Before 2006, \u201cthere was no decent coffee in Cape Town. Everyone believed that something good had to come from somewhere else. Posh people were proudly drinking brand name coffee that had spent months getting out here on a ship,\u201d Joel Singer, cofounder of Origin Coffee Roasting<\/a> says, reminiscing with a laugh.<\/p>\n Singer grew up in Canada, but didn\u2019t develop an appreciation for artisanal food and beverage until college, during a year abroad in France. He fell in love with the country\u2019s commitment to quality food and drink. \u201cThe French would get excited about this one plum that only grows in one little town and is only ripe for one week every year,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n Singer eventually found himself in Cape Town with a young family and no fixed agenda. He teamed up with David Donde to launch Origin Coffee Roasting. When they met, Donde was operating a hotel, where he prepared Singer an espresso\u2014what Singer calls the first decent espresso he\u2019d had in South Africa.\u00a0As their friendship developed over their shared love of coffee, food, and wine, plans for the roasting company began to coalesce.<\/p>\n \u201cI was passionate about roasting the best coffee in the world,\u201d Singer says, \u201cand David wanted to serve the best coffee in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n Singer and Donde launched Origin knowing very little about coffee, and even less about how to roast it. Donde attributes his barista skills to \u201cbrute force methods\u201d\u2014and lots of milk sacrificed in the name of latte art practice. They began to experiment on a five-kilogram roaster, testing roast profiles and various origins to find what worked. But even as the coffee started tasting good, getting wholesale customers on board presented a new wave of challenges.<\/p>\n \u201cWe had to convince everyone\u2014consumers, restaurants, hotels\u2014that they didn\u2019t have a clue\u201d Singer says.<\/p>\n Recognizing the need for education led Singer and Donde to start big\u2014with a roastery, a barista academy, and a caf\u00e9. Customers would pass by the roaster as they walked in the door, exposing them to more of the process than the Cape Town community was accustomed to. \u201cI was the first person you\u2019d speak to when you came in,\u201d Singer says. At the time, their approach was groundbreaking and helped the brand gain traction and a loyal customer base.<\/p>\n Now, eleven years later, Origin is still at the cutting edge of everything coffee in Cape Town. They roast about fifty different coffees every year and on any given day, patrons can drink twelve of them at their alternative brewing methods bar. They have locations in both Cape Town and Johannesburg and their coffee is served at many independent outlets nationwide. Origin also helped set up the Specialty Coffee Association of South Africa<\/a>, and has had four national barista champions over the years. Many of the big players in the South African coffee scene have a stint at Origin on their r\u00e9sum\u00e9s\u2014at last count, they had trained 2,500 baristas.<\/p>\n KIWI DELUXE<\/strong><\/p>\n One of these Origin alumni is Judd Francis, the burly, bearded Kiwi who co-owns Deluxe Coffeeworks<\/a>. He grew up in Wellington, the coffee center of New Zealand, and began working in caf\u00e9s at age sixteen. \u201cAfter school I got a job in a roastery and then, like all Kiwis, I went traveling. And everywhere I went, I ended up behind the coffee machine,\u201d Francis says.<\/p>\n When Francis washed up in Cape Town he could see there was a huge gap in the market. \u201cHere was a gorgeous city with amazing restaurants and incredible weather that was practically screaming for good coffee.\u201d Francis worked briefly with Singer at Origin, but he was up front about his intentions to start his own thing. \u201cIn 2009-ish I met Carl Wessel, over a few beers. Carl was keen to get out of the film industry and I was looking for something to do with the rest of my life. The business was founded on a handshake.\u201d<\/p>\n They started roasting in Wessel\u2019s backyard, and within months they\u2019d opened their first shop, a tiny spot in the center of town. \u201cAfter about two years it got pretty intense,\u201d Francis says. \u201cWe were doing two tons a month on a five-kilogram roaster, all in a 190-square-foot space that also served coffee.\u201d At that point they moved to their roasting operation to its current location and bought a fifteen-kilogram Giesen.<\/p>\n Deluxe\u2019s core business has always been wholesaling coffee but they\u2019ve opened a surprising number of caf\u00e9s along the way. \u201cWe just keep getting offered these amazing spaces,\u201d Francis explains. \u201cIt seems stupid to say no.\u201d That said, they keep their retail outlets surprisingly simple: no food, no Wi-Fi\u2014just coffee.