Retailer of the month: Origin Coffee Roasters--artisan coffee and tea, Africa style.

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In Cape Town, South Africa, tea and coffee retail businesses have not exploded as they have in other parts of the world. In this area, it is still a new and developing trend, with retail shops like Origin Coffee Roasters leading the way in exposing South Africans to the appeal of the coffee/tea shop.

T&C: How long have you been in business?

Joel Singer: Two Years

T&C: How did you begin?

JS: Passion became a hobby became a business, became a serious business.

The two founders met over an espresso at David's small country hotel in Greyton outside of Cape Town. Joel lived in Seattle where he worked as a program manager for Microsoft and where he was exposed to amazing coffee. David has been in hotels and restaurants his whole life and became obsessed with coffee after a visit to New Zealand. It all started from there.

We began primarily as a specialty coffee business, Origin Coffee Roasting. One of the two founders has a serious tea fixation, and the result was inevitable.

T&C: Why did you decide to open a shop? How many shops do you have?

JS: We have a single shop integrated with our coffee roastery and cafe, although the tea side of things will be expanding dramatically this year. Our cafe exists as a showcase for quality tea and tea experience, and to provide a point of focus for interest in tea culture in South Africa. We need to educate the public, food and wine writers, chefs, restaurateurs, F&B managers, etc about tea, since the market for high quality teas is relatively undeveloped in South Africa. Then the primary way in which South Africans experience our teas are via our wholesale customers--top restaurants, hotels, guesthouses, game lodges and cafes countrywide.

T&C: Why did you choose yourr location?

JS: The owners are highly sensitive to the urban landscape of Cape Town, which is developing rapidly now as a world class urban center. We needed a location that really spoke the language of coffee roasting and tea. After 18 months of aggressive searching, we finally secured a lease in a 1903 ex-tobacco warehouse in a trendy, cool neighborhood. We knew it was the kind of space our employees and clients would love coming to.

Artisan coffee is in its infancy in South Africa, which presents us with a wonderful opportunity. We are behind the U.S., Canada, New Zealand, Australia, Scandinavia, etc. The industry is about to go through massive change and growth.

T&C: What tea/coffee product lines do you feature?

JS: A wide range--from black, green, oolong and white teas (natural and scented/flavored) to rooibos blends, herbals and fruit infusions.

Specialty-grade relationship coffees from a wide range of origins, in many cases, single-estate coffees. We sell beans, espresso drinks and filter coffee onsite at Origin.

T&C: What else do you provide other than tea and coffee?

JS: We have a small Montreal-style bagel bakery onsite, and we sell bagels, wraps, sandwiches and a limited range of pastries. The food exists mostly to complement our tea and coffee. We are not a food destination or a restaurant.

T&C: Who are your beverage line suppliers?

JS: We are. We roast on a 15-kg U.S. Roasters Profiling Roaster and blend all of our coffees onsite. We import and distribute our own range of teas. We make up iced coffees and teas fresh onsite.

T&C: What is the most popular type of tea/coffee?

JS: We sell only leaf teas, although we anticipate a limited range of bagged teas shortly. The classics are the most popular--Ceylon, our blended breakfast tea, Earl Grey, chamomile, green tea with mint, some of our Rooibos blends (orange and spice in particular) and our forest berries fruit infusion. Since our passion is lightly oxidized oolongs, we tend to sell those to serious tea drinkers.

Without any (or perhaps too much) prompting from us, the most popular coffees at Origin are our signature espresso blend, and then a couple of African origin coffees--Ethiopia Harrar and Rwanda Musasa coop come to mind as the most popular sellers. We have a focus on African excellence, but we let our customers decide. Amazingly, they seem to overwhelmingly select coffees from top African origins.

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T&C: Do you offer any decaf products?

JS: Surprisingly, there has been little demand for decal teas. Customers seem to be happy with rooibos tea and herbal infusions. The market will decide.

T&C: What is your preferred method of brewing tea? Are there any special instruments that you use?

JS: A Japanese cast-iron pot. I can steep the tea to perfection and then linger over it due to the heat retention of the iron. It also pours beautifully. We also have formal Taiwanese tea services when we serve our Taiwanese Ali High Mountain tea.

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T&C: Do you have your own brand of tea? (private label.) If so, who does your packing?

JS: Yes. We have our own tea brand, which we are in the process of developing. We buy our teas in bulk and pack them for wholesale and retail clients at Origin.

T&C: Can you offer any promotional ideas?

JS: Evangelism, pure and simple. Give every customer who visits a wonderful tea experience (a tasting, a conversation, etc). Work with restaurateurs, hoteliers, F&B managers, hospitality schools, etc to get the message of high quality tea and coffee into the market.

T&C: Describe your store's layout.

JS: The store is broken up into three floors and three outdoor areas. Downstairs we have our small roaster, our cafe and our bean sales area. We also have our tea area, which will expand, into its own, dedicated teahouse behind the cafe. On the middle floor we have our Barista School, professional cupping area, meeting rooms and administration. On the top floor we have our main roasting production and dispatching area, our bagel bakery and a second barista station with more limited food and beverage service to two outdoor areas--one a beautifully landscaped courtyard and the other a soon to be pedestrian-friendly and cobbled dead end street shared with other restaurant tenants.

T&C: How do you recruit employees and retain them?

JS: Like everyone, we look for people with a passion for the product. However, in South Africa, where the market is still in the early stages, they don't walk through our door every day. Our first South African barista champion (2007), Willem Pienaar who now does our roasting, installed our alarm system and showed an overwhelming interest in coffee and tea. Another of our top baristas, Lindy "Beans," came to us from another cafe where the owner couldn't stand how she insisted on doing everything "right" and without compromise. Jose Vilandy, our second South African Barista Champion (2008), came to us via a contact who does a lot of work with the refugee community here. Mingwei, our tea master, is a parent at one of the founder's son's school, and they met over a dumpling at the school fair.

We now have international interest--top baristas from other African countries, and even from Europe are now contacting us regarding opportunities. We pay better than market average salaries. We are the mecca for coffee and tea in the country and provide an exciting and challenging work environment.

We also identify promising individuals from previously disadvantaged backgrounds in South Africa, train them in our barista school at our expense, and if they are successful, we place them with our wholesale clients or third parties. There are not a lot of two to four-week training programs that can get people employed in such a short time at a decent salary level. The very best of these trainees might get the opportunity of a job at Origin itself.

Most of our staff also go through our professional barista course once they have proven themselves. We have South Africa's only full-time, open Barista School.

T&C: What sort of training is given in tea selections, brewing methods, etc.?

JS: Mingwei is driving the new round of our staff-training program. We are primarily focused on tasting, preparation methods, etc. Mingwei and Joel who head up the tea aspects answer the customer's difficult questions.

T&C: What problems do experience in your training?

JS: Socioeconomic factors. Most of our staff did not regularly drink the type of products (tea, coffee) that we serve, nor did they have the chance to experience as customers the type of environment and service we want to provide. This is a very different dynamic than in Europe, the U.S. or Asia.

T&C: How are your teas displayed? Do you take into account the effects of lighting and temperature on the freshness of the tea?

JS: Teas are displayed in 1.5-kg stainless double-sealing canisters. This protects the teas from light. The building has very thick walls and good temperature stability throughout the year. We also import in limited quantities several times a year to optimize freshness.

T&C: Do you ever offer tastings/ events for the customers to familiarize themselves with your products?

JS: We offer regular tastings in the shop. We also do regular cuppings, which are open to the public. We constantly run professional barista courses, home barista courses and tea and coffee appreciation events.