till at least 3 days after roast. I've adopted a new habit of waiting till at least day 3 before sampling something new. This does mean that for some coffees, you may have a fairly narrow drinking window. For people who drink less coffee than I do, the good news is that slowly working your way through a bag or two a month may well be optimal for most beans.

Further reading: James Hoffmann's piece on green and roasted freshness

2) Think about topography before letting your kettle settle

Another recommendation that I've made more times than I can count, is to let your kettle settle before pouring water onto freshly ground coffee. The premise for this recommendation is sound. I do find that water at 100ºC will ruin most coffees. That's why, for those not using a thermometer, I've always said to wait ~2 mins after the water comes to a boil.

The problem is, that water doesn't always boil at 100ºC. I was actually reminded of this 6th grade physics class lesson by a customer who challenged me on the kettle-settle recommendation. "Why," he asked, "are you recommending to let the kettle settle for 2 minutes, but also saying 93ºC is the temperature you recommend for brewing?" It turns out that this particular customer lives in Johannesburg (as a large number of our customers do), which is at 1,753 metres above sea level. At that altitude, water boils at 93.9ºC according to The Engineering Toolbox. In other words, coffee lovers in Joburg had better get pouring quickly once they hear that kettle click.

To those up-country customers who I've steered wrong in the past, I do apologise. I still recommend using a thermometer as the ideal for everyone, but if you can't, make sure to adjust your time from boil to pour based on your altitude!

3) Temperature is important but so hard to control

Altitude isn't the only complicating factor when it comes to temperature. Kettle material, ambient temperature and time all play their part. I recently started using a Hario Drip Thermometer at the office, and it reminded me just how much of a moving target temperature is.

I've always recommended 93ºC as a good general brewing temperature. I still think that's a great place to start, but I now realise that it's impossible to do an entire brew at this temperature - certainly not a pour-over. I've found that if my first pour (bloom) is at 93ºC, then my last pour, 1m15s later (see below regarding my technique) may be as low as 90ºC, when I use a Hario Kettle. This is inevitable of course - temperature will always drop and radiate, but it was a bit of an eye-opening discovery for me.

The reality is, that temperature is constantly on the move, and so any attempts to control it will (in manual brewing) be approximate at best. My current solution is to fill the kettle as much as possible to create more thermal inertia, and then start above 94ºC, so that the last pour isn't much below 92ºC. I reckon that some day, someone's going to have to design a kettle that really keeps that temperature constant.

4) I now use more bloom water (for pour-overs)

At some point during the year, I watched a Matt Perger video brew guide (I can't quite remember which one) and noticed that he was doing his bloom (pre-wetting of the coffee grounds) with three times as much water as coffee (in terms of weight ratio). "Madness!" I thought to myself, "everyone knows that 2 to 1 is the optimal blooming ratio." As is often he case with dogma however, a bit of self-reflection and a few experiments made me challenge my beliefs.

The aim of blooming, particularly in the world of pour-overs, is to pre-wet all of the coffee grounds, to avoid an uneven extraction through channeling or degassing during the main brew. Now, you can always choose to stir like Scott Rao, but if you're not going to, I think that completely ensuring all grounds are wet with such a small amount of water is difficult. It may not be impossible (and if you're doing dozens of pour-overs a day in a café, you may have mastered it), but for the rest of us, I don't think there's any harm in using a bit more water, just to be certain. Dry patches are significantly more detrimental (uneven extraction) than a bit more early extraction. You can also adjust for the latter with grind-size, pouring speed etc., in a more consistent way.

5) We try to control most brewing variables - pouring should be one of them

On the topic of pouring, any third wave coffee aficionado will tell you, there are a lot of different perspectives on methods. Interestingly though, it doesn't seem like there's a huge amount of focus on it in the brew guides that are out there. Some like a continuous pour, some like a pulse pour, but generally, the recommendations centre around when you should start pouring and when you should stop.

