Alfie In Wonderland: the stupendous steampunk style of Cape Town’s Truth Coffee roasters.
To start the year and escape the winter blues our barista Alfie travelled to South Africa.
Down the rabbit hole - Here is Alfie’s story
Entering Cape Town’s Truth Coffee Roasters, it felt as if I’d fallen down the rabbit hole. I’m greeted by low-hanging bulbs with top hats as lampshades, marvellous mechanisms and magnificent machinery, bikes hanging from the ceiling and the lulling voice of Ella Fitzgerald– a stark contrast to our clean and simple Crouch End coffeeshop that buzzes with the sounds of Colombia. The music in Truth matches the vibe: offbeat and dreamy.
I’m straight over to the coffee beans and after a quick mention of my profession, I’m soon sipping on a smooth Ethiopian filter, naturally processed (for free of course, perks of the trade). The beans are presented on several shelves and as I talk to my barista she turns a metal steering wheel and the shelves rotate on some kind of chain contraption for a most impressive browsing experience. You should have seen my face; awestruck. I bought my beans. I bought all the beans, one of each bag except decaf (need I say any more?).
I sit down with a menu styled after a broadsheet newspaper with the same font as the New York Times including headlines on their homemade bread and reports on different coffee processes. I order a double espresso and I’m asked if I want the ‘resurrection blend’, the ‘deep, dark and twisted’ or the ‘black honey’. Am I in some kind of Grimm fairytale? I go for the black honey which, unsurprisingly, is a black honey processed blend of Ethiopia and El Salvador. A black honey processed espresso; the audacity. I also ordered a carrot cake which I’d have to say would give our carrot and cinnamon a run for its money.
Soon, I’m friends with the whole team. I fit in so well I considered getting a job there and settling down in Cape Town but how could I do such a thing to lovely little Crouch End. I also realised I don’t own a waistcoat and I’m sure that would have been a problem (for reasons that will soon be understood). Suddenly, I’m getting the full tour with VIP roastery access too, not that I really knew what I was looking at (forgive me, I’m just a humble barista); it was like entering Walter White’s lab.
When I mentioned to a barista, “you’ve got a real steampunk thing going here”, his response was “steampunk and Mad Max” and these baristas would not look amiss barrelling down Fury Road. When I get into work I pop an apron on, these baristas pop on leather waistcoats with looping chains, bold belts and buckles, flat caps and top hats with apocalypse-ready protective goggles strapped on– hats worn crooked because everything is crooked in here– and piercings, lots of piercings. Bells and whistles– I wouldn’t have been surprised if they wore actual bells and whistles. No half measures here. If I had asked the time, they’d have probably pulled out a pocket watch that’s hanging from one of the many looping chains, offered some insightful words of wisdom and then, with a tip of their hat, disappeared into thin air. These aren’t just baristas, these are the most eccentric of alchemists; trendy witches and hipster wizards (they don’t only exist in Shoreditch). Their cold brew is appropriately titled ‘potion coffee’ and my mind conjures up the image of these baristas with goggles firmly secured over eyes mixing vials of fluorescent liquid until ‘poof!’, a puff of smoke and voilà, ‘potion coffee’.
On the side of a prison-like metal fence in the shop, there’s a plaque that reads: ‘we roast coffee. Properly’ and that’s the damn truth (sorry, couldn’t help myself). The weird and wonderful world of Truth Coffee Roasters is rich and extravagant through and through and filled to the brim with character and personality from the equipment to the uniform to the staff to the quality. Its quirky, visually-busy, offbeat nature does and does not transfer to the coffee in that their beans and roasts are unique and interesting but their brews are controlled, educated and finessed. These guys really know what they’re doing.
I brought back a natural Ethiopian, a washed Rwandan and the black honey blend of Ethiopia and El Salvador so keep an eye out for those on our batch brew. I’ll be the one with the top hat with goggles strapped onto the front ready to risk my life on Fury Road for the love of the coffee.
In Truth Coffee roasters, it’s weird and wonderful unfortunately, in Velasquez and Van Wezel I think I’d just look weird.
“Oh, what a day….what a lovely day!”
‘Mad Max: Fury Road’ (2015)
Written by Alfie Beecher.
ALFIE VISITED:
@truthcoffee.capetown
36 Buitenkant St, Cape Town City Centre, Cape Town, 8000