The success of vida e caffè around the country got the company thinking, “What about vida in hotels and restaurants?” It is now offering a turnkey solution to restaurateurs and hoteliers that come fully loaded with vida magic.
Its service includes a branded plunger, cups, saucers, a specially roasted, ground and packaged measure of coffee and sugar for in-room use in hotels. For restaurants it provides branded espresso machines, cups, saucers and even a fully trained barista to make sure the coffee is always at its best.
It opened its first store on Kloof Street in Cape Town in October 2001 and it has 40 branches all over Cape Town, in Stellenbosch, Knysna, Johannesburg, Durban, Bloemfontein and an international store located in Selfridges, London.
Own roasting
The company has taken another step to guarantee the highest quality: it now roasts its beans on-site at its state-of-the-art roastery in Cape Town to ensure freshness and the best flavour. This means it controls the whole process from purchase, to roast, to pour to produce the best vida e caffè experience. Helping with the roast is Pedro the Roaster, the master coffee magician. Being Portuguese, he has made the search for great espresso his life's work - as he puts it, “It's a fascinating process of searching, blending and roasting.”
