Reflections on the Johannesburg Specialty Coffee Expo

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.

Cape Coffee Awards 2023

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!

Cape Coffee Awards 2022

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!