<\/p>\n And lots of it. In addition to servicing around 200 wholesale customers, Deluxe has a thriving online store, six coffee shops in Cape Town and the surrounding areas, and a recently opened satellite roastery and caf\u00e9 in neighboring Namibia. They\u2019ve also helped a luxury hotel group based in Mauritius set up its own roastery, a project which they\u2019ve been heavily involved in for the last four years. \u201cWe flew up to Jo\u2019burg to pitch the idea to all these suits sitting around a boardroom table. We had a PowerPoint presentation and everything,\u201d Francis says, \u201cbut we\u2019d also rented a GS3 for the day. After a few slides we just thought \u2018stuff it,\u2019 let\u2019s make them some coffee. They lapped it up.\u201d<\/p>\n This cheeky attitude, coupled with a serious taste for hard work, has allowed Deluxe to thrive in a very competitive market. \u201cLook at us: we\u2019re all covered in tattoos, ride motorbikes, and play in bands,\u201d Francis says. \u201cWe drink good coffee by day and too much beer at night. Coffee doesn\u2019t have to be served on a doily, you know.\u201d<\/p>\n NEW KID ON THE BLOCK<\/strong><\/p>\n With ten branches in the city and counting, it\u2019s hard to believe Bootlegger Coffee Company<\/a> opened its first outlet less than four years ago. Even more amazing is the fact CEO Pieter Bloem hasn\u2019t had to lean on any external investment to achieve this meteoric rise. Bloem first got into the service industry when he bought and ran a very popular pizza franchise. At about the same time, his wife opened a small coffee shop, but soon she had two, then three shops.<\/p>\n \u201cI was sick of working for someone else and I saw an opportunity. Coffee was my wife\u2019s main commodity, so it made financial sense to roast it ourselves,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd it helped that I\u2019ve always been a coffee addict.\u201d Bloem and his partners started small, roasting their coffee at a small bakery they owned several hours from Cape Town.<\/p>\n But one day, on his morning bicycle ride, Bloem spotted an empty retail space just around the corner from his house in the beachside suburb of Sea Point. \u201cAfter all those years in the restaurant business, I wanted to leave food behind,\u201d remembers Bloem, \u201cBut the place was far too big for just a coffee roaster, so we were kind of forced into making it a restaurant as well.\u201d<\/p>\n These days, Bootlegger stores are open from 6 a.m. to midnight every day, and they serve up innovative pastries, breakfasts, lunches, and dinners\u2014including the Ice-ssant, a croissant filled with soft-serve ice cream, and the recently featured Scram-bowl, egg scramble bowls filled with sausage, cheese, and onion. Bootlegger also boasts a full wine list and bar to accompany their signature coffees.<\/p>\n Bootlegger\u2019s caf\u00e9 and roastery are run as separate businesses: half of the roasted coffee is sold to Bootlegger caf\u00e9s at market-related prices and the other half to external clients. He puts it simply: \u201cThe roastery needs to wash its face and the caf\u00e9s have to be profitable.\u201d<\/p>\n Bootlegger will have four more Cape Town stores by the end of the year as well as one in London, England. They are looking at expanding their footprint to Johannesburg and Durban, South Africa, and plan to franchise the brand into other African markets. \u201cWhatever happens, we\u2019ll always maintain 100 percent control of the Cape Town stores,\u201d Bloem says.<\/p>\n THE PERFECTIONISTS<\/strong><\/p>\n The husband-and-wife team behind Espresso Lab Microroasters<\/a>, Renato Correia and Helene Vaerlien, focus on quality in smaller quantities. \u201cIt\u2019s not that we don\u2019t want to grow, but quality has always been our main focus, and this is easier to achieve in small quantities,\u201d Vaerlien explains.<\/p>\n Vaerlien\u2019s roots are in Sweden,\u00a0and Espresso Lab is undeniably inspired by Nordic coffee culture, among other influences. Correia worked at an Italian-owned caf\u00e9 in Johannesburg in the eighties, and both he and Vaerlien spent years traveling the world, experiencing different coffee cultures.<\/p>\n \u201cAt first we wanted to open a caf\u00e9,\u201d says Renato, \u201cBut then we realized that to have full control, we had to roast our own.\u201d From day one, they have been both a caf\u00e9 and a roastery\u00a0and\u00a0they have never served any food.\u00a0 \u201cWe\u2019d rather up-sell coffee, the one thing we\u2019re passionate about,\u201d Correia explains.<\/p>\n All milk-based drinks served in the caf\u00e9 are made using a blend of three single-estate coffees, while anyone who orders a black drink is in for a single-origin treat. Staff are all dedicated black-coffee drinkers: no milk, no sugar. \u201cWe brew coffee together every morning and then we talk about it. It\u2019s important to have a shared vocabulary that we use when talking to customers.