Not so long ago, if you ordered a cup of coffee in South Africa you needed to specify "filter" to avoid getting instant.

A decade ago, there was no cafe culture, nowhere to go for a flat white and certainly no expectation of locally roasted beans.

Those days are gone. Specialist coffee shops did nearly four times the business here in 2012 as in 2007.

The epicenter of the country's coffee revolution is Cape Town, whose population has a reputation for being trendy and aspirational.

These days, to-go cups from the right coffee shop are displayed like choice accessories.

A few companies are willing to take the credit for spearheading the trend, though it's more likely the combined result of several that had the foresight to anticipate interest in better coffee and the ability to interpret it for a local audience.

Read - Coffee comes home: How the cappuccino conquered South Africa