With coffee, I can surprise you. I have found three South African Arabica coffee farms. Two are on your way to the Kruger National Park, the Sabie Valley Coffee off the R536 and the Austrian Coffee Estate off the R533. The third one is in Port Edward, KwaZulu-Natal called Beaver Creek and you can buy online from them. Another KZN-grown coffee is Assagay Coffee or Zulu Brew in Harrison, near Cato Ridge. Some people say there is no money in growing coffee in South Africa and that farms run at a loss, but if you and I actually bought South African coffee, yes, possibly for more than we pay for the imports, couldn’t we turn that around? Both coffee and tea are labour intensive crops, which should be handpicked (as is the case everywhere except in Australia) and can create employment.

Black tea is another crop that is actually grown in South Africa and exported, although we import black tea for the local market. You pay for the tea whether you drink it or not – the provincial governments have been trying to revive some of the tea plantations in Mpumalanga and KwaZulu-Natal, with money that you are paying in taxes. It seems that local tea growers are being squeezed by the tea packers. In South Africa these are AVI (National Brands Ltd, which owns Five Roses, Freshpak and Quali) and Unilever (Glen, Joko and Lipton) who prefer to import cheaper (and often lower quality) tea from the rest of Africa.

If you want to support local black tea, the black teas from Tzaneen are for sale from the estate. They also have an organic range which is great, because non-organically grown tea means pesticides, which result in residue poison in your beverage – and on the skin and in the lungs of the pickers. Keep an eye out for Ntingwe tea from KZN, which is export quality and also makes very healthy low caffeine green tea.

Rooibos tea is the South African product par excellence, so just make sure you buy it from a South African packager, or better yet, from one of the tea-growing co-operatives that will use the profits to improve their communities. The same goes for honeybush, buchu and African mountain tea and any other indigenous bush or herbal teas.

When it comes to other herbal or fruit teas, you need to check the label if it’s made or only packaged in South Africa.

Most juices and fizzy drinks are manufactured in South Africa, even if the company is not South African owned. The alternatives depend on taste and how many flavourants, colourants and preservatives you want in your drink.

Juice

You are spoilt for choice when buying South African juice. You only need to decide how much pure juice you want as an ingredient compared with the nectars, which can have added sugar and flavourants.

Apart from the big brands like Ceres and PureFruit there are also small local brands cropping up, like Juicebox and Helderberg Juice.

Whether the fruit is local depends on how much of it is grown in South Africa and how the harvest goes. The manufacturers do import fruit, if necessary, to make juice. ‘Fresh fruit juice’ according to the South African Fruit Juice Association is only what is consumed within 2 hours of extraction.

There is no shortage of grapes in South Africa and their juice is often used to sweeten other juices. Even better news: the compounds that make a glass of red wine a day a healthy option come from the skin of the grape. This means you can get the same health effects by drinking red grape juice.

Soft drinks

The organic ice tea BOS has a nicely designed label and many good things going for it, like local organic ingredients and greening initiatives.

The vintage beverage range that was much in the news in 2012 is Frankies. They are made in KZN and all but the root beer is Product of South Africa.

Chill Beverages sells a range of locally made soft drinks. The sugar-free Chele flavours are sold in a can, and the traditional sodas sold under the Fitch & Leeds and Innesense labels are sold in glass bottles. Innesense contains no artificial colours, flavourings or preservatives. Chill Beverages now also owns and produces the over a hundred year old Bashews branded drinks.