YAAWK Coffee: Olympic Rowers, YouTube Tutorials, and the Seek the Best Slogan

YAAWK pronounces like yawk, looks like a typo, and was founded by two Olympic-level rowers who learned to roast coffee off YouTube and a Giesen forum. That's not a setup. That's the actual brand.

## The Founders

Sandro Torrente and Henry Torr are South African rowers who've represented the country at Olympic level and still race competitively. At some point, they decided rowing wasn't enough.

Per Sandro himself, talking to Coffee Magazine:

> "I actually didn't have any roasting experience, just a lot of tutorials and seminars through YouTube platforms and Giesen forums."

That is one of the most honest founder admissions I've come across in SA specialty. Most founder narratives go through three rounds of polish. Sandro just said: we watched videos, we read forums, we bought a Giesen, we figured it out.

Why this works: Olympic-level rowing is one of the most physically and mentally exacting sports on the planet. If you can apply that pain threshold to roast profile development, you'll be fine.

## The Brand Name

> "It sounds familiar, looks unfamiliar, and we just like the way it sounded and the abstract look of it."

That's it. That's the whole brief. The double-A typography on the bags and the SEEK THE BEST slogan painted in white sans-serif on black — it's not trying to be cute. It's trying to be a logo.

## The Range — Three Blends Named for Rowing States

| Blend | 250g | 1kg | Note |
|-------|------|-----|------|
| Timeless | R139 | R435 | The day-in, day-out cup |
| Steady State | R129 | R359 | The endurance cup (cruising heart-rate zone) |
| Flow State | R135 | R405 | The performance cup (peak focus) |

Plus single origins: Dark Peak (Yirgacheffe) and Brazil Sweet. And Nespresso-compatible compostable pods — SA roasters who handle the pod question seriously are still in the minority.

## On the Floor at the Festival

Both founders in matching white YAAWK t-shirts and matching grey-and-white trucker caps. One holds the Yoco card machine. Behind them, the dark-green Timeless Blend menu card and a transparent grinder hopper packed with beans. Both smiling — the kind of smile you do when you've spent the morning watching strangers taste what you made and most of them said yes.

The retail wall: a galvanised-steel utility rack against a black wall painted with SEEK THE BEST stencilled vertically in white. The utility-rack-against-black-wall is the right call. It says we're a young business that takes the work seriously without trying to be a finished-looking established café.

## Where to Find Them

84 Western Service Road, Wendywood, Sandton, Johannesburg
Online at yaawkcoffee.co.za
Wholesale: taste.yaawkcoffee.co.za
Instagram: @yaawkcoffee