The Truth About Coffee

Soy Latte at Truth Cafe

The first awesome coffee place that I stumbled upon in Cape Town was Truth café on Buitenkant Street. This place could rival Shoreditch in London as the hipster hub of the world. The waiters and waitresses wear an assortment of hats, from trilbys to top hats, and they all look like part time musicians and artists. As you walk into the building you are instantly transported off the streets of Cape Town and into what feels like a secret club – where all of the cool kids hang out. Truth has seating for every occasion –  tables spilling onto the street, small tables for intimate coffee dates, a long bench that stretches almost the length of the room and has multiple plug sockets dangling from the ceiling for those wishing to lose themselves in their laptops and deep American style booths fitted with dark leather chairs. This place is lit only by a few flickering lights hanging from the ceiling and some suspended lamps at the counter, giving it a low light. A friend of mine referred to the ambiance in Truth as being similar to an instagram filter – how fitting!

Light fittings dangling from the ceiling 

The most impressive aspect of Truth though is the enormous coffee roaster behind the counter. It’s sheer size is astounding, it looks like if you were to climb into it, it might transport you to another time in history. This piece of technical ingenuity has almost a whimsical feel, it looks like a contraption that could only have been thought up by the likes of Roald Dahl, Tim Burton or Lewis Carroll.

Part of the coffee roasting contraption

It’s big, copper and cool – you get the picture. Now, lets talk about coffee. Truth promises that they “roast coffee properly” and let me tell you, they do not lie. The coffee is incredibly rich and strong. I seize every opportunity that I have to take a coffee expedition with my classmates and introduce them to this special place.If I could start every morning with a coffee from truth I know every day would be fabulous. Lucky for me they have a cheeky side stall that sells coffee to-go from the window – not so lucky for my wallet.

Lunch time adventure to Truth for an on-the-go coffee

Link to Truth’s website: http://www.truthcoffee.com/

Coffee Culture – First Love

One of my favorite things to do is to collect coffee places. Independent coffee shops always seem to be interesting, some are quirky, some are hipster, some are incredibly posh and most have a wonderful uniqueness to them that the gigantic establishments like Starbucks, Costa and even Vida E just cannot contend with. In England I would love finding these brilliant little places – Exeter was particularly full of them from the wonderfully strange Bike Shed which is tucked away just off the high street and offers big friendly sofas and an  eclectic mix of décor. To the beautifully traditional Tea On The Green which offers the most magnificent view of Exeter Cathedral and the most delicious cream teas that you could imagine.

 

 Exeter Cathedral as seen from Tea On The Green

And lest not forget, most importantly the famous Boston Tea Party with its spacious top floor filled with huge desks and mismatched chairs and sofas that make it feel somewhere between a huge common room and a very loud library. With every new place I visit I am able to add more exciting coffee shop joys to my list of favorite places ever and in this section of my blog I will share them with you as I find them.

 

This is how much I love coffee

Dream. Explore. Discover.

Introduction

Let me start by explaining the driving force behind this blog. I was born in South Africa but have spent the last thirteen years of my life living in England. Having been raised in a South African home in the heart of the United Kingdom and living and learning among Brits, I have always felt like a foreigner. The feeling of otherness was increased further when I spent a year of my University career studying in America at Iowa State University. While some may feel uncomfortable being foreign, I feel most alive when I am travelling. I also believe that the best way to get to know a Country is by living there. To live and study (or work) in a foreign setting and to get to know those who are most local to it  is to become part of the fabric of that place. Once again I have been given the exciting opportunity of leaving my comfort zone and living 5980 miles away in the beautiful City of Cape Town, South Africa. I will be spending a year studying a Post Graduate Marketing course at the Red and Yellow School of Magic and Logic.

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The theme of this blog is both being foreign in a place that is local to you and being local in a foreign place. Most of us would have experienced this feeling at one time or another, whether it was moving out of home and going to University or taking a gap year and living and working somewhere like Australia or Europe. There is something so special about discovering somewhere new, you arrive not knowing what to expect, a possible adventure around every corner. And slowly but surely you add favourite places, fun activities and cultural quirks to your internal list of things to show your friends when they come to visit. I am my happiest when I have a friend come to visit me in a place I love. I get to show them all the awesome things and places I have found and I get to feel like a tourist again. That is what this blog is to me. An online portal to share my experiences, tips and list of wonderful places that as a tourist one might never discover. I will make it as visual as I can because photography is my main passion in life – I compulsively document every new experience I have through my photographs. I will also include guest blog post from my friends who have found themselves a local tourist at one time or another.

Cape Town

London

Chicago

I used this quote when I wrote my personal statement to get into The University of Exeter, I wanted to study English with A Year of Study in North America. This quote encapsulates both my desire to travel and the reason I am so passionate about it. I try to take every chance I can get to fully immerse myself wherever I am. Three years later I still live by this quote and will always strive to continue to. Life is short, break the rules, forgive quickly, kiss slowly, love truly, laugh uncontrollably, and never regret anything that made you smile. Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover – Mark Twain