A new magazine to be published – on Coffee.

Anyone publishing a new magazine these days would be excused for being a little mad or knowing something we all don’t.

Brave man, or woman, either way.

The migration of readers and advertisers to digital outlets is increasing from a little wave a few years ago to a full-on Tsunami.

And so too is the South African love affair with coffee. Three years ago there were two or three coffee roasters in Cape Town. There are now about 40.

Iain Evans is the man behind the latest venture; TheCoffeeMag.

As you might guess, it’s all about coffee, and the first 10,000 subscribers will get their quarterly magazine free.

David Donde of Truth

This is Iain’s way of ensuring that there’s no wastage on the printers order.A quirky trick is that the magazine is not posted to you. You have to go along to a coffee shop to pick it up.

In Cape Town, David Donde’s Truth HQ on Buitenkant Street is the outlet where you go to collect. The plan is that subscribers sign up, advise Iain and Co. where they would like to collect their copy and voila! they receive an sms to tell them when it’s ready.

In the first edition David tells us all how to chose the perfect roast profile of coffee bean for their home roasting experiments.

Ishan Natalie, a two times SA champion barista contributes as does Wayne Oberholtzer, an expert barista from Origin.

There’ll be none of your flabby lifestyle journalism (car reviews, weekend breaks, restaurant reviews, wine columns etc.).

It’s all about how to make and drink better coffee, where to find it, and the people in the industry.

Not to say that Iain won’t be chasing the lifestyle advertisers. He aims to snag one in each of the classic categories of cars, banks, holidays, hotels etc, selling double page spreads.

To subscribe, log on to www.thecoffeemag.co.za

And, before I go, here’s a few fun facts about coffee.

1. Coffee was discovered by Ethiopian goats, whose herder noticed that they became friskier after they ate the coffee cherries containing the bean.

2. The New York Coffee Exchange sets the global price for coffee.

3. Coffee is the second most traded commodity in the world, after oil.

4. Light roasted coffee contains more caffeine than dark roasted.

5. Only 1 cent from a 2 Dollar cup of coffee goes to the coffee farmer.