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhen we opened, light roasts were not the norm in Cape Town,\u201d remembers Correia, who still roasts every single batch of coffee that comes out of the shop. \u201cCustomers had to get used to the upfront fruity flavors. And to paying higher prices.\u201d<\/p>\n But Vaerlien and Correia had chosen their location carefully: being next-door to Cape Town\u2019s busiest outdoor market meant that they could pay the rent based on Saturday trade alone. This allowed them to forego spending money on marketing, affording them more funds to buy top-quality coffee and equipment.<\/p>\n Espresso Lab has a very loyal midweek customer base as well as busy weekends, and their coffee is served in seven caf\u00e9s around the western Cape, as well as at the head office of one of South Africa\u2019s leading investment funds. \u201cWe could supply loads more places,\u201d says Vaerlien, \u201cBut we have certain standards when it comes to equipment and training that put a lot of people off.\u201d<\/p>\n Vaerlien says quality equipment allows them to share their techniques and brewing protocols and enables them to serve customers a better, more interesting product. Espresso drinks are made using La Marzocco GB5s<\/a> and Mazzer Robur<\/a> grinders, while filter coffees are made using a Marco SP9<\/a> hot water tower and a Mahlk\u00f6nig EK 43<\/a>. \u201cMost of the baristas on our staff already have basic barista skills when they start here, such as basic espresso extraction and milk aeration technique, so our ongoing training is more about refining their sensory skills, learning about the coffees we serve, and customer service,\u201d Vaerlien says.<\/p>\n Espresso Lab\u2019s customer-oriented service style means providing education to some guests, but allowing others to enjoy their coffee without any additional information. \u201cWe don\u2019t force information onto our customers,\u201d Vaerlien says. \u201cHowever, when someone is interested, we share our knowledge. The more the customer knows about the coffee, the more they can enjoy it and take something home from the experience.\u201d<\/p>\n THE WAY FORWARD<\/strong><\/p>\n Cape Town\u2019s coffee scene has come a long way in the last ten years.\u00a0 As for the future? The current business leaders are convinced the scene will continue to grow as consumers become increasingly focused on quality. Says Origin\u2019s Singer, \u201cThe first ten years were about getting people to figure out the difference between good coffee and bad coffee. Right now, anyone who turns green coffee into brown is considered an artisan roaster, but that\u2019s going to change.\u201d<\/p>\n As consumers demand better quality coffee, restaurateurs and caf\u00e9 owners will have to step up their game. Focus on provenance is likely to increase, inspiring new levels of quality and diversity in the caf\u00e9 experience. Espresso Lab\u2019s Correia says there still aren\u2019t many caf\u00e9s specializing in serving great coffee. \u201cPeople here think that to have good coffee you have to roast your own. There aren\u2019t many caf\u00e9s around that buy top product and serve it really well.\u201d<\/p>\n But the market has taken flight and shows no signs of slowing down. \u201cOne thing\u2019s for sure,\u201d says Bloem of Bootlegger, \u201cPeople love coffee. And that will never change.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2014Nick Dall is a world-traveling journalist and copywriter who is rediscovering his hometown of Cape Town.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Cape Town has some of South Africa’s best coffee.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1100,"featured_media":13533,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"limit_modified_date":"","last_modified_date":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}},"beyondwords_generate_audio":"","beyondwords_project_id":"","beyondwords_content_id":"","beyondwords_player_style":"","beyondwords_language_id":"","beyondwords_title_voice_id":"","beyondwords_body_voice_id":"","beyondwords_summary_voice_id":"","beyondwords_error_message":"","beyondwords_disabled":"","beyondwords_podcast_id":"","beyondwords_hash":"","publish_post_to_speechkit":"","speechkit_hash":"","speechkit_generate_audio":"","speechkit_project_id":"","speechkit_podcast_id":"","speechkit_error_message":"","speechkit_disabled":"","speechkit_access_key":"","speechkit_error":"","speechkit_info":"","speechkit_response":"","speechkit_retries":"","speechkit_updated_at":"","_speechkit_link":"","_speechkit_text":""},"categories":[14253],"tags":[5391,5395,5396,5388,4332,5387,5392,5394,5386,5389,5335,885,5398,809,5400,5399,5385,5390,5393,5397],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n![\"Cape](\"http:\/\/freshcup.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/Origin-Coffee_Owner.jpg\")
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