BoS creations

BOS pics courtesy of Daniel Naude
BOS creations
Roxanne Rolando spent some time on the rooibos farm, Klipopmekar in the
Cederberg, to find out how SA’s newest rooibos ice tea, BOS, is created.
‘P
have a vision of where wine comes
from, but they don’t know where rooibos
comes from. This is it!’ said Richard
Bowsher, as we drove on to his farm, Klipopmekaar,
in the sweltering Cederberg. ‘This is where it
happens, BOS creations.’
eople
Klipopmekaar
One of my first images on the farm was the old apartheid
bus in which Richard and his ex-wife lived for several
months whilst building the beautiful house, now part of the
landscape, where we were to spend the night.
It may sound presumptuous, but being in the middle of
the Cederberg, the heart of rooibos country, with one of the
entrepreneurs behind BOS brands, Richard Bowsher, I knew
I was about to have a completely original experience.
Having established and then selling his own successful
IT media company in San Francisco in his twenties, Richard
made enough money to live off for the rest of his life. He
bought Klipopmekaar in 2005, thinking it would be the
ideal weekend getaway. At the time he didn’t even know
rooibos grew in the region. ‘I had no intention to farm.
There was no infrastructure at all on the land,’ he said. But
after one of his hikes on the 5000ha space, he came across
wild rooibos, an indigenous South African plant.
Several years after his purchase, Richard met Grant
Rushmere, a creative businessman from Cape Town who
had been working on the BOS rooibos ice tea concept
in late 2008 and, as serendipity would have it, was
looking for an investor and business partner. As one stone
was overturned, so too was another and they stacked
perfectly in place – Klipopmekaar. ‘When I’m swimming
with the current of an idea, I know it’s right. BOS felt right
from the start,’ said Richard. This twist of fate shows that a
great idea can sometimes come when you’re not looking
for one . . .
24
Food Review – JANUARY 2011 – www.foodreview.co.za
AFRICAN FOCUS
Rooibos is harvested by hand in the harsh January and February heat
BOS people
BOS process
Picture an epic South African cinematic sky with a horizon of
jagged sandstone mountains and touches of the green fynbos
unique to this wild South African dream, and you’re on a
rooibos farm.
Rooibos is harvested by hand
SKETCH 3431/10
After years of working internationally on a brand called Afro,
Grant has learnt a thing or two about branding Africa and a
good deal about how to turn a good cup of tea into a great can
of ice tea.
Grant explained, ‘While developing the Afro brand I
worked extensively with rooibos, blending it with all sorts of
different flavours. I realised that its natural sweetness makes
it the perfect carrier for fruit flavours and with its healthy,
healing properties being increasingly recognised locally and
internationally, the obvious choice was to start with rooibos
and build the product from there.’
But Richard maintains, ‘Just because you can own a tea
farm doesn’t mean you’re in the tea business. You can’t just be
a farmer over night.’
Paul Schlecter, Klipopmekaar’s farm manager, is in the tea
business. He has lived his whole life in the Cederberg; you
can see the red dust engrained in his face. Paul knows rooibos
farming, he knows the Cederberg and he knows everyone that
knows anything about rooibos.
‘A competitive farmer with something new to offer,’ was
Richard description of him. ‘He is involved in the value chain.
Rooibos is a special product and there is a limited supply.’
Riding his appaloosa horse to the neighbouring farms on a
daily basis, Paul talks to the farmers about the ups and downs
of the industry, gives words of warning about the leopards that
are about or chats about the imminent rains or the drop in
rooibos prices – information passed between farmers with the
‘brei-klank’ dialect typical of the Afrikaans speakers from here.
Paul has seen it all and, despite the current low selling
price of rooibos, he could never leave or stop farming rooibos.
He told me, ‘Rooibos does not need rain to flourish. This is a
misconception. It will grow; it will always grow here.’
‘Smart, hardworking, brave, creative and passionate,’ said
Richard about Marie van Niekerk, BOS head of marketing.
And, like most BOS features, the marketing strategy is way
out there. Taking one of two approaches, either creative
intervention (a ‘BOS experience’) or legacy marketing, such
as planting a tree for every 2000 cans of BOS produced, the
marketing strategy aims at imbuing the BOS culture, rather
than just selling a product.
