The Guide to South Africa’s Best Coffee Shops – City to Dorp

Thanks to all the readers who replied to a request to suggest a good coffee shop near them – outside the well-known coffee-shop routes of Joburg and Cape Town, that is. What a great response, and so many good places! Bloemfontein, we are impressed! And all those towns in KwaZulu-Natal, you’re an inspiration! We list about 25 of the best.

This is NOT a comprehensive list, of course. We had to rely on the responses we got, so we are sure there are more in Durban and Pretoria and elsewhere, but this is just a reason to get out there and discover.

Hartebeespoort

• BisiBean Coffee Roasting Company, Hartebeespoort. (Recommended by Machteld Minnaar and Claudie Greenwood-Selby)

Grahamstown

• Hand Made Coffees (also in East London). (Verushka Bradley. “Local is lekker.”)

  

Durban

• Talkhouse Cafe (Nikki Ullsear Bester. “Great staff and great coffee.”)
• Colombo Coffee. The Durban North coffeeshop recently merged with the Factory Cafe. (Sarah Araujo)

Bloemfontein

• Coffeetalks Cafe. (Mawande Skud Mateza and Sandy Glenn.)
• Stereo Cafe. Coffee shop and coffee roaster. (Adriaan Supe Knoetze and Michaela Jones)

Plettenberg Bay

• Doubleshot Coffee Bar.

Centurion

• Vintage Coffee.

Potchefstroom

• DeMILKo. (Conroy Cupido)

Port Elizabeth

• The Friendly Stranger. More an eating place, like the two below, but the coffee looks great. (Mona Els)
• Brioche and Como Caffe. (Yolanda de Lange)
• MiCoffee. (Philipa Berkeley Thomson)
• Mastertons. Even though it doesn’t sell coffee but roasts beans – has been for decades – and supplies coffee shops, “The aroma permeates the air around Central”. (Gail Pullen)

Lions River, KZN

• Steampunk Cafe. Michael Goddard also roasts his own beans. (Gwenda-Mari le Grange)

  

Ballito, KZN

• Steampunk Culture. (Debbie Stroberg)

Howick, KZN

• Terbodore, which is also in Franschhoek. (Astrid van der Burgt. “Never tasted anything like it, amazing.”)

Hillcrest, KZN

• Lineage Coffee. The roasting is overseen by owner Craig Charity. (Brigetta Hamilton)

Robertson, Western Cape

• Strictly Coffee

Port Edward, KZN

• Beaver Creek. A coffee farm, roastery and a place to drink the brew. (Werna van der Linde and Barbara Richards)

Pretoria

• Red Truck Coffee Roastery. (Mark Surgeon)
• Lucky Bread Company. (Chris Green)

  

• TriBeCa Original. (Chris Green)

  

Salt Rock, KZN

• Wonderland Coffee. (Tarryn Natalie Machin)

George, Western Cape

• Beans about Coffee. They are also in Oudtshoorn and Robertson, among other places. (Rene Barnard-Beeby)