If you think about it though, your pouring technique & timing influences a myriad of other variables: the temperature of the water hitting the coffee, the temperature of the coffee bed, and the degree of agitation to name a few. Given all of that, I now try to follow a very specific formula for all my pour-overs. I divide the coffee weight by 5, and do 5 consistent pours at every 15 second mark (except the first where I allow 30 seconds for the bloom).

I do believe this has given my pour-overs more consistency, and I can't think that following a specific recipe can have any harmful effects. We try to control every other variable, so I think we should control that one as much as we can as well.

Reading Scott Rao's post on hand pours planted the seed for this particular perspective on pour-overs. You'll note that Scott's not even a big fan of pour-overs. While I still am, I hear his points about consistency loud and clear.

Credit to Warren from Quaffee whose infections enthusiasm about pouring techniques motivated my interest in this topic.

6) Maybe there's something to freezing your coffee beans

Freezing coffee beans is a hot topic in the world of coffee at the moment (forgive the pun). Even The New York Times took a break from Trump coverage to publish an article about this once again recommended practice. For more in depth analysis, check out this post but the short version is that it seems freezing your coffee beans leads to greater particle-size consistency which leads to more consistent extraction which leads to tastier coffee of course!

Now before you race for the kitchen to move your stash, there are a couple of provisos worth mentioning:

• This only will be helpful if you go straight from frozen to ground. If you let the beans thaw and attract moisture, you may well ruin them.
• The analysis I've seen has been around espresso extraction with eye-wateringly pricey coffee grinders. I do wonder how much effect freezing will have in manual brewing, with a more typical consumer grinder.

Our friends at Rosetta did let me in on a little test with pour-overs of the same coffee frozen and unfrozen, and I do think the frozen one tasted better. While espresso wasn't involved, the grinder they use would definitely set you back more than an iPhone 7. Still - much appreciated food for thought!

While I'm aiming to experiment with this a bit during this year, I think the summary conclusion for me at the moment is that there's definitely no harm to freezing and there may potentially be benefits for home baristas including better flavour and a bigger, less perishable stash! Now I'm just going to have to get a bigger freezer...

7) Blooming may be unnecessary for immersion brews

It seems that blooming has come under a lot of scrutiny this year, but whereas I now bloom my pour-overs more, I now bloom my immersion blooms less... in fact, not at all. Once again, the great Scott Rao challenged my beliefs with a blog post (scroll down to Prewetting and Immersion Brewing if you don't want to read the whole thing). His arguments appeared compelling to me when I read them, and I've brewed some very tasty Aeropresses & French Presses without blooming since. Given some of the above-mentioned considerations on the moving target of temperature, I find even more reasons to skip the bloom in favour of a full-pour-and-stir technique on immersion brews.

I think many of the coffee professionals I work with would disagree on this topic. For a completely different, and wonderfully geeky look at pre-infusion in immersion brews, check out this awesome blog post from Truth Coffee Roasting. In their experiment, they actually find blooming with luke-warm water to be the best option. This may be one you have to try for yourself!

8) Processing has a huge impact on coffee flavour

Back in 2015, I published a post called 7 Factors That Influence Coffee Flavour as a way to open new specialty coffee drinkers' eyes to the many things that create the flavour in their cups, beyond the obvious roasting and brewing. While I still think that these 7 factors are the most important to consider when buying and tasting coffee, my perspective on #4 has evolved. It's dangerous to make such blanket statements, but, assuming that a coffee has been reasonably well brewed and roasted, I almost wonder if it isn't the biggest influence on flavour.

Some of the amazing artisans we work with including Legado, Origin, Quaffee, and Rosetta Roastery, have provided many opportunities to try coffees from similar, or even the same origins a few times this year. Sometimes we've even been able to isolate for coffee variety variable. In these instances, I've been bowled over by the huge effect that washed vs. honey vs. natural processing can have on a coffee.

Suffice it to say, I think all coffee drinkers should be paying attention to processing method, just as much as origin, and I think we're going to see more focus on that in years to come. Most of the artisan roasters we work with, who know a lot more than I do, seem to agree.

I must give credit to Mike from Origin Coffee Roasters for always having interesting things to teach me and take note of when it comes to processing. When we start a cupping session, he always draws my attention to the specific processing methods used for each coffee, down to the fine details like fermentation parameters.

