7 cafés in 2 citys. Places change: check opening hours before you go.
Look up at the Amharic signs between Jeppe and Bree Streets and you are in Johannesburg's Ethiopian and Somali quarter. Ethiopian restaurants and coffee shops fill the Africa Mall and Johannesburg Mall.
Order: Buna (Ethiopian coffee)
💡 Best to arrive before 14:00.
Fewer recent sources for this one: check it's open before you go.
Deluxe was founded in April 2009 by Carl Wessel and Judd Nicolay, starting with a backyard roaster and a plan to shake up Cape Town's coffee scene. It now runs cafés in South Africa, Namibia and the UK.
Order: Espresso · Flat white
💡 Weekend hours are short (7-13).
Origin started in late 2005 in a working warehouse in De Waterkant, with the aim of bringing world-class specialty coffee to South Africa, and helped start Cape Town's specialty scene. The café pours across a wide range of brewing methods.
Order: Pour-over of an African single origin
Founded in 2010 by three former bandmates, Rosetta treats single-origin coffees like orchids rather than aspirins. The Bree Street café has a filter brew bar, two single origins on espresso and the full range of its roasts.
Order: Filter from the brew bar · Single-origin espresso
💡 Open Mon-Fri 7-16, Sat 8-16, Sun 8-14.
Co-founded by Cape Town specialty pioneers Andrzej Janik and David Donde, Truth runs its café and roastery in an old three-storey Victorian warehouse. The café has been named among the best in the world several times.
Order: Espresso from the Resurrection blend · Flat white
Vida e Caffè opened its first store on Kloof Street in October 2001, blending Portuguese street-café style with an African feel. It has since grown into South Africa's largest café chain by number of locations.
Order: Cappuccino · Muffin
Fewer recent sources for this one: check it's open before you go.
Founded in 2005, Bean There was South Africa's first roaster of Fairtrade-certified coffee and buys directly from African farmers. Its Johannesburg roastery in Milpark is open to visitors, and its range runs from Ethiopia and Kenya to Rwanda, Burundi and DR Congo.
Order: Ethiopian filter · Cupping morning (booked)
💡 Book a cupping morning to taste across African origins.