Coffee with a Conscience: Roast Re:Public

In the last Issue of TheCoffeeMag we featured the lovely Leandri van der Wat of MasterChef on our cover. She told us of her plans to open a coffee company that sends kids to school. And guess what, it's now up and running!

Roast Re:Public is now a bonafide business and you can be part of the journey. The basic concept is that half the profit goes to keeping children in school. Simply put:

Their first partnership is through Worldwide Vision South Africa helping a rural school in Limpopo (One of the Cabinet Members, Matt, recently used marula fruit from their school grounds in his Barista Regionals Set). Seems like a fantastic idea to us. The lovely infographic below from their website lays it out beautifully.


Now if you're going to be selling one blend of coffee that has to sustain this big idea, then it's got to be a good one. Scratch that, it's got to be a phenomenal one. So I guess now would be a good time to tell you about the rest of the team that made this decision.


So we know Leandri quite well by this stage, but who else is behind getting this idea to fruition? Jaco de Witt is the business end of the trio, he's in charge of dotting all the 'i''s and crossing the 't''s and creatively keeping the chef scientist and the coffee fanatic in check. He's got big dreams for this adventure. So who's the coffee fanatic? You've seen him on TheCoffeeMag before, Matt Carter, is the man behind the roaster and he sure does know coffee, coupled with that you've got Leandri's highly skilled palate and the three of them roasted and tested many a coffee before deciding on the blend that will send kids to school.

The coffee used in this blend is from 3 countries, Tanzania, Guatemala and Indonesia. "We as the republic chose coffee from the 3 growing regions of the world to bring you a global coffee" says Matt. He has roasted it to a medium roast, to maximise the flavours of each individual bean. In the cup, you should expect a medium to full body with a polite citric acidity, exhibiting fruity notes with a dark chocolate finish. Matt recommends an AeroPress or a pour over, check out his method here.

The Launch Party held at The Whippet was a huge success, everyone was talking about it. Basically the good vibes can't be stopped...exciting times ahead.