Naturally CAFFEINE-FREE!

I first heard about Coffea racemosa (which I will simply call racemosa from now on) from a journalist friend who wanders our country in search of stories and friendships. She had spotted it at a farm stall in Zululand and, being her, had also managed to scoop a seedling that she was nurturing to maturity in a rooftop garden on the Durban beachfront.

Racemosa is one of the 120-plus species, as are (also known as ) and , from which almost all commercial coffee comes. is indigenous to western and central Africa, from Angola up to Tanzania and across to Liberia, while originally comes from Ethiopia but was first cultivated in Yemen, hence the Latin name. Racemosa is another African species, but comes from a very localised 150km2 area in eastern southern Africa, from the coastal parts of Zululand up into southern Mozambique. Here it grows in the coastal forests, usually in sandy soil, on river banks or rocky outcrops. It is believed to be one of the rarest coffee species in the world (although cultivation could hopefully change that) and so is a protected species in South Africa.