Johannesburg - Time to shake up your idea of what a cup of tea is. How about a cuppa with some black tapioca pearls in it, or peach tea with rooibos crystal jelly? Or apple green tea with kiwi crystal jelly?
The mind boggles, and so does your palate when you try one of the beverages offered at the new Happy.me shop in the Village Green shopping centre in Greenside, a South African take on “bubble tea”.
For the uninitiated, bubble tea refers to milk or fruit tea-based drinks containing tapioca balls, which were invented in Taiwan in the 1980s. It comes cold and colourful and has been a growing trend in Europe, America and the East over the past few years.
Now, Johannesburg entrepreneurs Jan Roode and his wife, Jay, have decided to “amplify” bubble tea and take it into a whole new dimension, with recipes that include everything from aloe vera and coconut crystals to roasted muesli and goji berries.
“We first tried bubble tea in Hong Kong about three years ago, and it was the best drink we had ever tasted,” says 41-year-old Roode, a chartered accountant who listed his property development company (after a merger) on the AltX stock exchange in 2007 and hit the road with Jay, a photographer and designer, travelling the world.
“But the idea only really struck when we tasted yerba mate tea (a herbal tea) in Patagonia in South America. We thought, we’d love to bring the best of the world’s beverages back to South Africa,” says Roode.
Realising this goal entailed extensive travel over the past 18 months, and hundreds of tastings of different beverages, including coffees, teas and smoothies. For six months, the Roodes were in Taiwan, training with two tea masters and negotiating with suppliers of teas and tapioca.
“From there, we developed our own recipes, with teas from Taiwan and Sri Lanka, and some from Europe,” says Roode.
All the ingredients, imported and local, ended up in the Roode’s test kitchen in Wynberg, near Sandton, where different flavours and mixes were taste-tested over about three months. From there, the best combinations were chosen for the Happy.me menu.
“Using the principles of bubble tea, the idea was to add interesting textures, flavours and layers, and healthy things you can eat. We’re now working on drinks that are low GI, and lactose-free, and in the long run I’m looking to create more food and beverage concepts next year,” says Roode.
He has big plans for his bubbly mixes. Happy.me is to go national, under franchise, although the first five shops will be in Gauteng and owned by Roode.
“The challenge at the moment is finding premium retail spaces,” says Roode, who also wants to see the brand launching in Taipei and North America. “It’s a South African brand, but I believe it has to be able to stand its ground internationally.”
At the Happy.me shop, I notice it takes a little while to come up with a chosen concoction, which is not surprising, as each beverage has to be meticulously created by a mixologist who’s been trained to navigate a bewildering menu. On it are drinks like Oreo & cream milk tea smoothies and strawberry and pomegranate black tea, so the menu is also a bit of a maze for the customer.
If you’re not very adventurous, I’d say stick with a simple one, because some of the toppings are meals in themselves, and if you’re not sure of tapioca pearls, you may find the texture off-putting in a drink. Personally, I found them foreign to the palate to begin with, but then got used to them the way you get used to oysters when you first swallow them. And they do inject the most interesting pops of taste when you bite into them.
If you’re an unadulterated coffee nut who wants it straight, Happy.me also happens to have a NuovaSimonelli Aurelia II Competizione, otherwise known as the World Barista Championship official espresso machine and the only one in South Africa. Its coffee is supplied by Origin, African artisan roasters who emphasise a hands-on mastery of all the aspects of coffee crafting.
Teas range in price from R25 to R30, and the coffees go from R13.50 to R25 for a frozen latte. Fresh fruit smoothies average about R35, and a hot chocolate beverage is about R27.50.
As for the Happy.me “mascot”, the face of the brand, I didn’t even notice him. He is called Mighty Eckhardt, a cartoon character who likes to “escape from the daily grind and rocks to legends like Bob Dylan, Janis Joplin and Elvis”. That’ll give you some insight into the scribblings on the wall behind the coffee machine, and presumably the kind of customers the Roodes would like to attract.
My mother’s an Elvis lover, but I think she’s beyond the notion of having her tea served with vanilla panna cotta on top. The ambience and unusual drinks on offer at Happy.me are sure to be a hit with the younger set. - The Star
* Visit www.happyme.co.za