9) More coffee isn't always better

I've probably consumed well over 1,000 litres of coffee since launching Cape Coffee Beans, and while I've thoroughly enjoyed it, I think I'm growing to believe that more isn't always better. I'm a filter coffee kind of guy. I enjoy my espresso, but I like it made by a professional barista (or a National Champion) on a machine that cost more than my car. When I brew for myself (which I do 3-5 times per day), it's always some kind of manual brew method, and very often it's a pour-over.

The trouble with pour-overs (and plungers for that matter) is that they don't really restrict your brewing volume, so I've often succumbed to the temptation to drink 300ml, and sometimes even more, in one brew quite often. But I've started to come around to the idea that any more than 250ml at a time may be unnecessary, superfluous, or even detrimental. Coffee is both a luxury and a stimulant, so it's something we should savour. Perhaps more importantly for me, I want to drink the greatest variety of coffee possible, so more, small coffees is probably better than a few large ones, no matter how much I think I need half a litre of coffee in my face at any particular moment.

I've also come to realise, that in pour-overs, more volume often compromises the quality of the extraction, so I'd rather make a smaller, better coffee for myself, and a friend, than a bigger one with less of the delicious nuance and subtlety.

Credit to Rob from Rosetta Roastery for getting me thinking about this topic after a quick chat about pour-over sizes in cafés.

Here's to many, exquisite, modestly-sized coffees in 2017
Happy Brewing!

- Phaedon

Unfortunately, there isn't a simple answer to that question. The science behind coffee flavour is still in its early stages and we're only just beginning to understand what is happening at the chemical level. There may be factors we're not yet aware of, and nobody is yet certain of exactly how much each step in the coffee supply chain influences the final product. Nevertheless, we do now know what some of the most important factors are.

Most coffee lovers can probably name a few of these flavour-influencing factors off the top of their heads. Everyone knows that roast profile matters, and most of our customers tend to think about origin as well, but in this blog post, we'd like to go back to the very beginning of the coffee production process and highlight some of the important steps along the way that determine what you'll taste in your carefully brewed cup of coffee.

1) Variety

Even before the plant that bears the coffee fruit has begun to grow, there's a very important factor that will influence the crop - the variety. It's not as simple as Arabica vs. Robusta (we'd generally recommend staying away from the latter). Within the species Arabica, there are dozens of known varieties and more being discovered and created with time.

Wine lovers will tell you that variety has a big impact on the flavour of what's in the glass. A Cabernet Sauvignon has very different characteristics from a Cinsault, or a Riesling. Similarly in coffee, which variety (or combination thereof) is in your coffee will have a big influence on your experience as the drinker.

As Jono from Rosetta Roastery pointed out in the recent Coffee Brewmance podcast episode, many coffee lovers probably don't think about and talk about this important factor quite enough.

Additional resources

If you want to learn more about variety, here are some great online resources:

• Counter Culture video with Peter Giuliano on coffee variety (~30min):
• List of known coffee varieties on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_coffee_varieties

2) Terroir

Whether you're talking about wine or coffee, terroir is one of those lofty terms that can alienate some people, but really, terroir is just influence of where the coffee is grown. We all know that coffees from Kenya generally taste pretty different to coffees from Brazil. We also know that coffees from nearby areas can have similarities. These are the results of the influences of terroir.

Of course the specific elements of a terroir that are responsible for the impact on coffee flavour are numerous and complex, but here are some of the important ones:

• Altitude
• Climate
• Soil type
• Soil micro-biome
• Topography

We're certainly not suggesting that you need to understand every element of the terroir of every coffee you drink, but paying attention to where your coffee comes from, and what some of the defining characteristics of that terroir are, is helpful if you want to understand your coffee better.

3) Farming Practices

Perhaps one of the most important and probably one of the most difficult factors to grasp as the final consumer, the practices of the farm where the coffee is grown will have a huge impact on the taste of the coffee you drink. Everything from the use of chemicals to planting patterns & pruning regimen are ultimately going to affect the nature of the crop.

