OnTap Magazine

than 120 trades, each time putting their trust in strangers to come through on their promise. “We’ve never been let down by a collector,” says Jonathan. “ ere’s too much honour at stake!” I’ve been talking to the couple for 20 minutes and I’m already coming around to the idea of collecting caps. I mean, for a start, you get to drink the beer before moving on to the collecting side of things. Well, at least Jonathan does, for somewhat ironically, Cheryl doesn’t drink. But as they continue to share their tales, I can see that there is more to this than trying a new beer or checking another cap o the list. VIRTUAL TRAVEL “We have an absolute passion for travel,” says Cheryl, smiling. “We love armchair travel and that ts so nicely with this. When we post the caps we also sometimes swap photos and postcards. en when we receive a new cap we research it and read up on the brewery and the town it comes from.” As a fellow travel-lover, I can easily see the appeal and am fascinated as I travel, virtually, through the 151 countries represented in the Borchardts’ collection. But it’s not all about virtual travel. Last year, on a trip through the Balkans, Jonathan and Cheryl met up with a long-time collector in Latvia and ended up seeing corners of the country that the average tourist never would. And the bottle caps have even taught them a thing or two about South Africa. “ ere is a Russian collector who knows more about a lot of South African beers than we do,” laughs Jonathan. “He asked us about Red Bridge Brewery in Knysna, so the next time we were on the Garden Route, we went to nd the brewery. It was there that we learnt more about the local icons on the labels so we ended up making a special trip to seek out the bridge itself.” Cheryl interrupts, eager to make the point that being a collector can lead to many more things: “Here’s a town we’ve been to many times before but there’s this place that we would never have known about if it wasn’t for the cap collecting!” PRIZED POSSESSIONS Non-collectors have also embraced their hobby, with friends collecting bags of caps as they travel and sip. Caps with a FEATURE