Highlights from the 2025 Good Life Show

The Good Life Show, held recently at the Cape Town International Convention Centre, hosted close to 200 exhibits, thought-provoking talks, and hands-on experiences to promote healthy living. Glenneis Kriel spoke to various exhibitors about the value the event holds for them.

- Glenneis Kriel

The Good Life Show is an excellent platform to create awareness and promote products to people who care about their health, the environment, and social responsibility, according to Brandt Coetzee, CEO of alternative coffee company, MannaBrew.

MannaBrew, he added, ticked all these boxes primarily because it was made from locally sourced mesquite seed pods instead of coffee beans.

Mesquite trees were introduced to South Africa in the late 1800s to provide fodder and shade to livestock. These trees, however, have since grown out of control in the Northern Cape and parts of the Karoo, with the dense thickets they form leading to the degradation of grasslands and loss of biodiversity.

ALTERNATIVE COFFEE SOURCES

Mesquite has since been classified as an invasive species, with various efforts underway to get the species under control.

When they started making the coffee alternative five years ago, Coetzee said his company aided this effort by initially buying the seed pods from farmers and harvesters from around Prieska, but now do so from around Calvinia in the Northern Cape.

“We pay about R6/kg, which is basically money for nothing, as the harvesters do not have any production costs. All they give is their time,” Coetzee explained.

The coffee alternative itself is caffeine-free, low in acidity, and therefore gentle on the stomach, naturally sweet, and rich in fibre, calcium, magnesium, and potassium. Coetzee added that it had a low glycaemic index, making it a good choice for people managing diabetes.

Demand for MannaBrew has been growing well in South Africa, the US, and Dubai, and Coetzee said he was in the process of registering it for export to the EU.

THE MARKET DOES NOT PROVIDE ENOUGH INCENTIVE FOR ORGANIC PRODUCTION