TALYA WAS HERE.

new product? chocolate treat aka rocky road nom nom. tour of Vida’s Roastery. full post here.

beans. tour of Vida’s Roastery. full post here.

tour of Vida’s Roastery. full post here.

the roastery. tour of Vida’s Roastery. full post here.

beans! tour of Vida’s Roastery. full post here.

Flat Whites at Vida. full diary post on Shades Of Gold here.

Happy 10th Birthday Vida! full diary post on Shades Of Gold here.

ZOMG it took the 10 years, but Vida FINALLY put their prices up!!!

@DeanOelsch tweeted that Nando’s were now serving Vida e Caffe coffee. So after my Vida on Kloof, I walked 5 steps and was at Nando’s to check it out. As I suspected, the coffees all cost less, don’t seem to come with a Lindt, and they’re served in glass mugs which is so Caturra coffee circa 1997. Dean Tweeted: ‘.. I bought one from Nandos an hour ago. I had to throw it away it was so bad.’

With a Nando’s branch, Kloof Street imparticular, which is within walking distance of a Vida, why would you ever choose the Nando’s branch.. you may save R1.05 on a cappuccino, but you get it in a glass mug, no Lindt and it isn’t made by a Vida trained barrista?

I’m still in shock that Vida would spend 10 years building the brand that they have, only to kill it, by lowering themselves to serving their coffee in a fast food chicken restaurant. I just do not get it - yes I see the Portuguese connection but besides that it is a horrible idea. Lindt was a brilliant partnership, two premium brands getting together, and it’s worked so well. Often I’ll choose Vida over another coffee place, just because I feel like the bite of dark chocolate that goes with it.

The whole point of Vida is that you’re supposed to get barista made coffee and service that is fun, lively and efficient - qualities I’ve never seen in a Nando’s branch. 

They went from supplying Beluga, which I only vaguely got the point of, to Nando’s. Uuuh, will they be supplying Wimpy next?!

A Polaroid A Day - Hypnotised by Vida’s new Gelato.. Are you under their spell? Doesn’t it remind you of that old brilliant K-T.V ad?

Coffee, Lately.

A cappuccino at Sixty6, what a little gem that we happened to stumble upon. Thought there were no more secret amazing coffee places (or places I haven’t been) to discover in Cape Town and then boom this appeared out of nowhere. It’s very well hidden inside Woodstock Industrial Centre, the home to my new favourite bookstore Bibliophilia. Serials this place is lovely, and hey if you’re ever in Woodstock..

Yesterday was my first visit to the ‘new’ Deluxe aka were all the coolkids hang out; YoursTruly in Long Street, sampled the flat white which is delicious (those Deluxe beans have something super special in them..) - but I’m confused as to why you would pay R15 for a cuppa when you can get anything you like from the source 2 min away for only R10?!

Shopping spree this afternoon at the Waterfront and needed a serious caffeine boost, so chose the most convenient place - Vida + I really felt like the Lindt..

After hours of shopping, landed up at W Cafe for a Flat White and a Green Tea (added honey to the tea - uber gross don’t try it!) the view is oh so great now that Larry Ellison’s monstrosity of a ‘yacht’ has left.

Flat White, my first in forever. V&A Waterfront Vida it was oh so good - 6 December

3 Solo Cappuccinos at Vida V&A - 3 November.

Green Tea at Buzz - 20 October.

So today is my third day without coffee. So proud of myself, went to Vida on Monday and Tuesday, whilst everyone had their usual lattes & cappuccinos I sipped on water which really is no fun, but I managed. Had such a horrible headache from the caffeine withdrawals yesterday, been drinking green tea like it’s going out of fashion.

You can get amazing teas at Origin but at R25 a pop it’s kinda expensive, currently drinking the Woolies Organic green tea at home but I’m not loving it, any suggestions?

The Truth?

We parked right by the super cool Truth truck when we arrived at Rocking The Daisies, so super cool I just had to take a quick picture. Then went for a shot from the back..

Notice what’s so wrong with this picture? 

Twitpic’d it because there is no way in hell that they would have put a Vida sticker on their own truck. Their response was: ‘No idea (who did this), but sure as HELL going to F$%^#@ing find out!’

The Truth in fact, that I later found out was that Vida had paid to be the sole coffee provider at Rocking The Daisies. Just like there was 1 sandwich place, 1 burger place, 1 Mexican place, 1 sushi place etc.. You catch my drift. Which is totally wack for consumers - as none of the vendors have any direct competition, nor do they have price wars resulting in them being able to charge whatever they want, as what they’re selling is completely different, and consumers only really have one option, which sucks!

But anyways, that is clearly the revenue stream for the festival and those vendors probably wouldn’t have wasted their time being there if there was going to be 4 places selling coffee. So how did Truth get in? Well they snuck in with Hudsons.

Which is ‘Yay’ for consumers, but sorta like, umm totally unethical, at the same time Vida shouldn’t be putting their stickers on the competitions van either..

Who was right & who was out of line?