One particularly important farming practice is picking. Much as with other agricultural crops, coffee is best when it is picked at optimal ripeness, but of course, coffee cherries don't ripen at a uniform rate. This means that for the best results, cherries must be picked by hand, by labourers who are trained to pay attention to the ripeness of the fruit they are harvesting.

Commercial-grade coffee is often strip-picked (i.e. whole clusters of fruit are picked at once) or machine-picked, which means that the final product is a combination of ripe and unripe fruit. While this is less expensive, it does not yield top quality coffee!

Additional resources:

• Wikipedia article on coffee production: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coffee_production
• Perfect Daily Grind: Speciality vs. Commercial Coffee

4) Processing

Once a coffee cherry is picked, the coffee seed has to be dried before being transported and eventually roasted by your local artisan roaster. The ways that this is done can vary widely and can have a huge influence on what the coffee finally tastes like. While this is a complicated topic in and of itself, here are a couple of categories to look out for:

Natural or dry-processed coffees

Natural/dry is the traditional African method of processing coffees. In this method, the coffee is actually dried while still in its fruit. This has the benefit of not requiring large amounts of running water and also allows more of the natural sugars of the coffee cherry to wind up in the bean that gets roasted. Natural processed coffees tend to have fruity flavours, and low acidity though sometimes they're also found to have lower clarity.

While this method of processing can be more economical in its execution, it runs a higher risk of crop spoilage and the cherries must be manually turned frequently to minimise this risk.

Washed or wet-processed coffees

This more modern style of processing involves briefly fermenting the coffee cherries and then removing the seeds from the fruit or pulp - 'washing'. This method has an advantage in that with the outer, fruity layer, some of the risk of spoilage is removed.

Washed coffees tend to have higher acidity and more clarity, characteristics that have made them very popular in coffee's third wave.

Honey processing and everything in between

Recognising that both wet & dry processing have their benefits, a third way, or collection of ways, of processing coffee have emerged that are meant to balance the benefits of both methods. In very simple terms, honey-processed coffees are dried with some but not all of the outer layer of the coffee cherry removed.

There are many different styles of coffee processing, often referred to by the colour of the final dried crop (yellow, red, black) and for the most part, they just entail removal of different amounts of the outer mucilage.

Note, not all processing methods fall neatly into these categories - see the additional resources below

Additional resources

Processing is a factor that is getting a lot of attention in the world of coffee these days. What you'll read above is the most simplistic explanation of the types of processing possible. We'd highly recommend you dive deeper on this topic if it's of any interest. Have a look at:

• Perfect Daily Grind: Everything You Need To Know About Honey Processing
• Coffee Research: Flavour Characteristics Due To Coffee Processing
• Sweet Maria's: Why You Should Know Giling Basah

Let's Pause & Reflect

This is a good moment to pause and reflect on the myriad of influences on the coffee in your cup. One important thing to point out is that we've gone through more than half of the list, and we haven't even come to the point where a roaster has had any contact with the coffee.

That isn't to say that what the roasters do isn't important. On the contrary, the point that is worth reflecting on is that, beyond the literal implication of their titles, your coffee roasters are also undertaking the challenging task of understanding all these influences on coffee flavour for you when they source the green.

It's also worth noting that each of the steps we've covered so far will have a significant impact on the cost of the coffee. This translates into the price that the coffee roaster pays for the green beans. So when you wonder why one coffee may cost much more than another, you probably need to look to these pre-roasting steps in the process. 

5) Roast Profile

We may be getting into more familiar territory here, but that doesn't mean that we shouldn't reflect carefully on the impact of roast profile on flavour. Not even the most talented roaster can take poor quality green and make it taste delicious, but an un-skilled roaster can certainly ruin a great lot.

After sourcing and selection, the roaster helps to realise the full potential of the coffee by carefully crafting a roast profile that will suit that set of beans. This isn't as simple as light or dark - on the contrary, roast colour can be pretty misleading. The roaster has to fine tune variables like roast time, charge temperature, rate of rise, drum speed, air flow & cooling speed, while responding to data like temperature logs, first and second crack timing, and most importantly sensory experience.

