Choosing the Brand Name!

Our Rooibos Journey with little to no experience in choosing a name, at first, we just combined the farm name with the product name right? Yet thinking more about it we were amazed at the coincidence of this choice of name.

Let us give you the story!

Our farm’s name is Kookfontein! translated directly to English it would be Boiling Fountain. Little did we know at the time how appropriate it would become. You see to make Rooibos like “Oupa” you need to “boil” the Rooibos leaves. Oh, and you need pure Natural Rooibos leaves too.

Yes, it’s not a myth! Rooibos really only grows in the Cederberg region of the Western Cape. Although farmers have tried to grow it elsewhere in the world, the climate, soil and conditions just aren’t conducive, …and we’d like to think that nature intended it that way. – 

Our Rooibos Farm

Kookfontein farm is in the Cederberg Region the only place where Rooibos grows.

Like with so many other stories, the Rooibos preparation story also started years ago. For those old enough to have the memory of visiting a farm those years would most likely remember the old enamel jug or pot simmering on the old wood stove.

The Rooibos aroma hung like a thick comfortable blanket in the kitchen. A sure heartwarming smell after a cold day outside. The Rooibos would be poured through a sieve with only a swirl of honey or sometimes a drop of two fresh lemon juice. At the time fresh milk was saved for porridge and traditional South African Milk tart

Let’s go further back

Very little will be old enough to even remember that even before enamel and wood stove you would have encountered a pot hanging over an open fire with Rooibos simmering. This memory has been passed down by many stories and antidotes. Yea at a stage Rooibos was known as the “poor man’s Coffee” – ( In celebration of Fynbos page 28 – Stuik.com)

Sure you would agree no better name than boiling Rooibos with fountain water. Kookfontein Rooibos!

To take care of the potential storage problems we could foresee that would occur in the near future.  Receiving Rooibos yields each year without selling or exporting would sooner rather than later lead to storage problems.

At the same time we know our Rooibos quality is very high and has always been exported as so many high-quality products are done in South Africa. Now we have an opportunity to let our local people be the beneficiary of these Rooibos with a little effort on our side.

Last by certainly not least, it would provide us with some physical excirse and much needed house hold income and what is more rewarding than customer satisfaction?

We had a really hard time figuring out what we want to do.

Not that it is hard to get the Rooibos in teabags or packaged.

The process is simple. Load the Rooibos in 20kg bags on the “bakkie” “pick up” and deliver them to the packaging company. One bag yields about 8000 single-serving tea bags.

Depending on the orders of the company we need to wait a day or ten. Then pick up the teabags for us to pack them for the market and if it is standard the company will do that on our behalf at additional cost.

Taking into consideration that we are an extremely small business in a market filled with decade-old large established companies. We are completely aware of the challenge that we have taken on.

However, we still believe that we can supply our clients with a high-quality product at a reasonable price with little waste.

Yes, it is possible as the main factor of any product price depends on two factors

1) Packaging and

2) Transportation

3) The middleman  ( This is the person buying the bulk repackage and pushing all the cost down to the consumer)

Is truly more than just a place to stay.

Yes, although we did not choose to live here initially other than for health problems we are extremely grateful every time have learned something to be more appreciative of what have.

Living on a farm we experience the full-blown effect of waste in ways that we never knew existed whilst living in the city.

On the farm, you have to deal with waste. In the city, you just need to push it outside your gates, once a week and someone else will deal with it on your behalf. We never thought about what is really happening to all that waste.

We remember that we too have been annoyed with the streetwalkers collecting different “waste” products to earn some money.  But let me tell you something, sometimes I wish one of them will come to the farm in search of items in our waste.

Our own waste, we had to change the way we bought many of our own products. Choosing glass and reusing the bottles was one of the many ways we have contributed to reducing waste.

With this in mind, and knowing that the best Rooibos is loose leaves we promote our Natural Rooibos Leaves in bulk as our continuous and first product.

However, we soon discovered the market is not yet ready for the switch to healthy and loose leave.

Yet we notice after covid a change in more enquiries about HEALTH products.

Sooner rather than later, natural loose leave Rooibos will soon return to being THE beverage as it is locally produced. It will naturally be more affordable than any other imported beverage. In the current high-cost-of-living environment we experience.

Not only is Rooibos local produce, but it also has multiple health benefits and is environment-friendly – no part of rooibos is wasted.

After you enjoyed your hot beverage you can cool it down by using it to make iced tea.

The leaves are good for mulch and or compost.