HOT AND HAPPENING Master in art of superior coffee
WHEN stepping into Truth Coffee Roasting on Buitenkant Street you’d be forgiven for thinking you’ve stepped into another world because, with its steampunk-inspired design, it delivers coffee that tastes otherworldly.
It’s impossible to miss the passion of David Donde, owner of Truth Coffee and a coffee connoisseur, when he gets started on his favourite topic – coffee.
Asked to explain why, he said: “Because it’s a deep subject I can’t get to the bottom of, and I love the taste of coffee… I think it was a childhood experience.
“When I was growing up there was a little roastery on Long Street and it was just this romantic little thing of this old dude sitting there roasting and the smell of coffee…”
Truth Coffee started when Donde left his first roastery and needed to start something new. He wanted something that resonated with what he was trying to do with coffee.
“It wasn’t about how clever I was, but how great coffee was to drink, and I wanted a concept that was the distillation of what was good in coffee. I wanted this to be about enjoyment.
“The word ‘distillation’ has all types of negative connotations, but truth was the core of what made coffee great.”
Truth Coffee also houses the world’s only biofuel roaster, which is lovingly called Colossus, which the space was built around.
The success of Truth Coffee speaks for itself, with Donde regularly selected to judge international coffee competitions, along with the store having been given the title as the best coffee shop in the world by The Telegraph… Not once, but twice.
When asked if having been labelled the best coffee space in the world has added any pressure, Donde answered that he doesn’t think so, because it helps to expose where they aren’t good enough.
“It sets a benchmark for everyone who works here. Our mission statement before was to be acknowledged as a world-class artisan roaster, and once that was done, what next?
“We then set our current one, which is ‘the joy of extraordinary truth’. Now we have three concepts we don’t really understand that we have to live up to: joy, extraordinary and truth.”
It’s often said that the proof is in the pudding, and for Donde the truth is in the coffee. “It’s a part of my life, it’s embedded into me… And it’s not something I do, but it’s a part of who I am.”
Sugar isn’t served as a default at Truth Coffee, unless asked for. “People put sugar in their coffee to combat bitterness. We believe coffee shouldn’t be bitter, and we roast our coffee with that philosophy,” he added.