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25-27 OCTOBER 2011
THE CAPE TOWN INTERNATIONAL CONVENTION CENTRE
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PRO-LABEL
CAPE 2011
Specialised Exhibitions (Pty) Ltd
PO Box 82196, Southdale, 2135, South Africa
4ELs&AX
Email: michelle@specialised.com
Brought to you by
AFRICAN FOCUS
The harvested rooibos is sorted and then lead into cutting machine where it is cut to size – long, medium or short
The process that goes into growing the plant for rooibos
tea is not well known. Rooibos is sown and harvested by
hand. Cornelia Schlechter, the farm manager’s wife, said over
a glass of wine and a beetroot salad that I’d rustled up from
the veggies growing on the farm that rooibos is a robust little
bush farmed under extremities. ‘It is harvested in January and
February, the hottest and driest times in the Cederberg, and
then planted again in July, the wettest and coldest season.’
In February last year, lightning struck and hectares of
Klipopmekaar went up in flames. Four days and nights of no
rest and with the help of everyone from neighbouring farms
and every fire fighter from the area, the fire was eventually
bought under control. However, all was not lost because,
Richard learnt, fynbos is adapted to fire and will only
germinate if the seed has been cracked open by fire or other
means.
Having said this, however, farming the herb carefully is very
important. Richard is a member of the SA Rooibos council,
The tea court where the Rooibos is dried, a concrete slab exposed to
the South African sun
26
a highly regarded member, one might add, and advocates
Right Rooibos approaches in every farming method used.
All rooibos grown on Klipopmekaar and all products
produced organically are certified by Ecocert, an independent
certification service. If all the farmers worked together it would
be possible to farm all rooibos organically, believes farm
manager Paul.
After harvesting, the rooibos is cut. Short-cut rooibos is used
for products like red espresso for which Klipopmeakkar is a
supplier, medium-cut rooibos is used for tea bags and long-cut
rooibos is usually sold as loose tea. ‘The shorter the rooibos,
like ground coffee, the greater the surface area,’ explained
Richard.
Once cut, the herb is piled into the middle of what is called
the tea court, a big slab of grey concrete juxtaposed with the
cloudless blue sky of the Cederberg. Standing in the middle
at midday, the sun beats down. Piled in the middle of the
court, the tea is sprayed with water and left to ferment for 12
hours overnight – pretty much exactly what has been done for
hundreds of years, Richard told us as we drove past an old tea
court on the farm, possibly from the 1950s.
The next day, as the sun comes up, the fermented tea
is spread over the tea court with brooms and left to dry
under the South African sun, turning the familiar ochre colour
and developing the sweet bush taste associated with red bush
tea.
Once dried the rooibos tea is packed. ‘We have some of the
best equipment available,’ Richard assured us, though while
looking new and shiny, it looked very rudimentary. The tea is
‘swept’ up and ‘sprayed’ into 10kg sacks.
Rooibos tea lasts up to ten years if stored in a cool dark
place; it does not lose any of its flavour or appeal.
The farm currently produces up to 60 tons a year and, at its
full capacity, 80 - 100 tons which, it is hoped, will be achieved
by the end of 2011. Klipopmekaar is the supplier of organic
rooibos tea for many brands of tea products.
Food Review – JANUARY 2011 – www.foodreview.co.za
AFRICAN FOCUS
Drink BOS
The tea grown and harvested on Klipopmekaar is used in
the production of BOS. I asked Grant, why ice tea? ‘Because
it’s a drink that hasn’t been harnessed anywhere near its full
potential. An ice tea could provide it all – entertainment,
refreshment, health and a conscience.’
The organic rooibos is blended with natural fruit flavours
and ancient medicinal ingredients to present the range of
peach, lemon and apple flavoured beverages. Dandelion,
ginkgo biloba, panax ginseng, gotu kola and guarana are only
a few of the healing ingredients in the BOS Energy and BOS
Slim products comprising the BOS Utility range.
The packaging, designed with symbols from African
mythology, the lion and Sirius, brightest star in the night
sky, are set against a backdrop of bold colours reflecting the
flavours and functions of the range.
BOS future
Grant had the brand concept and secret recipe, Richard had
the farm and international entrepreneurial experience and
they both had the vision: to take BOS from seed to sale point.
