Confession of a Coffee Snob

Durban. Cape Town. Joburg. Nairobi. Addis Ababa. Kampala. Lusaka.

Every city I enter, I start with coffee.
Not for the flat white, not the latte art, not the Wifi.

When I visit speciality coffee shops I am looking for signals. Non-verbal cues and unspoken clues to help me decode a city.

Coffee shops for me are a newspaper stand, a display of the day’s current affairs, where articles are written in real-time: headline news, editor’s column, markets indicators, sports updates, lifestyle section, classifieds.

People and their stories offer the city’s texture.

The Barista is the City’s First Storyteller

In 2022 I got to work with Open Cities Lab, Black Box Studios and the Coffee Magazine. They built something called The Barista Wage Calculator

The Barista Wage Calculator is a simple tool asking the hard question:

What does it really mean to make a living behind the counter?

My research took me into a rabbit hole even Alice from Wonderland would have hesitated to follow. I discovered a labyrinth of intricate details and unexpected connections.

Interviews with owners guarding margins and conversations with baristas guarding dreams would unravel a new World to me.

I spent hours over cups.

What did I learn?

Who’s hiring. Who’s firing.
What new spots are bubbling.
What the old regulars are saying.
What neighbourhoods are shifting shape.
What really happens when the sun sets and the wolves come out.

What was meant to be a two week assignment turned to about four months worth of digging and sipping.

Click on the image below, it is a recording of our presentation at Coffee Creative Week 2022. You’ll see Carla Ziady and I presenting our research findings.

My Daily Dose of Dopamine

Sure enough since that research project I’ve sunk deeper into the Wonderland of the dark elixir.

The World of coffee ignited a passion and my imagination, I have became adventurous and engaging with it as rite and ritual.

Café con leche, leche de avena. Por favor

Barcelona. Madrid. Valencia.

A whole month of walking slow, eating late and drinking coffee like a local in Spain.

Specialty coffee spots tucked between old cathedrals and new sneaker stores. In Spain, coffee isn’t a moment, it’s movement. It’s both ritual and rhythm.

The baristas told me where the locals actually go. The hidden spots where no one cared about Instagram aesthetics and only about whether you stayed long enough to learn their name.

Some mornings there was a churro too – warm and dusted in sugar – the smallest kind of quiet luxury.

Spain reminded me about the slow process of the brew.

Dose turned Destinations

Now, while I may think I know coffee, my dissatisfaction keeps telling me otherwise. One of the things I told myself during the project was that I would drink as many varieties of coffee and visit as many coffee shops as I could.

So, this Sunday afternoon, I trawled some Coffee Magazine reviews and turned them into a living map. These are not all of the coffee shops in South Africa but it certainly is a start.

This is a private joy and a slow voyage. To visit places where culture happens before it is curated. Where taste is the local currency.

So, join me in this quest. At your own risk. I will keep adding more as and when they come.

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Caring is Sharing

Some people network on LinkedIn, I hope to network in a way that’s human.

My rules are simple:

I want to enjoy a city.
I want to know its people.
I trust baristas more than billboards.
I want collect stories the way others collect followers.

All in a bid to learn a city cup by cup.

Wild Card or Futuristic?

The ones below were truly a marvel for me.

Who would have thought? 3D printed ceramic cups.