Two decades after opening its doors on Hudson Street in Cape Town’s De Waterkant, Origin Coffee Roasters is celebrating 20 years of helping build South Africa’s specialty coffee industry – with one of its former floor sweepers now helping lead the business.
Old team photo. Image supplied
Founded by Joel Singer and launched on 9 May 2006, Origin entered a South African coffee market where specialty coffee was still in its infancy. Beans were often selected primarily for cost, while formal barista training was limited.
From the outset, Origin took a different approach: where the infrastructure and skills needed to build a specialty coffee culture did not exist, it created them.
That philosophy was evident even before the café opened. When the historic cement floor beneath the Hudson Street premises proved too damaged to replace within the planned timeframe, the team found an unconventional solution – creating a new floor from 22kg of salvaged espresso beans, ground and set in epoxy.
“The slab underneath was ruined. Smashing it out and pouring new concrete would have delayed us by another month. So we made a floor out of coffee instead,” says Singer, co-founder of Origin Coffee Roasters.
“Anyone who has stood at our bar for the last twenty years has stood on it. Most of them have no idea.”
Building a specialty coffee ecosystem
The coffee floor became an early symbol of Origin's approach to business: solve problems creatively, invest in people and build the infrastructure required to develop the industry.
Joel and Jorge back in the Day. Image supplied
Over the past 20 years, the company has released more than 400 single-origin coffees and around 60 seasonal espresso blends, sourcing beans from producers across Africa, Central and South America, and the Asia Pacific region.
Its influence has extended beyond its own cafés through wholesale supply, with Origin serving close to 150 wholesale venues at its peak, including hospitality properties such as the One&Only and Vineyard Hotel in Cape Town.
Training has been another significant part of its contribution to the sector. Through its Barista Academy, Origin trained approximately 3,500 people over 17 years, ranging from professional baristas to coffee enthusiasts.
The investment in skills development has also translated into competition success, with Origin producing five South African Barista Champions: Willem Pienaar in 2007, José Vilandy in 2008, Wayne Oberholzer in 2011, Lovejoy Chirambaukwa in 2013 and Winston Thomas in 2017.
From sweeping floors to leading the business
Perhaps the clearest example of Origin's people-focused approach is Chirambaukwa.
A hospitality-trained refugee from Zimbabwe, Chirambaukwa joined Origin initially working on the floors. He progressed to the bar, developed his skills and went on to win the South African Barista Championship in 2013.
That same year, he competed at the World Barista Championship in Melbourne and won the All-Africa Barista Championship.
Today, Chirambaukwa is general manager of Origin at Hudson Street and Nosh at the V&A Time Out Market, making him one of the custodians of the brand's culture and history as it moves into its next chapter.
His journey reflects the broader role Origin has sought to play in the coffee industry: creating opportunities for people to develop skills, build careers and ultimately contribute to the growth of specialty coffee in South Africa.
Investing beyond the Origin brand
That commitment to industry development has increasingly extended beyond Origin's own operations.
In 2023, the company's training academy merged with those of longtime competitors Truth Coffee and Tribe Coffee to establish the African School of Coffee, a nonprofit institution focused on training the next generation of African coffee professionals.
The initiative represents a shift from developing talent for individual businesses towards strengthening the wider coffee ecosystem and creating pathways for future coffee entrepreneurs.
For a sector that has expanded significantly since Origin opened in 2006, the development of skills, businesses and professional standards has become an important part of sustaining that growth.
20 years – and a new generation
Image supplied
Origin's anniversary provides an opportunity to look back at how far South Africa's specialty coffee industry has come, but also at the role businesses can play in building an industry rather than simply operating within it.
From sourcing and roasting to wholesale, barista training and entrepreneurship, Origin has spent two decades developing different parts of the coffee value chain.
The business will mark its 20th anniversary with a celebration at Origin Café in De Waterkant on 4 September 2026, bringing together people who have been part of its journey.
Twenty years after its founders turned a problem floor into a coffee-filled piece of history, Origin's biggest legacy may be the people it has trained, the careers it has helped launch and the broader specialty coffee culture it has helped establish.
And fittingly, the person now helping carry that legacy forward is someone who once started at Origin by sweeping its floors.