‘What can be achieved when you put care into every aspect
of a product – from the harnessing of the ingredients, to the
packaging, to the promotion? This pursuit is our motivation,’
explained Grant.
Paul Schlecter, Klipopmekaar’s farm manager, has lived in the
Cederberg his entire life. He knows Rooibos
The word BOS captures the energy and irreverence of SA.
‘It’s a little quirky, a little crazy and a little left off centre.’
BOS is not just an ice tea, it’s also an experience and a way of
looking at life, as I witnessed for myself.
So where to from here, I asked Richard on the drive back to
Cape Town: Richard’s reply was quite tongue in cheek: ‘BOS
for us is a verb, not a noun,’ he explained with a smirk. ‘I want
BOS to be a verb, in say Poland for example, in years to come,’
he concluded. ,
AFRICAN FOCUS
The history of rooibos
By Marina Joubert, from The South African Rooibos Council
Rooibos, better known as Aspalathus linearis, is one of several Cape Fynbos plants that
have traditionally been used in South Africa to brew tea and cure ailments. The plant has
made a successful transition from a wild to a cultivated crop and is one of relatively few
economically important Fynbos plants to date.
M
ore than 300 years ago, the indigenous Khoisan
tribe of the mountainous Cederberg region of South
Africa’s Western Cape were the first to discover
that one could brew a tasty and aromatic tea from the wild
rooibos plant. They collected rooibos leaves and stems in the
mountains and bunched it into hessian bags that were carried
down the steep slopes on the backs of donkeys. The Khoisan
developed the basic rooibos processing methods that are still
in use today – first cut and bruise the rooibos leaves and stems,
then ‘sweat’ or cure the tea in heaps and finally then spread it
out to dry in the sun.
Swedish naturalist, Carl Thunberg, reported that during his
travels in Africa in 1772, he met the Khoi and observed that
they used rooibos as a beverage.
More than a century later, in 1904, Benjamin Ginsberg, a
Russian/Jewish immigrant to South Africa, met descendants of
the Khoi in the Clanwilliam region and realised the marketing
potential of the tea. Ginsberg, a descendent from a long line of
tea merchants in Europe, was keenly interested in this African
herbal tea. He saw how the Khoi harvested the plants growing
wild in the mountains during the hot summer months and how
they processed the tea – they chopped the shoots using an
axe, crushed them with a mallet and “sweated” (oxidised) the
bruised pieces in the hollows of stone reefs, followed by sundrying.
Ginsberg started buying rooibos tea from people in
the Cederberg area and reselling it in other areas. He also
ran a variety of his own experiments to perfect the curing
or fermentation of the tea – an oxidation process that is
responsible for the development of the characteristic colour
and flavour of the tea. Ginsberg’s background furnished him
with the necessary experience to market the new ‘mountain
tea’. He was the first to use the brand name ‘Eleven O’Cloc’
tea – a brand that is still popular in South Africa today.
Around 1930 a local Clanwilliam doctor and nature lover
Le Fras Nortier became interested in ‘wild bush tea’ and
started experimenting with rooibos. It was difficult to find
rooibos seeds and Nortier asked the local people to search for
seeds in the sandy soils and collect some for him. A Khoisan
woman brought him a matchbox filled with seeds and later
Nortier learnt her secret. The woman would follow ants that
28
were dragging rooibos seeds to their nests. She then broke
open the nests to collect seeds, always leaving some for the
ants to survive.
Looking for a way to propagate the seeds, Nortier discovered
that the seeds would only germinate if they were cracked open
– imitating the effect of mountain fires. Nortier cultivated the
first plants on the KIein Kliphuis farm near Clanwilliam. He
learnt that the seeds should be sown in January and that the
best time to transplant the tiny seedlings is just after heavy rain
when more rain is due. Nortier also inspired and encouraged
local farmers to start cultivating rooibos. Two more rooibos
pioneers that worked with Nortier were William Riordan and
Oloff Bergh, grandfather of the present chairman of Rooibos
Ltd, Martin Bergh.
