Japan, a tea-drinking nation, is one of South Africa’s biggest importers of rooibos tea. In 2018, a record high of 2,000 tonnes of the homegrown blend was shipped off to the land of the rising sun.



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A tea room filled with reverence for the traditional Japanese tea ceremony. 



But first, the facts. To understand tea-drinking in Japan,
it is important to go through the following motions, starting with the communal
practice known as chadō (the way of tea) that is older than 800 years, in
which, in a hand-decorated cast iron bowl, green powder, known as matcha, is
whisked to make a dark green tea to be offered to guests. 



Tea was first brought to Japan from China in the seventh
century for medicinal purposes, and was regarded as a commodity that was
exclusively accessible to the noble and elite. 



According to Japanese historical beliefs, Myōan Eisai, a
Buddhist priest who introduced the school of Zen Buddhism to Japan, was one of
the first to inculcate the culture of tea in Japan. 



He wrote a book on the health benefits of drinking tea, as
well as the cultivation and preparation of green tea. 



By the thirteenth century, the tea drinking culture grew in
popularity among warriors and the elite, and by the sixteenth century, tea had
become a favorite for all social classes. 



Tea schools opened and the art of making tea gradually
evolved to more than just being a spiritual practice in Japan. 



It became one of respect with shared peace and friendship. 



The tea room is traditionally surrounded by a garden with a
tranquil atmosphere, emphasized by dull flowers without strong scents, to avoid
distraction.



A low entrance into the tea room suggests that guests are to
bow as a gesture of respect for the ceremony. 



Every movement, gesture and aesthetic, from the preparation
to the enjoyment of the tea, is designed to express friendship and
harmony.&nbsp; Guests watch on as the host
shares the moment and finally presents it to them, kneeling on cushions.



Once the bowl has circulated among the guests, it is handed
back to the host.The tools are cleaned and the ceremony is closed.



The Red Bush



Over 14,000kms away, across the Indian Ocean, a South
African enjoys a hot cup of ‘red tea.’



Its preparation may not be as dramatic as it is in Japan,
but it evokes the same sense of calm and serenity. It’s simply made by adding
tealeaves or a tea bag into a cup of boiling water, a few teaspoons of sugar
and having “a date with time”, as Swaady Martin, the founder of Yswara, an
African tea and teatime company, puts it. 



Martin, who has been in the tea industry for seven years,
with a focus on gourmet African teas, has tasted and sourced blends from
Malawi, Kenya and Rwanda but the South African rooibos is her favorite. 



“Rooibos is not a tea, it is a plant. I find it a miraculous
and wonderous plant. The fact that it only grows in one region of South Africa,
and that it has all these incredible properties, makes it a plant I love
dearly. I drink rooibos almost every day,” she says.&nbsp; 



Located in the heart of Johannesburg’s central business
district (CBD), Martin’s tea room, which is currently being refurbished,
embodies what she calls a meditative appeal that coincides with the tranquil
properties of tea. 



Tea lovers step into a room filled with silence and walls
done up in light pink hues representing a sunset in the desert.&nbsp; 



This is to encourage focus on the tea, as it represents the
removal of&nbsp; barriers between the
different social classes. 



“We have suffered in South Africa and also around the world,
with so much exclusion, the one thing that was important for Yswara was to give
inclusive luxury. For me, inclusiveness means being in a place where everyone
could have access.



“Being in town (CBD) was just that expression of being in
the midst of everything and everyone; and at the junction of what represents
the new South Africa,” Martin says. 



A South African Rooibos Council (SARC) industry fact sheet
published in 2018 states that the country’s geographical areas provide the perfect
environmental conditions for rooibos cultivation. 



The plant can be found in the Cederberg and Sandveld regions
of the Western Cape and the Bokkeveld area of the Northern Cape.



“The vital characteristics of this environment are the
Mediterranean climate with a winter rainfall between 200mm and 450mm per year;
deep, coarse and acidic sandy soils; and temperatures that can range from zero
degrees Celsius in winter months, to up to forty-five degrees Celsius in
summer,” the report says. 



Due to the indigenous properties of the Rooibos bush,
industry regulations stipulate that the term ‘rooibos’ be used responsibly. 



“The terms ‘Rooibos’, ‘red bush’, ‘Rooibostee’, ‘Rooibos
tea’, ‘rooitee’ and ‘Rooibosch’ may only be used when the dry product, infusion
or extract is 100% pure rooibos. Furthermore, the notice stipulates that the
above terms (referring to rooibos) can only be used when the product was grown
in the geographic area as described in the application, i.e., the winter
rainfall area of South Africa,” the SARC report states. 



