5 Small Online Food & Drink Stores to Support in South Africa

As businesses recover from the devastating effects of South Africa’s national lockdown, it’s now more important than ever to support small local businesses and seek out products that are home-grown. Luckily, you don’t have to look very far to ‘love local’ so, if you’re looking to spoil yourself with the very best in food, groceries, and drinks this month then you can’t go wrong with buying from these 5 South African born brands.

GoHugos: Online grocery store

We’ve all become somewhat accustomed to home deliveries over the past year or so, and while it hasn’t been easy on anyone, we are fortunate to have some stellar services bringing the very best in food directly to our doors. While the next logical step would be for a service to deliver the food directly into our mouths, we’ll settle for some of the finest meats, groceries, and condiments available in the good ole Republic, and online store GoHugos does just that.

Launched as a specialised and personalised online grocer operating in the Western Cape, GoHugos doesn’t just stock your run-of-the-mill items, but rather specially-cured meats, baked goods, sauces, spices, and just about anything from some of South Africa’s best and most discerning brands. Furthermore, they’re price-conscious and aim to get you the best of the best for the most affordable price.

Read our full review of GoHugos here and visit the GoHugos website to shop online now.

Coffee Pod Guru: Speciality coffee store

Can you have too much of a good thing? When it comes to coffee, the answer is ‘no’. Hence, why we love local coffee aficionados Coffee Pod Guru. Whether you’re looking to stock up on beans, ground coffee, new capsules, or want to update your coffee cupboard with gadgets and gizmos, Coffee Pod Guru has you covered. Of course, it also helps that their coffee is pretty darn good, so you’re getting some of the best stuff in town at really competitive prices.

Owned by brothers JJ and Juhan Van der Walt, Coffee Pod Guru delivers high-quality coffee products that satisfy even the most nuanced of coffee-aficionados all across South Africa. While coffee is the cornerstone of the business, Coffee Pod Guru also sells coffee-making accessories, snacks, CBD treats, hot chocolate products, and a variety of other goodies to catch the eye (and tongue) of anyone with taste buds.

Do yourself a favour and visit the Coffee Pod Guru website to shop online now. You can read more about Coffee Pod Guru and the team behind it all here.

Liquor.co.za: An online bottle store with a difference

Born out of the need for an e-Commerce portal that can service both direct-to-customer and high-volume business-to-business requirements, Liquor.co.za says it offers the easiest way to buy alcohol in South Africa. Launched in July 2021, the online liquor store is the result of a collaboration of expertise and experience from key players in the liquor and entertainment industries.

The website’s customer interface follows a mobile-first approach and is focused on providing consumers with a platform that is supremely user-friendly yet has a personality and flair behind it. In addition to its customer-centric approach, Liquor.co.za says it will also offer its customers the best deals on a vast range of liquor products, from the most popular, to the premium and those crafted, seldom-seen brands.

Shop online with Liquor.co.za and have your favourites wines, bubblies, beers, spirits, and more delivered right to your door. 

Italian Deli: Shop Chef Giorgio Nava Pasta Fresca range online!

Italian restauranteur Chef Giorgio Nava brings his famous fresh pastas to the home delivery arena with Italian Deli. Fans of Italian cuisine can now order his Pasta Fresca range of filled fresh pasta and sauces through online shop, Italian Deli and enjoy that authentic Italian restaurant vibe at home. Regulars of Chef Giorgio Nava’s iconic Cape Town Restaurants 95 Keerom and Carne have long been fans of his fresh pasta and now the chef is making them available for home use.

For the range, Chef Giorgio hasn’t changed a thing in scaling up to produce the pasta commercially, “The recipe is exactly the same as you’d find in the restaurants,” he says. “We don’t want to change from the original. It’s probably even better as we now produce in bigger batches and the quality is even more consistent.” The pasta range currently includes Spinach and Ricotta Ravioli, Butternut and Ricotta Ravioli, Lamb Full Moon, Truffle and Grana Mezzaluna (half-moon), and Chicken and Mushroom Mezzalunas.

Chef Giorgio Nava’s Pasta Fresca range is only available in Cape Town and surrounds, but Italian Deli also offers a wide range of Italian favourites for shoppers from all over South Africa to choose from. Click here to shop online now.

Boschendal Online Farm Shop: Bring the farm stall to your door

Imagine your dream farm-fresh store combined with a treasure trove of distinctly beautiful pieces that evoke the love and care with which they were made. That, in a nutshell, is Boschendal’s carefully thought-through Farm Shop and the great news is, it’s must-try offerings are now available for online purchase delivering to various regions within the Western Cape!

The online store offers ethical products, the majority of which are produced and sourced locally, meaning there is transparency around where products originate. Created on a generosity-of-spirit philosophy, as an estate the focus is very much on building a community around the best quality farm produce and sharing the talents of local creators and artisans with the larger Western Cape public. While the store aims to follow with a nationwide reach, for now, it’s aimed at more regional consumers in the Western Cape.

Online shoppers can look forward to not only the freshest of Boschendal’s farm goods (or those sourced from neighbouring farms and producers in the valley) but also striking homeware, sourced locally and also from the Mediterranean.

Check out the ‘from-soil-to-fork’ online shopping experience here.