This process takes time and is costly, particularly since several batches have to be roasted before the coffee can be sold. But, once this process has been completed, a well roasted coffee isn't just pleasant to drink, it's also distinctive. It helps us to experience the influences of all the steps that came before that roast.

6) Blending

Most of the coffee that the world drank a few decades ago was blended. While that's still probably true across the coffee industry as a whole, in the speciality segment, single origins are becoming increasingly popular. That is most probably because they allow the drinker to experience the fruits of the coffee farmer's labour (quite literally).

Nevertheless, blending can be a masterful craft in its own right. In its basic forms, it can ensure a more consistent flavour experience throughout the year as the inputs to that blend change with the season. At its best, a blend can be a unique taste experience, whose flavour is more than just a sum of those of its component parts.

Additional thoughts on blending

After receiving some consistent feedback from a few coffee professionals that we really respect on this particular point, we felt compelled to add a couple of thoughts to this section on blending.

1. It's worth acknowledging that one of the primary reasons that some roasters blend is not necessarily to create a better flavour experience but to create a decent one at a lower cost. By combining high quality and lower quality components, you can produce something very drinkable at a much lower cost per kg.
2. One probably needs be careful about overstating the consistency that can be achieved through blending. After all, if you're changing components of a coffee, and we understand that all the steps prior to blending alter the flavours of those components, you can't create a truly consistent flavour experience over a significant time span and with different ingredients. This might be why we see more and more seasonal blends, that fully embrace the reality that consistency year round is impossible and rather seek to create a series of unique flavour experiences depending on the components available at that time.

7) Brewing

Last but certainly not least, brewing is the final stage in the process from soil to palate, which can also have an important influence on coffee flavour. One mistake that new coffee lovers make is assuming that the exact same brewing parameters will bring out the best in every coffee. "What's your Aeropress recipe?" is certainly a common question among new aficionados.

Any barista will tell you, your brewing variables need to match the coffee your brewing as well as the brew method. In the case of espresso, they may even need to be tweaked to respond to ambient conditions like heat, humidity and altitude. Even in a simple manual brew method, changes in brewing variables can be the difference between a decent and a delicious cup.

Some important variables are:

• Brew ratio (water to coffee)
• Grind size (and uniformity)
• Extraction time
• Water temperature

This is where you can take part in the coffee flavour's journey, so if you're brewing for yourself (which you should be at least some of the time), we'd encourage you to challenge yourself to bring the best out of every bag of beans you buy. If you're not experimenting and tweaking, you may be missing out on the best your coffee can be.

Other factors

These aren't the only factors that affect coffee flavour. In truth, we probably don't even know them all. While we felt the 7 above were the most important to talk about, here are a few others that at least deserve a mention:

• Age of harvest (crop freshness)
• Packaging (how did the green get from origin to roaster)
• Age of roast (roasted bean freshness)
• Storage (both pre and post roasting)

Final thoughts

Much of the content of this blog post necessarily involves drastic simplification (despite its length). The reality is that you could devote a good chunk of a lifetime to understanding any one of the 7 factors mentioned above in its greatest detail. Nevertheless, pursuing some understanding of each of these variables is an important part of the appreciation of coffee.

Beyond reading everything you can, the best way to get a better understanding of all of these influences on coffee flavour is by talking to the people who work in coffee. Most of the information in this post has been gleaned through conversations with the roasters and other coffee professionals we work with. A special mention needs to go to our friends at Rosetta Roastery & Quaffee, who inspired this post with their talks at their recent coffee events.

Many thanks also to Counter Culture Coffee who designed the flavour wheel at the top of this post and have made it publicly available!

There are a lot of different ways to make coffee. For hundreds of years, people have been brewing it simply by crushing beans with a mortar & pestle and combining them with water over a fire. While this is still common in some parts of the world, in many others, coffee brewing is inextricably linked with machinery now. From espresso machines in cafés to filter machines on kitchen counters, appliances play a big role in the coffee industry today.