This uniquely-grown product is becoming&nbsp; a big deal across the globe, and the
tea-drinking nation, Japan, has fallen in love with the health benefits that the
South African tea provides. 



In 2016, rooibos exports increased to over 30 countries
across the globe; with Germany, Netherlands, Japan, the United Kingdom and the
United States (US) being the biggest importers. 



In 2018, one of the largest tea-drinking nations recorded
over 2,000 tonnes that were shipped into the Japanese shores, making it the
largest export since rooibos was first introduced to the Japanese 39 years ago.




For Martin Bergh, the Managing Director of Rooibos Limited
and the Chairperson of the SARC, the tea has been up against competition in the
Japanese tea market, which has over 26 different types of teas to consume,
ranging from the traditional green tea varieties to Jasmine and Barley, or the
sacred Mugicha. 



“The general trend toward natural health and wellness
products continue to exert a growing influence on purchasing patterns in the
region and as more of Rooibos’ health benefits become known in the East, we
anticipate the demand for the product to grow,” says Bergh.



Bergh points out that the Japanese are purists and therefore
prefer to drink rooibos tea unflavored, without milk or sugar.



“In the past, rooibos was consumed more in summer for
hydration, but has now become an all-year-round tea product consumed by all age
groups. A market as big as Japan’s 126 million-strong tea-loving population, is
always eager to experiment with new products. 



“Local retailers like Peacock Coffee &amp; Tea Traders have
adapted to the experimental flavors to quench the insatiable thirst of the
local and international market.” 



Kelebogile Monyaysi, the manager at Peacock Coffee &amp; Tea
Traders in Rosebank, Johannesburg, attentively prepares a cup of tea when we
visit. 



The loose tea leaves are cautiously stirred in a tea pot and
served at a small coffee table. &nbsp;



One half of the store is dedicated to coffee and the other
for tea. 



The smell of freshly-brewed coffee overpowers the aromatic
smell of tea. 



Tea sets range from vintage English style ceramics to
Japanese cast iron teapots.



A selection of rooibos tea blends with various flavored
options, ranging from organic rooibos to creamy caramel, as well as herbal
blends. 



This includes a Nelson Mandela range. 



The caffeine-free tea, according to Monyaysi, is popular in
the Japanese markets because of its natural healing qualities. 



Despite coffee being a popular beverage for sit-in
customers, rooibos tea is the most sought after locally too. 



“It (rooibos) is the center of attraction. This is a word
that they (tourists) can grab and not forget, so when they walk in here, it is
all they ask for,” she says. 



It took some time for Monyaysi to be stirred by tea.&nbsp; 



“I was not much of a tea-drinker. I only started to enjoy
tea when I began working here. Now, the first thing in the morning, I have to
drink a cup of tea and in the evening, before I go to bed. It is a habit – if I
don’t drink tea, I get a headache,” Monyaysi says, preferring the original
rooibos blend. 



Jessica Bonin, the founder of Lady Bonin’s Tea, a Cape
Town-based company that sources, blends, packages and distributes full leaf
teas, either loose or in biodegradable tea bags, offers more on the world’s
fetish for rooibos.



Lady Bonins’ teas and herbals are sourced locally and
internationally from farms that are organic without adding additives or
products that harm the environment. 



The rooibos is sourced by using a method known as “wild
pickings” – the process of collecting the rooibos that grows naturally in the
mountains. Due to the increase in demand for rooibos and rooibos products
globally, commercial farmers have scaled production unsustainably, leaving
environmental and societal damage in their wake. 



Bonin says that in countries like Japan and Thailand, black
tea is preferred, and it is predominantly used for the health benefits – making
it a herbal infusion. 



“They are buying it solely on the principle that it is a
caffeine-free, non-tea beverage. People are buying it as an alternative and
they are transfixed by its health properties. 



“It is enabling people who naturally use plants as medicine
for many years. In any Western country, you will need to justify the health
benefits, but in the Asian countries, it is the medicine they are interested
in. People are very healthy in Japan,” she says.



&nbsp;Although Bonin is
facing difficulties&nbsp; entering the export
market in Japan due to the high number of monopolies and conglomerates in the
industry, small amounts of exports also go to Germany and the US. 



Rooibos is a unique product that has infused the signature
South African taste and its ambience with the rest of the world. 



The Japanese may have their unique tea-drinking ceremonies and traditions but in Germany and the other countries that import the plant in millions, rooibos offers a cupful of experience that is incomparable and uniquely South African.  



