Good news for tea aficionados: it is no longer necessary to embark on an epic journey like Zheng He to savour the aroma of African herbs. Those of us who suffer from severe tea addiction can now enjoy the sweetness of South African rooibos in the very centre of the Chinese capital.
In a small, exquisitely designed café, hidden among the Xiang’er hutongs in Beijing, a barista can ease your craving with a cup of high-quality rooibos, with a touch of originality that adds to the experience.
A local favorite is the chappuccino, a clever twist on the classic cappuccino, with rooibos leaves in place of coffee beans.
“When we promote rooibos, we like to tell our customers that rooibos is not really tea. We emphasise its decaffeinated property, and so we are able to sell it to people who like the atmosphere of cafés, but are too sensitive to caffeine,” says the propagator of this unique hot beverage in China, Zhang Yipeng.
Originally from Shandong, Zhang, 32, lived and studied in Cape Town for many years. After returning to China in 2013, she created the Smash A Cup brand with two friends to introduce this healthy and caffeine-free beverage to Chinese tea drinkers.
Zhang is only one of the many entrepreneurs who have made it their mission to bring this unique South African beverage to China over the last few years. Introducing a foreign tea into the well-established, age-old Chinese tea market is a major challenge that these entrepreneurs intend to address with ingenuity and innovation.
Rooibos – which means “red bush” in Afrikaans – is a fragrant, floral and sweet herb.
The earliest use of rooibos (Aspalathus linearis) can be traced back to the first inhabitants of the Cederberg in the Western Cape, who favoured it for its beneficial and versatile medicinal properties.
Although it is commonly known as a tea, rooibos is actually a herb.
It was during her stay in Cape Town that Zhang discovered this herb, and decided to bring it back to China. After seeing demand for the product grow, she decided to open her own shop, Big Small Coffee, in Beijing’s Xiang’er hutong district.
She now supplies more than 300 coffee shops around China with rooibos products.
“Our rooibos tea is of the highest quality available, and we sell it in four flavours: vanilla, honeybush, honey and mint,” Zhang said.
According to Zhang, a massive selling point in favour of rooibos is its health benefits.
Due to its high content in quercetin, rooibos tea has been linked to anti-allergenic, anti-inflammatory and anti-viral properties, according to a 2008 scientific study from the European Journal of Pharmacology.
Drinking rooibos regularly can also help with hypertension and inflammation.
Taste-wise, rooibos was a surprise for Chinese customers, said Zhang. Although some customers may feel that the drink lacks “strength” – is due to the fact that its tannin content is much lower than Chinese green teas – others are seduced by its softness.
“Our female clients, especially, appreciate rooibos very much, because they like its sweet, silky, soft taste,” Zhang said.
The coming challenge for rooibos will be to expand its market place in China, transitioning from its actual nested market to widespread popularity.
For this, popularising rooibos among young Chinese consumers will be critical.
Papp’s Tea, a premium tea brand created in 2015 by American Martin Papp and Chinese Weiwei, is a young start-up that seeks to make tea a cool, young and fashionable product, attributes that are now mostly associated with coffee by young Chinese.
Rooibos has become a special asset for the company, because – paradoxically – it is not tea, and therefore is a great product to introduce to people who may have little enthusiasm for drinking tea.
“What makes rooibos exciting is that it’s a herbal tea, so it has a very unique smell and taste, in addition to being caffeine free,” said Jerrod Weston, Papp’s Tea chief experience officer.
“Rooibos is intriguing, it’s something different, and it’s one of our signature teas, so it does make us special.”
In their colourful Sanlitun tea shop, right at Beijing’s shopping nerve centre, rooibos rubs shoulders with the great Chinese teas – Pu’er, Longjing and Oolong – in addition to other international big names.
Another asset of rooibos is its versatility, as it mixes well with other products. The rooibos has become a central ingredient of Papp’s Tea’s most popular tea blends, such as the Chill Out Tea, which, as its name indicates, relies on rooibos’s relaxing properties.
“These is really no excuse to not drink it, it’s just a fantastic beverage that has no side effects; it’s just tasty!” concludes Weston.
However, the greatest difficulties Zhang, Weston and other rooibos sellers in China must face are not in China, but at the other end of their supply chain – in South Africa.
“The biggest challenge we face is not in customer acceptance, but in ensuring product supply from South Africa.
“While the global demand for rooibos tea is growing, including in China, we are sometimes concerned that we will not be able to buy the quality products we need at a reasonable price,” said Zhang.
Rooibos does not grow outside of the Cape, which gives the country a de facto monopoly on the market.
According to a 2013 report by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, South Africa produces around 12 000 tons of rooibos per year, of which about half is exported to more than 30 foreign countries.
According to figures released by the South African Rooibos Council (SARC), in 2015, the main export markets were Germany, the Netherlands and Japan. Mainland China accounted for less than 2% of global rooibos sales, with a total of 91 000kg imported, which puts the country in the 10th place.
But despite the current small share of China’s market, local producers have great ambitions for the future.
Rooibos represents 10% of the world market for herbal teas, but this is expected to grow once the Asian market becomes more familiar with the product.
Suzanne Herbst, of the SARC, said the prospects were particularly bright for green (unfermented) rooibos leaves, which were a natural choice for Asian consumers with a traditional affinity for green tea.
According to Herbst, the SARC was also making efforts to increase the visibility of rooibos tea in China and was actively collaborating with the South African Embassy in Beijing in this area.
During the South African Week in China, held in Beijing from September 9-13, 2016, people in attendance were able to enjoy a variety of rooibos tea provided by the SARC. Rooibos tea samples were also distributed through the gift bags given by the Embassy.
Zhang Yipeng and her team joined in the fun at the South African Wine Tasting and Product Exhibition, also part of the South African Week. Behind her stylish stand, one could see her introducing new flavours and new products – and bringing a little piece of sunny Cape Town – to a new generation of tea drinkers in China.
Dubé is a journalist based in Beijing