Humble Coffee

Amy Gardiner founded Humble Coffee in Durban in 2017, at the age of 23. Eight years later, after almost six years on Churchill Road in Morningside, Humble has moved to a beautiful 100-seater venue at 222 Lilian Ngoyi Road (Windermere). The team is still entirely women. The motto is still “Be Nice, Stay Humble.”

I met someone from Humble's team at the Jo'burg Coffee Festival in May 2026 and walked away with two bags — a natural Ethiopian Lalisa and a Colombia single origin — plus a strongly endorsed recommendation for the Timemore Sculptor 078 grinder.

Amy Gardiner is from Edinburgh, Scotland. She moved to Durban, worked four years as a barista locally, fell in love with the city, and at 23 decided to build something of her own. She started small with roasting — not a café — and grew the business from there.

A wee Scot, a four-year barista grind in a city that wasn't hers, and the conviction at 23 that she could build a roastery in a market that didn't really have a women-led template to copy from. That she's still here eight years on — and just opened a 100-seater — is worth pausing on.

Humble is all-women. The team is around 20 staff across roastery, café and bakery. In an SA specialty scene where most of the visible owners and head roasters are men, that's not incidental — it's a statement.

Amy has spoken publicly about wanting Humble to be a place where women can build full careers in coffee. The team trains internally and Humble actively recommends other KZN roasteries for anyone wanting to deepen their barista skills further.