Ginsberg’s son, Henry Charles (Chas) Ginsberg, became
known as the “Rooibos King” for his contribution to
domesticating rooibos and turning it into a major agricultural
crop. In the early 1940s, he laid out the first dedicated largescale rooibos plantations on three farms: Die Berg, Môreson
and Stillerus. He also developed new technologies for drying
the tea and introduced more sophisticated cutting machinery
used by the tea industry in India at that time.
After World War II the commercial cultivation of rooibos
started in earnest. In 1948 the ‘Clanwilliam Co-operative
Tea Company’ was formed to cope with difficult market
conditions, stimulate demand and to help stabilise the industry.
This role of looking after the quality and marketing of rooibos
was taken over by the ‘Rooibos Tea Marketing Board’ in 1954.
The South African Rooibos Council, a non-profit company set
up in 2005, currently looks after the interests of the industry in
South Africa and abroad. The Council supports research into
quality parameters and health properties of rooibos, as well
as agricultural research focused on improving the crop and
organic farming practices. ‘Right Rooibos’ is a SA Rooibos
Council initiative to promote biodiversity conservation and
environmentally sustainable rooibos farming.
The first commercial green (unoxidised) rooibos was
produced in 2001 to meet the global demand for a product
with a higher antioxidant activity than the traditional
“fermented” (or oxidised) tea. Rooibos is also used to prepare
extracts and powders for a wide range of applications in the
Food Review – JANUARY 2011 – www.foodreview.co.za
AFRICAN FOCUS
food and beverage industries – for example, iced teas, fruit
juice blends and candies.
An exciting rooibos innovation in the form of an espresso,
the first tea espresso in the world, was introduced to coffee
shops and retail outlets during 2006. In 2008 Red Espresso
won the Global Food Award for technical innovation, awarded
by IUFoST.
The geographical distribution of rooibos
Aspalathus linearis is very limited in its distribution, occurring
naturally only in the western districts of the Cape Province,
particularly in the Cederberg Mountains.
Rooibos does not occur below 450m above sea level and
flourishes only up to an altitude of about 900m. It is sensitive
to frost and snow when very young, but mature plants are
adapted to cold winters and hot summers. The optimum
amount of rain is 380 to 635mm per year, mainly in the winter,
with occasional showers in early summer and late autumn. In
addition to a network of roots just below the soil surface, the
plant has a long tap root that reaches as deep as 2m and helps
the plant find moisture during the dry summers.
Local and international reputation
of rooibos
Rooibos tea has become popular beyond South Africa because
of its fruity, sweet taste and its caffeine-free, low-tannin,
antioxidant-rich status.
The interest in and popularity of rooibos constituents are
supported by ongoing scientific studies that are validating
traditional knowledge about the health-promotion properties of
rooibos and adding new information about its safety, efficacy,
quality and optimal use for human well-being.
Recent human studies have illustrated the potential of
rooibos and its constituents to prevent and treat heart disease,
while animal studies are pointing towards the potential role
that rooibos can play in preventing and controlling diabetes.
More than 100 research articles related to the science and
health of rooibos have been published in scientific journals
over the last 25 years. Based on a significant body of rooibos
research done in Japan, the product has earned the reputation
of ‘long-life tea’ in that country. ,
To read more, go to www.rooibos.org.za.
Annique Rooibos Health and Beauty
T
he Annique story started in 1968
when Dr Annique Theron discovered
the amazing anti-allergic and soothing
properties of rooibos tea. Her baby
daughter, Lorinda, was very ill with colic.
She couldn’t keep her food down and
hardly slept. One April morning, Lorinda
was crying and Dr Theron, in her haste
to give her her milk, mistakenly mixed
Lorinda’s milk with the rooibos tea that
was brewing on the stove. After drinking the
mixture, Lorinda slept peacefully for three
hours, which she had never done before. A
few days afterwards, Dr Annique realised that
she hadn’t had as much laundry as usual and
realised it was after the rooibos tea mixture she
had given Lorinda.
Theron went on to investigate rooibos, but there was no
information about the healing properties of the tea. She placed
an advertisement in the newspaper, urging other mothers with
ill babies like Lorinda to contact her. She openly shared her
knowledge and helped these sick babies.
In 1970, Theron published her book, ‘Allergies, an amazing
discovery’, on the anti-allergic qualities of the rooibos plant
and founded Annique products in 1971. Her first product,
a slimming product called Wonder Slim, is today Annique’s
famous Lifestyle Shake.