Given the ubiquity of electric coffee makers, it's probably understandable that we sometimes are asked why Cape Coffee Beans is so focused on manual coffee brewing. If you have a look at the coffee makers we sell, they're all manual in nature. Even in our collection of coffee grinders, there is only one electric model.

The focus on manual coffee equipment is quite intentional. We have nothing against electric coffee makers. Some of them can produce truly exceptional coffee and, at some point in the future, we may add some to our range. However, we  have decided to concentrate on manual gear for now. In this blog post, we've outlined some of the most important reasons that we think manual coffee brewing is such a great choice for coffee lovers.

1) Bang For Your Buck

It's unfortunate but it's true. A good coffee machine, particularly a good espresso machine, is very expensive. While there is a constant supply of cheap new machines available every year, we've yet to see a cheap one that makes great coffee. At the end of the day, good machines are expensive to build, so if the price tag on an espresso machine is too good to be true, it probably is.

Manual brewers on the other hand are inexpensive to make and so are much less expensive to purchase as well. More importantly, the quality of the coffee they can produce for the price tends to be leaps and bounds ahead of electric machines of any sort at a similar price point. So it's not just that manual brewers are more affordable - they also can produce a great cup of coffee without breaking the bank.

2) Ease Of Use

It's as important to the home barista as cost. If you're going to making coffee for yourself and your loved ones every day, your coffee maker needs to be relatively easy to use. People who really care about coffee aren't overly concerned about convenience (we know some of the dark paths that can lead down) but at the end of the day, an espresso machine is a complicated piece of machinery.

You need many days of formal training and even more practical experience to master the espresso machine. While you do need to take some time to learn how to brew with an Aeropress or a pour-over well, you can still produce something pretty good with only a couple of hours of experience.

3) Room For Creativity, Experimentation & Improvement

Even though ease of use is important, you still don't want to completely remove skill from the process of brewing coffee. There are those machines that can grind your beans and make decent coffee with the the push of a button. The good ones also tend to be expensive but equally, they completely remove you - the coffee lover - from the process.

Part of the fun of coffee is experimenting and seeing how minor tweaks in brewing can lead to changes in the flavour of your cup. Even though most manual coffee brewers are easy to use, they give you direct control of many of your brewing variables such as temperature, extraction time & brewing ratio. This means that you can get creative, experiment and constantly improve your coffee brewing skills.

4) Portability

Chances are that you enjoy coffee in lots of different places. You may drink coffee at home and at the office, on either end of your daily commute. You may even be a road warrior who doesn't know where the next cup of coffee is coming from. Either way, you may not want to leave the quality of your coffee to chance (or the purchasing manager) and you certainly aren't going to be lugging an espresso machine around with you.

Manual coffee brewers have the massive advantage of being highly portable. They're light, compact and some, like the Aeropress, are pretty hard to break. That means that you can throw them in your bag or your car boot and take them with you. We know lots of customers who take their Aeropress & grinder to work with them, or even on a business trip. It's a much better option than drinking your typical office or hotel room coffee!

5) Long Cups of Coffee

This last point might not make sense right away but please, bear with us. It's a quirk of the contemporary coffee industry that most cafés and restaurants use an espresso machine to brew their coffee, but how many people actually drink espresso?

Now, don't get us wrong, espresso is a WONDERFUL thing when it's made well but, like it or not, it's just not what most people drink. A huge chunk of the coffee-drinking population dilutes their espresso either with milk or with water. Some of this may be due to an aversion to the intense and concentrated flavours of espresso but we reckon that a lot of it may be due to the simple desire for a long coffee drink.

It's that preference for long drinks that brings us back to manual brewing. Most manual coffee makers only make long drinks and that's ok, because that's what most people drink! If you prefer espresso, then maybe you do need to invest in a proper espresso machine, build a relationship with your local barista or perhaps try to make something similar with your Aeropress. But if you like drinking long cups of coffee anyway, why brew a short one and then dilute. Instead, why not use a coffee maker that is designed to brew long cups?

