Traveling to some of the remote areas of South Africa can be daunting from a coffee point of view. I mean, we love our country for the vastness, the natural beauty, our wildlife and so on, it's why we live here! There are so many places to explore, but the prospect of having to find a great coffee in an unknown region can be worrying!
Either you take all the manual coffee making equipment and make it yourself or you deal with whatever you can find served locally. I had heard about Hoedspruit a few years ago, it was known as Hoedpspruit Coffee Company back then, and they sent us coffees for the Discover Great Coffee Club - which were delicious - so I was excited to visit the actual roastery on a recent foray into Mpumalanga, on the way to the Kruger National Park.
The business has changed hands since then, and is now known as The Hoedspruit Cafe, though it still has the roastery section with a Genio sitting proudly in the centre of the production area.
The café is beautifully decorated, and makes you feel like your bush holiday has already begun - with the high thatched roofs and screed floors, it's very much in the local game lodge style, which I love! The staff were very friendly and helpful, and there is a lot of product to choose from and lots of space to browse for goodies.
And then, as I went in search of a few bags of coffee to take with me, I bumped into none other than the current AFCA Barista Champ and Two Times SA Barista Champ - Stevo Khün!!! He was working with Shimei (pictured above) in the roastery - sourcing coffee, developing profiles, training staff, building relationships with new clients in the area...getting good quality into the region, basically.
I was also very happy to see copies of the Coffee Magazine in the roastery area and shelves packed with all kinds of coffee equipment and accessories. Chatting to Stevo and Shimei, the team have big plans for uplifting the standard of coffee in the area.
I really enjoyed my double cappuccino - it was a takeaway - and it tasted delicious, with beautifully textured foam, a good balance of flavour and the ratios were spot on.
There is a beautiful outdoor area with lots of shade and greenery - again, making you feel like yiou're in the bush - and is a great place to stop in for a coffee, to buy coffee supplies and accessories and have a little respite before heading off to the bush!