Food Review – JANUARY 2011 – www.foodreview.co.za
Annique health and beauty products were the
triple gold winner of the International Inventions
Exhibition in Geneva in 1997 for Theron’s
remarkable discovery (in 1968) of rooibos’s
internal and external anti-allergic qualities and
the application of her rooibos extract in skin and
health care products. She was also awarded the
Best Woman Inventor of the Year for the discovery
of the effect of rooibos and the relief it has brought
to thousands of mothers and their allergic babies.
Today Annique rooibos products provide the
perfect health and beauty product solutions for all
skin types, even sensitive skin. The Annique range
consists of more than 150 products for skin, health,
body and baby care, slimming, make-up and fine
fragrances, all with the South African market’s needs
in mind.
The company, Annique, celebrates its 40 th anniversary
this year. Inspired by an amazing discovery by a concerned
South African mother, it has grown to a well known, rapidly
expanding multimillion Rand turnover business providing a
wonderful business opportunity to all South Africans. Annique
will continue to make available exceptional, cutting-edge skin
care formulations and other health and beauty products. The
Annique vision, ‘We create life-changing opportunities’, shows
that this business is committed to influencing people’s lives
positively. ,
29
AFRICAN FOCUS
SA researchers develop a new flavour
and ‘mouthfeel’ tool for rooibos tastings
From now on, drinking tea will be a sensory experience similar to wine and beer tastings,
because you will be able to indulge in the subtle tannins and fine distinctions in taste and
aroma of rooibos, says the SA Rooibos Council.
S
outh African researchers developed a new flavour and
‘mouthfeel’ tool wheel which provides approximately
27 descriptive attributes for rooibos – 20 flavour and
seven taste and mouthfeel descriptors – making it a practical
tool to facilitate communication among rooibos producers,
processors, grading experts, marketers, flavour houses,
importers and consumers.
Under the leadership of Professor Elizabeth Joubert of the
Agricultural Research Council, who designed the project
proposal, a team including Stellenbosch University lecturer
Nina Muller and masters student Ilona Koch and a number
of other researchers have spent over a year compiling data
through numerous experiments with rooibos tea.
‘This study was conducted to characterise
and quantify the sensory attributes associated
with rooibos flavour (taste and aroma) and
mouthfeel to paint a more comprehensive
picture of what is frequently referred to
as ‘typical’ or ‘characteristic’ rooibos
flavour,’ said Koch.
The researchers studied 69 different
rooibos samples originating from
64 different plantations in various
production areas. These samples had
been graded from A to D, representing the
highest to the lowest tea quality respectively.
A strict protocol was followed when brewing
the tea – 300g of boiling, de-ionised water was
poured on to 5,8g of dry tea leaves and left to infuse for five
minutes. The tea was strained and stored in a stainless steel
thermos flask to keep the temperature constant, and 100ml of
tea was served to each taster in a white porcelain cup covered
with a plastic lid to prevent evaporation and loss of volatiles.
The tea cups were preheated in an oven set to 70°C, and
kept in water baths with the temperature regulator set at 65°C
throughout the sensory analysis session.
Nine judges took part in the study, selected on availability
and interest. ‘Most of them had extensive experience with
descriptive analysis of a wide range of products. None of
them, however, had previous experience with sensory analysis
of rooibos,’ said Koch.
30
During the first training stage the panellists were exposed
to a number of rooibos samples to become familiar with the
product and the evaluation protocol. During 22 one-hour
sessions, the 69 tea samples were analysed and compared
with each other, and the panel generated aroma, taste and
mouthfeel terminology.
Initially, 85 aroma and 38 taste and mouthfeel descriptors
were generated, but this proved too large a field of data
for the efficiency necessary to produce the wheel. The
number of descriptors was subsequently reduced to eight
aroma descriptors and nine taste and mouthfeel descriptors.
A scorecard was developed that showed each of these 17
descriptors together with a 10cm unstructured line
scale ranging from ‘none’ to ‘prominent’.
After training was over, the panel used
the scorecard to rate the intensity of the
17 attributes for each of the 69 samples
during 40 sessions spread out over
eight weeks.
