Brazil, Columbia, Ivory Coast and Ethiopia are just some of the world’s coffee superpowers and dream destinations for coffee snobs – we mean lovers – everywhere. But a little closer to home our very own coffee capital is emerging in the most unlikely quarters of Cape Town. Already famous (amongst many other things) for its Table Mountain, beautiful beaches and its wine route, we weren’t surprised to learn of Langa and Khayelitsha’s coffee bean route and the incredible tours being served up.

We meet at the Coffee Beans office, a beautiful ground floor space with a generous dose of design sensibility, that supports local creativity by stocking incredible pieces from home grown talents. Soon enough we meet Michael, our guide, who explains that more than a fun day out, the tours are really designed to give visitors an impression of the history and culture of Langa, and a taste of what the city’s future holds – a future that the company believes will be determined by the city’s townships.

Our first stop is the former Langa court, which was at one time also a holding cell for men and in another section, cells for women and children. Today the court is a history museum that details the role Langa played in the struggle for a democratic South Africa. The museum’s resident guide, Alfred Makwaca was himself a victim of police brutality when he was shot and injured by apartheid police in 1985, losing an eye in the process. Alfred gives a first person account of the events of his township and handles these intimate narratives with the care that only someone who’s lived it can ever master. One such account is of the PAC led March where Philip Kgosana led 30 000 protestors from Langa to the police headquarters in Caledon Square on 30 March 1960.

The next stop is the Ikhaya le Langa, a social enterprise hub managed by Tony Elvies. The centre offers rehabilitation programmes to ex-offenders, giving them a second chance by teaching them how to make African inspired jewellery and teaching them computer skills. By this point we begin to see a pattern starting to emerge – these are just some of the sites of change and community-driven initiatives that feed the contagious optimism of Coffeebeans Tours.

The next stop is no different. The Department of Coffee at Khayelitsha’s Ilitha park is the first coffee shop in the township. Here we meet the 3 co-owners, Wongama Baleni, Vusumuzi Mamile and Vuyile Msako, a never-say-die trio who tried their hand at two other businesses before the success of the Department of Coffee. It seems it’s third time lucky for the resilient trio. The Department of Coffee was established in 2012 with the purpose of exposing coffee culture to the township’s ever-growing middle class and to create an alternative to the pull of the city centre. The business has seen remarkable growth and the trio has developed five blends with unmistakable local flavour: Mzansi (Medium roast), African (Medium dark roast), Umlungu (Light roast), Runaway (Medium roast) and Station (Dark roast).

Although the coffee is the freshest brew of java we could hope for, it’s the observations of Coffeebeans that had us most amped. More than just clever PR talk, it is indisputable that something incredible is brewing in Langa and that this new dawn is here for a long time to come.