Afro Coffee: Coffee Culture Revolution

25 Apr 2007 Category: Arts & Crafts, Fashion, Features, Products, Worldwide

Afro Coffee: Coffee Culture Revolution

Colourful packaging: Afro Coffee from Cape Town expanded their coffee shop to all sorts of enterprises with an African spirit!

In the beginning it was an ordinary cafe - for coffee. But the Afro Coffee shop at Church Street in sunny Cape Town, South Africa, took it a step further and started designing a tasteful range of products around the beverage: not only beautifying the packaging design of their coffee brand Afro Coffee, but also designing the whole interior of the cafe and eventually enhancing the assortment with their own special tea brand, and fabrics - and even fashion like super cute bags with an African spirit! PingMag talked with the Afro Coffee member Grant Rushmere about more than coffee.

Written by Uleshka and Verena


Afro Coffee’s Afro Tea from Cape Town in a delicious looking 75 g tin.

The Afro Sac Bag from Afro Coffee, a leather and fabric combo.

First, let’s begin with: who is Afro Coffee?

The members are myself, Grant Rushmere, and two Austrian partners who have facilitated and assisted me in developing the brand, with a view to taking it slowly into the wide world. Design and branding have been a passion of mine and these are realized through the Afro Coffee brand and the fun merchandising we develop. One of my partners has an international network of advertising agencies and the other has developed and owns a world leading brand. With their experience they have and will continue to guide the development of Afro Coffee.


Detail of the bag with another pattern on the fabric…

…vividly colourful! Same detail in a varied colour.

And how did the whole project start?

It started out as a cafe in downtown Cape Town. Our concept was to harness a Pan African view of contemporary urban Africa. The pop art nature of African design inspired us to create our own brand of coffee instead of the usual Italian coffee that most cafes use. Our goal was to refocus people to the origins of coffee - that it in fact originated in Africa before being discovered by the Arabs and from Yemen, exported around the world. Many people don’t know this, so we attempt to capture and celebrate this African spirit in our packaging and all we do.


Detail from the bag pictured above with an afro bikini girl in green…

…and, woah, what a pink!

Another fabric motif, equally stunning…

…and in a slightly different colour.

What is your Afro Cafe mission?

Our mission is to communicate the joys of Africa through our Afro Cafes and our Afro branded products. The fact that the African people are so wonderfully not self-conscious at all, their humour and freedom and their style and design. Hopefully we can convey this spirit and enhance the lives of people who consume our product and sip coffee listening to Afro Tunes at our cafes. For South Africa, we try to show just how cool Afro culture actually is and instill a sense of confidence into people to make them realize what they already are. Lofty ideals but we’ll have a go!

Afro by Dalla Cia: Wine Box radio. Who thought that a radio on a wine label could actually work…

When did it become bigger, being not only an ordinary coffee shop?

After being discovered by my Austrian partners, the funds were available to develop the brand further: firstly into a tea brand called Afro Tea, a collection of loose leaf teas flavoured with fruits and flowers - all using African tea bases, like Rooibos. We then developed and designed our own fabrics, inspired by the West African religious cloth fabrics, which we had converted into oil cloth table cloths for the cafe. They turned out so beautifully that we felt we had to make bags from them as well, and so now we print these designs on high quality fabric and combine it with leather to make Afro Bags. This will never be as widely distributed as our tea and coffee, but it allows us to express the lifestyle that inspires our brand.

The whole range of Afro tea in these superb looking tins.

What sort of products do you sell else?

We sell Afro Coffee and Afro Tea in the cafe. We are also starting to distribute these into select stores, first in South Africa and then into Europe and hopefully further, in time. Our merchandising product is sold in the cafe as well, with a very limited distribution in Cape Town. Our online store will be live within the next 2 months on our website and will finally allow people to purchase our products from anywhere in the world.

Now, who designs your cute and colourful products?


Psst! Soon to come - more fine looking crockery.

It is a combination of myself, my sister, Tracy Rushmere, and our designers Peet Pienaar and Heidi Chisholm from the Cape Town-based company Daddy Buy Me a Pony from 9November Union of Companies.

And who produces them?

Except for tea which will be available from this year, all our products are made by a range of South African producers that contribute exclusive, original products for Afro.

Do you have events or parties in the Afro Cafe, too?

Wednesday, Thursday and Friday evenings we have live African music playing at the cafe. The bands are from Senegal, Congo, Tanzania, Zimbabwe and many other African nations.


From the Afro T-shirt section: football for girls…

…and more of the happy patterns.

What people come to your cafe?

Thankfully a very eclectic mix of all ages and origins. People involved in a very wide range of creative disciplines are the ones who capture the spirit of adventure most readily - but so do children.

As I heard, your shop was so successful that it expanded a bit…?

Indeed, the next Afro Cafe will open in Salzburg, Austria, in early May. 

We wish you all the best, and eagerly wait for a branch in Tokyo… Even more, in the PingMag office, we are totally hooked on your delicious Afro Tea with its totally aromatic Rooibos, rose and elderberry flavour! Thank you, Afro Coffee and Grant Rushmere!

28 Comments

  1. Thanks for the joyful colors and patterns!

    Posted by: Bill Olen on April 25th, 2007 at 8:29 pm

  2. brilliant packaging design, ‘funkydelic!’

    Posted by: Aaron Roselo on April 26th, 2007 at 7:39 am

  3. [...] PingMag - The Tokyo-based magazine about “Design and Making Things” » Archive » Afro Coffee: C… (tags: south-africa design art business ideas) [...]

