Imagine. You park your vehicle along the narrow village road, follow the coffee-to-go sign through the open gate to the green caravan, order your latte, share morning pleasantries with the smiling barista busy at her hissing espresso machine.
You take your brew and settle under “Solomon’s Wisdom Tree.” As you savor the aroma and delight in the first sip, you hear a dull rumble. A trumpet call. And — did the earth just gently shudder? Aha! Through the gate, you watch as a herd of elephants file by. Welcome to Loretta Gomwe’s Victoria Falls coffee oasis in Zimbabwe.
“In the dry season, elephants, buffalo, hippos, warthogs frequent our caravan. Bushbuck too. And baboons and monkeys sometimes.” Not something one would expect in a residential suburb, which this is. But then everything about Loretta’s Victoria Falls Coffee Company is pretty darn surprising, unlikely — and remarkable.
It features, at the heart, a young Zimbabwean woman and a heady blend of complex flavors, percolated with well-brewed shots of enterprise, resilience, hard work, luck, risk-taking and love.
Her Victoria Falls coffee journey — with the love element as the crema on the top — has her living her best life in one of Africa’s most famous, iconic and magical destinations.
The Victoria Falls — Mosi-Oa-Tunya (the smoke that thunders) — is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and recognized as one of the seven natural wonders of the world.
They straddle Zimbabwe to the west (home to three-quarters of the Falls) and Zambia to the east. The “city” of Victoria Falls, more like a large village given its size and scale, is on the Zimbabwe side. The fact that part of the town is within the Victoria Falls National Park explains why Ellies and other animals are sometimes spotted making their way to and from the Zambezi River, along whose course the spectacular Victoria Falls occur.
Victoria Falls Coffee
It’s been ten years since Lauratter Gomwe met the man who would become her husband and business partner, Takunda “TK” Musungwa. She switched to using the simpler “Loretta” five years ago and asked that we call them Loretta and TK, as they are known and what she prefers.
This informality reflects, too, the casual, friendly, unpretentious nature and setting of their Victoria Falls coffee business. Loretta’s Coffee and Smoothie Caravan, which they built and brought from Harare.
Solomon’s Wisdom Tree — “We named the tree after King Solomon from the bible,” explains Loretta — is what they call the spreading frangipani that looks like an abstract art installation and offers little shade but makes a striking creative statement in the coffee caravan’s yard.
From its branches, between the frangipani flowers when they are in season, dangle messages, some inspirational, some tongue-in-cheek. For instance, “Age is an issue of mind over matter; if you don’t mind, it doesn’t matter” and “Phone your mother!”
The ebullient 33-year-old was running a small coffee trailer located at a primary school when she and TK met in Zimbabwe’s (Zim’s) capital city, Harare. The back story to this is as extraordinary as she is.
By Wanda Hennig