Through the research, it was
uncovered that the positive sensory
characteristics such as floral, woody,
honey and sweet could be separated
from the negative attributes such as
green plant, hay-like, dusty and sour. In
light of this, the descriptors were grouped
according to the positive or negative impact on
the quality of the sensory experience.
While the research delved into a number of experiments
to deduce specific data, including the effect of steam
pasteurisation, the effect of particle size and the oxygen
radical absorbance capacity (ORAC) of rooibos, the flavour
and mouthfeel wheel represents the attributes of unpasteurised
rooibos infusions.
The wheel will be updated and refined further with
samples from another season during the three-year project
that will run until March 2012. It is being funded by the SA
Rooibos Council and the Technology and Human Resources
for Industry Programme (THRIP) that aims to boost South
African industry by supporting research and technology
development. ,
Food Review – JANUARY 2011 – www.foodreview.co.za
AFRICAN FOCUS
Fair Cape launches Rooiboost drinking
yoghurt in the fight against cancer
F
air Cape Dairies, manufactures of Free Range dairy
products, launched their new cancer-fighting low-fat
Rooiboost drinking yoghurt that offers the suggested daily six
cups of rooibos tea in a single and convenient 100ml shot.
Rooiboost carries the CANSA Smart Choice seal, helping
consumers to identify products that are linked to cancer risk
reduction. Dr Carl Albrecht, head of research at CANSA,
said, ‘Our research has found that rooibos tea raised the ratio
of reduced glutathione to oxidised glutathione by 100% in
humans who consumed six cups a day over a period of three
months. This leads to the understanding that rooibos can help
to prevent cancer.’
According to Joel Serman, commercial manager at Fair
Cape Dairies, the astounding new research verifies the cancerfighting properties of rooibos. Fair Cape has innovatively
brought consumers a convenient way to get their daily
recommended intake of rooibos. ‘Very few people find it
possible to drink six cups of rooibos tea a day, but with
Nurturing nature
L
ast year Cape Natural Tea Products (CNTP) planted 46
indigenous Num-Num (Carissa macrocarpa) trees at its
Brackenfell factory to mark its commitment to biodiversity
protection. Established in 1996, CNTP is a processor and
marketer of indigenous herbal teas, most notably rooibos and
honeybush.
The tree planting marks the start of the ‘CNTP nurtures nature’
initiative and aims at raising awareness of environmental concerns
amongst its staff members. Each staff member has planted his own
tree and has committed himself to caring for it.
‘Many of our staff have very little concept of the environmental
challenges facing mankind today, and even fewer have planted a
tree of any description before’ said Dawie de Villiers, managing
director of CNTP. He added that one of the core values of CNTP,
as agreed by the entire staff, is caring for the environment. ‘This
tree planting is the execution of that value. We will be extending
this programme to include farms supplying us with raw material.’
The rooibos industry body, the SA Rooibos Council, has a
biodiversity protection initiative, Right Rooibos, that focuses
on establishing biodiversity-friendly farming practices amongst
rooibos growers. Gerhardt Pretorius, manager of the Right
Rooibos programme, said that this is the first step taken by a
rooibos processor in committing to environmental issues. ‘The
choice of Num-Num is apt, as this plant, like rooibos, is both
indigenous and drought-resistant. It also sustains a variety of
insect life and attracts fruit-eating birds,’ said Pretorius. ,
Food Review – JANUARY 2011 – www.foodreview.co.za
31
Rooiboost, you are getting your
daily anti-oxidant boost in one
go,’ said Serman.
Rooibos Ltd, the preferred
supplier of rooibos locally and
internationally, supplies the rooibos extract for use in Fair Cape
Rooiboost drinking yoghurt. Their renowned quality seal, a red
steaming tea cup that also appears on the packaging, assures
consumers that quality rooibos that has conformed to the most
stringent processing methods was used.
Using rooibos in yoghurt is not new for Fair Cape. They
have identified the health qualities of rooibos and have since
used it in some of their other products. Rooiboost is a natural
progression from the previous launch of Fair Cape’s Free Range
rooibos yoghurts that broke the Guinness World Record for the
world’s largest yoghurt at just over 500L in January 2010.
The attractive new Rooiboost packaging was designed by
Contrast Design in Cape Town. ,