For those reasons (and a few others), we really do think manual coffee brewing is a great choice for most people, especially when you're just starting out. Whether you agree or disagree, we'd love to hear what you think!

It's an obvious question and certainly one that I am asked fairly frequently. After all, it's a question that I need to be able to answer when explaining why I set up Cape Coffee Beans in the first place! So, in this first post for our newest blog, I thought I'd start by outlining why I think buying your coffee beans online is a good idea.

I'd like to clarify up front that none of the points below are reasons not to buy directly from an artisanal roaster. If you're lucky enough to have one in your area, enjoy their coffees and want to support them, that's fantastic. Unfortunately most people in South Africa aren't so lucky, which is why Cape Coffee Beans was born. For all except those lucky few, here's why you should consider buying your coffee online.

One quick side note - the Cape Coffee Blog is going to feature general posts and thoughts about coffee rather than brew guides or information about our roasters. We have blogs for each of those subjects as well!

Freshness

This is the most important point, and probably enough of a reason in itself to buy your coffee beans online. Coffee is a perishable product. While finding consensus on when coffee is at its best is difficult, everyone agrees that after a certain point, it will start to decline in quality. Many people are surprised by just how quickly that happens.

Various factors including style of roast, packaging and environment will affect the timelines but most people say that coffee beans will "peak" (i.e. be at their absolute best flavour) 7-14 days after roast. Some recommend using your coffee beans within that 2 week window but many will say up to 4 weeks is perfectly fine - some even say up to 6 weeks is ok. I personally find that plenty of coffees still taste great at the 4 week mark - only a few do after 6 weeks (though some surprise you with their longevity).

Perhaps more importantly, every roaster has their own ideal window during which they want their coffee to be consumed. They use this as a guideline when they plan their roasting schedule. When you buy your coffee online, you're getting the coffee at the same level of freshness that you would if you visited the roaster yourself, plus just a couple of days for delivery. Unfortunately that's not always true when you buy coffee beans off a shelf, particularly from mass market retailers.

Support of local roasters

It might surprise you a little to see a point about supporting local in a post about shopping online but please bear with me. Much to my surprise and chagrin, the majority of supermarket shelf space devoted to coffee in South Africa contains bags of beans roasted, not just in a different city or country, but on a different continent.

The wisdom of this from a logistics perspective and certainly from a freshness perspective (see above) is questionable but all those points aside, why would you buy coffee beans roasted thousands of kilometres away when we have plenty of fantastic coffee roasters right here in SA? Unless you have a strong desire to destroy the environment or overpay for a product, it would seem that the rational choice would be to buy coffee roasted in this country.

Note: Happily, some local roasters are also making it onto a few supermarket shelves now - that's a step in the right direction!

Variety

Some people like to drink the same coffee, day in and day out, and there's nothing wrong with that, but part of the fun of coffee for me is adventure. Exploring all the different flavours that the coffee world has to offer is a sincere pleasure and what makes it even more interesting is experiencing the variations on those flavours that a masterful roast can bring out.

Some people don't appreciate that sourcing great beans is also a big part of the roaster's task. Here in South Africa, there are many coffees that you will only ever get to try from the one roaster who managed to secure some of it. For me, this is one among a number of great reasons to try out the beans that a variety of roasters have to offer. That's difficult to do via most other channels and is one of the great advantages of shopping for your coffee online.

Convenience

It may be an obvious point but that doesn't make it any less important. I think you need to invest time in your pursuit of coffee, particularly when it comes to learning about it and brewing it. Given that there are only so many hours in the day, you might as well save a bit of time on getting the coffee beans to you. If the added convenience of having fresh coffee delivered to your door prevents you having to make the choice between nothing and instant (I'd choose nothing), then it can't be a bad thing!

The Bottom Line

Having said all of this, shopping for your coffee beans online is a means to an end, and it's the end that is important: to drink high quality, fresh coffee, prepared by a local artisanal roaster. This business was launched to give more people the opportunity to do just that. But however you're sourcing your coffee beans, if you're supporting the South African speciality coffee industry, that's what's important!

Happy Brewing,

Phaedon
Founder of Cape Coffee Beans