2016 Illovo Café Society Awards

On Tuesday, 25^th of October 2016, KwaZulu-Natal’s top coffee cafe owners and baristas gathered at the 2016 Illovo Café Society Awards at the Bellevue Café in Kloof. The event that has been proudly sponsored by Illovo Sugar SA for the past 16 years, the awards are a collaboration between Illovo and the Sunday Tribune, who started the Café Society in 1999. The awards have grown in stature and acclaim, and the Café Society stamp of approval have helped grow many independent coffee shops throughout KZN. It has also seen the likes of former winners go on to represent South Africa on a number of international coffee stages.

The awards evening was abuzz with excitement as the ever-hopeful finalists waited with baited breath to hear if they would claim top spot in one of the four awarded area categories (the South Coast, Pietermaritzburg and Midlands, Central Durban and the North Coast).

The winners of the categories that were announced for the evening included Tea @ Baytree in South Coast Mall, Shelly Beach; Terbodore Coffee Roasters in the Midlands, Counter Culture in Ballito and Lineage Coffee in Hilcrest, Durban. All the other finalists and the top 100 Coffee Shops around KZN that are making waves in the coffee and hospitality industry are published in a special insert on the 30^th of October 2016 in the Sunday Tribune Newspaper.

The full results for the 2016 Café Society Awards are as follows:

Best Coffee – South Coast:

1^st Place – Tea @ Baytree (South coast mall, Shelly Beach)

2^nd Place – Daily Grind (Hibiscus Mall, Margate)

3^rd Place – Beaver Creek Coffee Estate (Port Edward)

Best Coffee – Pietermaritzburg and Midlands:

1^st Place – Terbodore Coffee Roasters(Midlands)

2^nd Place – Sagewood Cafe (Pietermaritzburg)

3^rd Place – Olde Duck Cafe (Underberg)

Best Coffee – Durban:

1^st Place – Lineage Coffee (Builders Way, Hillcrest)

2^nd Place – Antique Café (Churchill Road, Morningside)

3^rd Place – Bean Green (Glenwood, Durban)

Best Coffee – North Coast:

1^st Place – Counter Culture (Ballito)

2^nd Place – Wonderland coffee at Linc church (Salt Rock)

3^rd Place – Piccadeli Cafe (Ballito)

Barista Personality Awards:

Durban Winner and Overall Winner – Kgune Dlamini (Lineage Coffee)

North Winner – Precious Ngcobo (Piccadeli Café)

South Winner – Princess Ntini (Tee @ Baytree)

Inland Winner – Sinjini Wicks (Terbodore Coffee Roasters)