Yellow Jacket Coffee: Q Grader-Led, Anime-Loving, Award-Stacking
Shewaan Khan's Kenilworth roastery is the most decorated young operation in SA specialty. CMA Best Packaging 2023, Roastery of the Year 2024, Excellence in Coffee 2025. And there's a Kakashi Hatake figurine on the La Marzocco.
Key Takeaways
- Shewaan Khan is the founder and head roaster.
- Four colour-coded spec cards at the festival, each reading like a competition-coffee profile:
- Yellow Jacket sells their Geisha-grade coffees in 80g tins and explicitly tells customers NOT to use them for espresso.
- 46 Goldbourne Road, Kenilworth, Cape Town — Roastery + Ikigai café partnership Online at yellowjacketcoffee.
Yellow Jacket Coffee Roaster is the most decorated young roastery in SA right now — and probably the most personality-rich. I met one of their baristas at Jo'burg Coffee Festival 2026 and walked away with the Luna Geisha, the Umber, and a strong opinion that Yellow Jacket's colour-coded packaging system is the best-designed in SA specialty coffee right now.
The Founder — Shewaan Khan, Q Grader
Shewaan Khan is the founder and head roaster. His credentials are unusual in the SA scene:
- Certified Q Grader — formal SCA-level coffee quality grading certification
- Q Processing Professional — the only one in SA at time of writing
- 16+ years across the printing and coffee industries
A Q Grader can taste and score coffee against a global standard. A Q Processing Professional understands the processing methods that produce those flavour profiles. Shewaan is certified in both — and you can taste it in the catalogue.
The Awards — A Serious Shelf
| Year | Award | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 2023 | CMA — Best Packaging | The colour-coded box system |
| 2024 | CMA — Roastery of the Year | The big one |
| 2025 | CMA — Excellence in Coffee | Second consecutive winners' list |
| 2025 | Joshua Machelm — Barista of the Year (shortlist) | Team depth |
The trophy from 2024 sat on the festival counter at Jo'burg 2026, next to the anime figurines. Subtle flex.
The Coffees — Competition-Grade Single Origins
Four colour-coded spec cards at the festival, each reading like a competition-coffee profile:
Pink Bourbon — Colombia, Diego Bermúdez, Finca El Paraíso. Double Anaerobic Thermal Shock Washed. 1,930 masl. Notes: peach, creamy, apricot, oolong tea.
Caxambu — Brazil, Minas Gerais, Carmen Lucia Chaves de Brito. Natural. 1,200 masl. Notes: fuji apple, cherry, strawberry, boozy, floral.
Nyabirongo — Uganda, Rwenzori region, 44 smallholder farmers. Anaerobic Natural. 1,800–2,200 masl. Notes: granadilla, blueberry, creamy milk chocolate.
Bishan Wate — Ethiopia, Guji, Faysel Abdosh. Heirloom. Natural. 1,900–2,200 masl. Notes: lemongrass, jasmine, bergamot, blackberry.
Plus an extensive online catalogue including Colombia Castillo M-03, Ethiopia Chelbesa Red Honey, Kenya Kiandu AB Washed, El Salvador Los Naranjos Geisha, and more.
The Gesha Series — 80g Tins, Pour-Over Only
Yellow Jacket sells their Geisha-grade coffees in 80g tins and explicitly tells customers NOT to use them for espresso. They want you to brew the Gesha series as pour-over and get the most out of each cup. That's honest retail advice.
The Personality
- The yellow La Marzocco — most cafés stick with chrome or black
- The Kakashi Hatake figurine (Naruto) on top of the espresso machine
- The Demon Slayer Giyu Tomioka figurine standing guard beside him
- Cat doodles and smiley faces on the banner
- Bright colour-coded packaging — the awards-winning system
It's specialty coffee that hasn't taken itself too seriously. And the technical work behind the cup is so serious that the playful surface lands as confidence, not gimmick.
Where to Find Them
46 Goldbourne Road, Kenilworth, Cape Town — Roastery + Ikigai café partnership Online at yellowjacketcoffee.co.za Instagram: @yellow_jacketcr Phone: 079 091 7753 · Email: [email protected]
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About the author
Bibi Burness, founder of Coffee Journal, has profiled 50+ SA specialty roasters and tested 10+ bottled water brands against the SCA standard. He completed the Bean There and Bluebird one-day home-barista courses in 2026 and maintains the site's transparency trust-score system.
Read more on the About page →