I have a relationship with coffee that dates back to the apartheid era. It has had its highs and lows, sometimes coffee hasn’t delivered in the taste department, and I have also not been willing to splash out on good coffee.
It started off in boarding school, a Catholic convent school run by Swiss nuns. Sub standard coffee, mainly because of the milk powder they used. That milk powder was definitely relief aid quality, and I felt guilty every time I had some, as I was convinced it was initially destined for starving kids in Ethiopia and Bosnia.
Our options at home were Kloof and Mona. I am not sure if you remember the stuff, but it was basically chicory with a pinch of coffee. Tooth stainer extraordinaire, that nestled between your teeth if not strained well. I think previously disadvantaged people should sue the retailers for depriving them of the good stuff during apartheid years. First time I saw olive oil was when I went to varsity. Let’s not even talk about the first time I had cheese, other than Gouda or cheddar. You think they would sell Camembert and Gruyere cheese in the homelands?
Fast forward through coffee/chicory mixes in high school and varsity to my first year as a tax payer. Now I had truly arrived, and upgraded to Nescafe. Even the ladies commended me on my impeccable coffee taste. A year later, a Cameroonian colleague introduced me to some coffee from the ‘armpit of Africa’ as he calls his country. I was hooked; filter coffee just had this aroma and taste I wanted to take with me wherever I went. Lack of a coffee machine, and budgetary constraints forced me to settle for freeze dried coffee, and this in a way made up for it. During this time I also tried out the various coffee brands like Illy, Lavazza, Ciro, Danessi, etc. and the chain coffee shop stuff like Mugg and Bean, House of Coffees.
A white mate who was off to work in the ‘armpit of Africa’ (funny now that I think of it) left me with his Saeco Gran Crema machine and that is when I started making my own stuff. I was surprised at people telling me that the best coffee was ‘grrrown in Italy’. Didn’t know they had coffee plantations in Italy was my response. ‘No man, you know what I mean. It’s grown here in Africa but mastered in Italy’.
Looks like colonialism never ends, now its plundering things like coffee and tea from Africa and selling them as European products.
That is why my favourite coffee, has never left the African continent. Grown in the Sidamo region of Ethiopia and roasted and packaged in Port Elizabeth, then transported to my local coffee guy. Masterton’s Sidamo coffee is everything coffee should be. It tastes good, and its African renaissance coffee.
Try African coffee like Sidamo, Harar and coffee grown in countries like Kenya and Rwanda. You won’t be disappointed.
It started off in boarding school, a Catholic convent school run by Swiss nuns. Sub standard coffee, mainly because of the milk powder they used. That milk powder was definitely relief aid quality, and I felt guilty every time I had some, as I was convinced it was initially destined for starving kids in Ethiopia and Bosnia.
Our options at home were Kloof and Mona. I am not sure if you remember the stuff, but it was basically chicory with a pinch of coffee. Tooth stainer extraordinaire, that nestled between your teeth if not strained well. I think previously disadvantaged people should sue the retailers for depriving them of the good stuff during apartheid years. First time I saw olive oil was when I went to varsity. Let’s not even talk about the first time I had cheese, other than Gouda or cheddar. You think they would sell Camembert and Gruyere cheese in the homelands?
Fast forward through coffee/chicory mixes in high school and varsity to my first year as a tax payer. Now I had truly arrived, and upgraded to Nescafe. Even the ladies commended me on my impeccable coffee taste. A year later, a Cameroonian colleague introduced me to some coffee from the ‘armpit of Africa’ as he calls his country. I was hooked; filter coffee just had this aroma and taste I wanted to take with me wherever I went. Lack of a coffee machine, and budgetary constraints forced me to settle for freeze dried coffee, and this in a way made up for it. During this time I also tried out the various coffee brands like Illy, Lavazza, Ciro, Danessi, etc. and the chain coffee shop stuff like Mugg and Bean, House of Coffees.
A white mate who was off to work in the ‘armpit of Africa’ (funny now that I think of it) left me with his Saeco Gran Crema machine and that is when I started making my own stuff. I was surprised at people telling me that the best coffee was ‘grrrown in Italy’. Didn’t know they had coffee plantations in Italy was my response. ‘No man, you know what I mean. It’s grown here in Africa but mastered in Italy’.
Looks like colonialism never ends, now its plundering things like coffee and tea from Africa and selling them as European products.
That is why my favourite coffee, has never left the African continent. Grown in the Sidamo region of Ethiopia and roasted and packaged in Port Elizabeth, then transported to my local coffee guy. Masterton’s Sidamo coffee is everything coffee should be. It tastes good, and its African renaissance coffee.
Try African coffee like Sidamo, Harar and coffee grown in countries like Kenya and Rwanda. You won’t be disappointed.
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