We had the great pleasure of meeting Ben Schempers at last year's Coffee Magazine Awards. Die Koffieman was nominated in the new category of Best Mobile/Takeaway/Coffee Bar and Ben made the trek from Polokwane to attend. We are so glad he did. He is a wonderful human and he and his brother Pieter have an incredible sense of fun! We picked Ben's brain on how it all began and where they are now!
How did Die Koffieman become a reality?
Hard work, perseverance, and a love for artisan coffee. I started grinding at it in 2016 and have honestly never stopped. The never-ending vortex that is specialty coffee swallowed me whole. Sometimes, when I have an idea, I simply can’t stop until it’s manifested—or it manifests itself.
Who are the humans behind the brand?
Myself, Ben Schempers, and my brother Pieter Schempers. I’m a father of three, a husband, musician, barista, businessman, roaster, skateboarder, and more recently, a trail runner. I’d label myself as the creative director and CFO of Die Koffieman.
Pieter is my younger brother—a CrossFitter, sports fanatic, delegator, and an almost-lawyer. He handles all the admin, communication, and orders. At our mobile setups, you’re most likely to see one of us behind the espresso machine.
Die Koffieman’s branding is done by one of my high school buddies, Rozier van Tonder, from Okay Deer. Collectively, Rozier and I are also the photographers behind the brand.
Of course we need to know about the coffee! Tell us about your roaster partner and your signature coffee!
Natuurlik, die koffie! We are our own roastery partners in the form of Bun Bun Roastery, a venture we started in 2022.
Through our roastery, we supply wholesale specialty coffee to cafés, supply ourselves, and run an online store.
Bun Bun Roastery mostly sticks to roasting African origins, as we are Africans ourselves.
Supporting farmers growing coffee in our own soil just makes more sense to me—it feels like home. We roast a variety of single origins ranging from Tanzania, Ethiopia, Uganda, and the DRC. My current favourite is the Tanzanian Selassie, named after Haile Selassie, the Emperor of Ethiopia from 1930 to 1974.
You have the coolest mobile coffee carts! Exactly how many do you have? How did you come up with the design of these amazing mobile units?
I currently have four mobile units:
We’ve also built Tuk Tuks on request for clients like Lekke Kofi in Vredendal, and a Koffieman Tuk Tuk that will be serving the greater Tzaneen area shortly.
Each design is an improved version of the previous one. Pieter and I bring our mobile trading experience and expertise to the table, always asking: how can we elevate our service and standards? We also constantly aim to make the layout and design easier for the operator to set up, transport, and maintain.
ED'S NOTE: They also have a permanent Speciality coffee drive-thru at The Dental Studio, 39 Bendor Drive, Polokwane.
What is the coolest location you’ve ever served coffee in?
I’d say Nieu-Bethesda—a quaint, eerie village at the foot of the Sneeuberge in the Eastern Cape, where I served at the Karoo Handmade Festival.
It feels like such a small community that even when you’re safe and sound in your accommodation, there’s no place to hide—at least not for long. That made me feel quite vulnerable. So I started engaging with some of the locals, which led to mind-blowing conversations and meeting some of the most interesting people I’ve ever encountered.
The word I would use to describe you is FUN! It looks like you love what you do! How do you weave that into your everyday coffee life?
I really do love what I do. I enjoy creating connections with customers by joking around with them, relating to their stories, and sharing my own.
I have fun creating Instagram reels, taking content photos, and geeking out over coffee extraction.
Don’t get me wrong—the struggle of entrepreneurship is real. But I try not to take myself too seriously.
Spewing out a few swear words while struggling to load a Tuk Tuk after an event in a remote location in the middle of the night is also an adventure—fun in itself (sometimes only in retrospect).
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