    Posted by: mobmash blog » Blog Archive » links for 2007-04-26 on April 26th, 2007 at 9:24 am

  4. coffee “absolute vodka”? good strategy

    Posted by: keanu on April 26th, 2007 at 4:29 pm

  5. [...] bei PingMag gefunden: die Kollektion des ursprünglichen Cafés “Afro Coffee” aus Kapstadt ist [...]

    Posted by: rk_journal » Afro Coffee on April 27th, 2007 at 9:14 pm

  6. South Africa is slowly but steadily creeping up on my top five places to obsess about. thanks for featuring this, it’s inspiration to the max.

    Posted by: dendoo on May 5th, 2007 at 1:31 am

  7. [...] Les mer her: Coffee shop [...]

    Posted by: Afro Coffee | ONION:BLOGG on June 8th, 2007 at 6:02 pm

  8. love it, love it love it…

    Posted by: Afro fun on September 26th, 2007 at 4:48 pm

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    Posted by: Beautiful and Expressive Packaging Design | Monday Inspiration | Smashing Magazine on June 2nd, 2008 at 6:18 pm

  10. [...] Afro Coffee PackagingAfro by Dalla Cia: a Wine Box radio. Who thought that a radio on a wine label could actually work… [...]

    Posted by: How do you build… » Blog Archive » Beautiful and Expressive Packaging Design on June 2nd, 2008 at 8:33 pm

  11. [...] Afro Coffee PackagingAfro by Dalla Cia: a Wine Box radio. Who thought that a radio on a wine label could actually work… [...]

    Posted by: nodo21.x10hosting.com » Blog Archive » Beautiful and Expressive Packaging Design on June 4th, 2008 at 11:51 am

  12. [...] culture blog PingMag turned me onto new designs from Afro Coffee, a South African roaster whose iconic packaging is [...]

    Posted by: Afro Espresso « Goliblogski on June 5th, 2008 at 9:01 am

  13. [...] http://pingmag.jp/2007/04/25/afro-coffee-coffee-culture-revolution/ [...]

    Posted by: Afro Coffee « Moustier-City on June 5th, 2008 at 1:23 pm

  14. [...] Link [...]

    Posted by: AfroCoffee’s wine-box with radio | RatZine - Rat stinkin news on June 5th, 2008 at 7:10 pm

  15. [...] Link [...]

    Posted by: AfroCoffee’s wine-box with radio | RatZine - Rat stinkin news on June 5th, 2008 at 7:10 pm

  16. Great the womens in freekin bikini how ‘empowering’ for her..

    Posted by: Anonymous on June 5th, 2008 at 9:43 pm

  17. Yes, bikinis are causing genocide. She should be in a pantsuit.

    Posted by: Tony on June 6th, 2008 at 7:21 am

  18. funky shit mafia brods

    Posted by: da weeder on June 7th, 2008 at 11:26 am

  19. [...] The IT guy at my work, (who we call Geek Boy) is a constant and reliable source of awesome crap on the internet. He also is amazing at fixing my computer when I do things like throw the desktop in the trash and all my files disappear. Today he found this Afro Coffee product on Geek boy found this Ping Mag. [...]

    Posted by: ShezillaBlogs | Gangsta Type | Graphixx | Animation | DEsign » Afro Espresso on June 7th, 2008 at 3:15 pm

  20. [...] Lähde: pingmag.jp [...]

    Posted by: Afro Coffee Wine Box radio -viinipakkauksen radio oikeasti toimii - Hilavitkutin.com - Uutisia tekniikasta, ilmiöistä ja hilavitkuttimista on June 7th, 2008 at 5:27 pm

  21. [...] Afro Coffee PackagingAfro by Dalla Cia: a Wine Box radio. Who thought that a radio on a wine label could actually work… [...]

    Posted by: Packaging Design « Picksflix blog on June 7th, 2008 at 11:59 pm

  22. [...] we haven’t yet tried this South African coffee just yet, but this irresistible packaging makes us want to fly to Cape Town for our [...]

    Posted by: Fashion Week Daily - Chic Report » South African Caffeine on June 17th, 2008 at 4:17 am

  23. Retro-Afro Coffee is awesome :)

    Posted by: PekeniaVi on June 19th, 2008 at 1:00 am

  24. [...] Afro Coffee Packaging Afro by Dalla Cia: a Wine Box radio. Who thought that a radio on a wine label could actually work… [...]

    Posted by: Packaging Design « Piperabu’s Weblog on June 27th, 2008 at 6:56 pm

  25. [...] Afro Coffee Packaging Afro by Dalla Cia: a Wine Box radio. Who thought that a radio on a wine label could actually work… [...]

    Posted by: Beautiful And Original Product Designs « Piperabu’s Weblog on June 30th, 2008 at 4:34 pm

  26. [...] Afro Coffee Packaging Afro by Dalla Cia: a Wine Box radio. Who thought that a radio on a wine label could actually work… [...]

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  27. [...] Afro Coffee Packaging Afro by Dalla Cia: a Wine Box radio. Who thought that a radio on a wine label could actually work… [...]

    Posted by: Bellos y expresivos diseños de envases « Diseño Web & Gráfico on March 6th, 2009 at 9:07 am

  28. [...] Underbar radio-on-a-bag-in-box! Skulle få mig att pimpla vin oftare;) (Afro by Dalia Cia) [...]

    Posted by: Style and Life by Leia on December 30th, 2009 at 6:05 pm

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