&#8211; Gypseenia Lion

Wild Rooibos

What’s Brewing In Tokyo?

It all started with a coffee addiction. Carl Pretorius drank five to six shots of espresso a day until the caffeine started affecting his health. He looked for an alternative, but he didn’t want decaf, nor tea.
“One late morning, I was about to have another espresso, but was feeling jittery. I literally tore open two Rooibos tea bags and popped the leaves into the espresso machine. That wasn’t really good, but the idea started there,” says Pretorius.
It took him several weeks of refining his attempts to get from the strong tea that came out of the espresso machine that day, in 2005, to the world’s first ‘red espresso’, which today sells all over the world.
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“I experimented with different grinds. Every time I tried a variation it got better, until one day, the consistency was perfect,” says Pretorius.
The flavor was intense, smooth and nutty. And the ritual of drinking a shot of something hot and sweet was similar to that of having an espresso. Then Pretorius added milk to turn the Rooibos espresso into a cappuccino.
“After I tasted it, I knew this really had potential. I got goose bumps,” he says.
Pretorius’ entrepreneurial instinct kicked in. Only six months after putting the first batch of Rooibos into his espresso machine, he filed an application to patent the cut of the tea leaves and preparation method. He then hired an attorney to verify that he was indeed the first person to come up with the idea.
“They did a very thorough global search but there was nothing like it,” he says.
Next, Pretorius checked if there was a market for a tea-based espresso. He visited a friend’s coffee shop in Paarl, in South Africa’s Western Cape province, wrote ‘Rooibos Cappuccino’ on a small chalkboard, sat and waited.
Within a couple of hours, a range of customers had ordered the new beverage. Everyone loved it, giving Pretorius the boost he needed.
He got his friend Pete Ethelston onboard, who invested several million rands, and the two founded Red Espresso. Just a few weeks later, the naturally caffeine-free beverage was sold in the cafés of South African upmarket food and retail chains Woolworths, Mugg &amp; Bean and @Home throughout the country. Suddenly, old-fashioned Rooibos tea was new and sexy.
Pretorius believes it is the product’s authenticity that led to its fast commercial success. Red Espresso is made from 100% export-grade, wild, hand-harvested Rooibos tea. Because it is grown organically, it has a small environmental footprint and is extremely healthy, with 10 times more antioxidants than regular Rooibos tea and five times more than Green tea.
Within six months of serving the first Rooibos cappuccinos in cafés, the demand for a retail product came. Customers liked the coffee alternative so much they wanted to brew their own red espressos at home. Today, the multi-award-winning “tea that plays by coffee’s rules” is available in more than 600 South African stores and 16 countries around the world, with Canada, Portugal and South Korea being the biggest export markets. A move into Germany is planned for the second half of this year.
Expansion plans weren’t always straightforward, though. While Rooibos can be found in almost every South African kitchen, people in most other countries had never heard of this particular herbal tea, grown only in a small region of the Western Cape. As a result, red cappuccinos were a much harder sale overseas.
“We basically have to educate the customer base first,” Pretorius explains.
The company gives Rooibos virgins a taste experience by first introducing red cappuccinos to the food service and only later move into retail.
Early expansion into the United States taught Pretorius and his team a tough but invaluable lesson. Whole Foods Market, a major American chain of natural foods supermarkets, listed Red Espresso as one of their products that would be sold in thousands of stores throughout the country.
“That was a real achievement, but the product didn’t go off the shelves, because nobody knew what it was. We realized that you need to go in slowly, go through food service to create the demand and then go into retail. We had put the cart before the horse and eventually had to pull the product. Now it’s a matter of going back into the US market, but more slowly and probably state by state,” Pretorius says.
The Americans’ increasing affinity for healthy drinks could give Pretorius an extra advantage. According to Beverage Digest magazine, coffee consumption in the United States fell for the first time in decades by 2.3% between 2006 and 2009, while tea drinking increased over the same period by 4.5%.
Pretorius, who still indulges in the odd espresso, says: “We are very excited about that trend. While we don’t try to compete with coffee, we offer coffee drinkers an alternative. And that’s happening.”
He is also eyeing a range of other markets like China and the Far East, where tea drinking has a long tradition and people don’t need to be seduced into trying coffee alternatives.
“Those are exciting markets for us because people there are herbal tea drinkers and keen to try new options,” says Pretorius.
He’s painting the world red, one cup at a time.

Tag: Rooibos

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What’s Brewing In Tokyo?

Something Red Is Brewing