Rosetta Roastery was founded in 2010 by Jono Le Feuvre, Rob Cowles and Jeff van Aswegen, three former housemates who had played in a band together before turning to coffee. Jeff later moved on, and Ian “The Uncle” Scott joined Jono and Rob as co-owner. The motto is “Coffees are orchids. Not aspirins”: coffee as a varied, seasonal product to be enjoyed for its differences rather than a daily dose.

The roastery, in Claremont next door to the Claremont café, works only with single origins and makes no house blends. The team cups more than 150 coffees a year and releases the ones it selects in small batches, sorted into two roast styles. Progressive roasts are lighter-bodied and suited to filter brewing; Classic roasts are fuller, with caramelised-sugar notes, for espresso, French press and moka pot. Even the darkest Classic roast stays a moderate medium roast. Rosetta won Coffee Magazine’s South African Coffee Roastery of the Year in 2018, 2019 and 2023.

There are four cafés. Bree Street, in the city centre, has a filter brew bar, two single-origin espressos on the grinders, the whole roasted range on the shelf, and pastries and light meals baked in-house. The Claremont café in the southern suburbs has a larger food menu and a reserve coffee freezer menu of limited lots brewed to order as pour-overs. BlackBrick Gardens is a coffee bar inside a former 1960s hat factory in Gardens that is now a six-storey aparthotel. The Silo District bar in the Silo 4 atrium at the V&A Waterfront is a takeaway counter with a selection of retail bags.

Coffee on the shelf

Photograph: Rosetta Roastery