Jessica Bonin: Master blender of tea, passion and success

Credit: Richard Gregory via YouTube

As Cape Town’s first food truck and the world’s first mobile tea caravan, it served as a platform to introduce the uninitiated to the rejuvenating properties of loose-leaf tea and provided Bonin with valuable direct engagement with her consumers.

The business grew and Bonin started processing, packaging, distributing and selling from premises that incorporated a storefront and factory in what’s now known as the Woodstock Exchange. In 2016, she realised her dream and opened The Tea Bar in Long Street, Cape Town.

Lady Bonin’s Tea now employs seven people, stocks over 45 uniquely blended teas and exports to a number of countries around the world. She says that tea blending is not only her business, it’s her practice, one which she continues to hone through experimenting, spending time with tea masters in Asia and partaking in traditional tea ceremonies.

Bonin was a finalist in the Fairlady Women of the Future Awards 2016 and was named winner of the Western Cape Female Entrepreneur of the Year 2015. The celebrated businesswoman and self-taught tea blender was the featured guest at May's Startup Grind Cape Town event, where she shared the highs, lows and learnings of her journey.

On her biggest challenge starting out

“The biggest challenge when I started was being taken seriously. When people saw that I’m a woman with this decorated caravan it was very much like ‘Oh bless, she has a little craft project.’ But this forced me to be serious with myself. I’m a competitive person so when somebody shows doubt towards me, I adopt the attitude of ‘I’ll show you.’”

On her biggest failure

“My biggest failure was misunderstanding failure. In the beginning, I thought hitting my head was a problem, but I had to learn to accept it as a good thing. It’s the only way that you learn and it’s absolutely necessary, because you don’t want to keep stepping on the same stones again and again. Every time I think I know something, I realise I know nothing.”

On changing mindsets around tea

“The caravan was an incredible way for me to change mindsets around loose-leaf tea. Often people would try the tea because they got to have the experience of the caravan – food trucks were a new concept at the time. It broke the barrier between the consumer and retailer.

“Through this I was able to discover the negative perceptions people had when it came to loose-leaf tea so that I could understand what was getting in the way. I learnt they wanted convenience – people think teabags are easy and quick, but of course there’s a compromise on flavour and quality. I thought about how I could maintain the quality and flavour but do it in a way that’s convenient.

“That lead to educating people. Speaking to them at the caravan, going into shops and training staff, and using social media. It required a lot of effort, but it showed them that it can take all of two minutes to make a quality cup of tea.

“I’m one of three tea bars in the world doing tea the way I’m doing it. I had to pull myself back a bit and realise that I’m a little ahead of the curve, people might not be ready for it yet. I had to adapt to the market and make it more accessible for people. But once they tasted what tea is supposed to taste like, they couldn’t have it another way. People find a ritual in loose-leaf tea.”

A post shared by Lady Bonin's Tea (@ladyboninstea) on May 3, 2017 at 4:50am PDT

On ethical and sustainable trade

“We support small-scale farms that have community-based initiatives and we pay a premium to our farms, essentially going beyond fair trade. I prefer to see the farms myself and have direct relationships with the people I’m working with. Last year I went to Sri Lanka to see the farms we’re working with over there. They’re the only carbon-neutral farms in that country and they have the most incredible community programmes, especially with women, which I like. Before that I was in Japan finding tea farms.

“My strategy is to physically see who I’m working with and make sure they tick all the boxes in terms of ethics and sustainability. Just in the last year, we’ve managed to go from about 15% organic and sustainable to 90% organic and sustainable.”

On learning to delegate

“It was more than two years before I employed somebody part-time and it was really difficult to delegate. Your business is like your child so it’s hard to let go. But that becomes detrimental…

“I learnt that the more you hold onto it the more you stifle it and everybody has something meaningful to contribute. I didn’t just create the business for me to blossom, I want other people to be able to do that as well. When you learn to let go and trust people, there’s a reciprocity that happens, and it’s beautiful. But it’s also important to find the right people.”

On the high point in her career

“The most exciting time in my career was when I opened the tea bar because it was my initial idea. I wanted to be the leader in tea and the caravan was my way to get there. So when I opened my tea bar five and a half years into my business – after going down every other avenue imaginable – it was a really big, amazing moment for me. But there’s no end to a good thing and the best is yet to come, it keeps on surprising me.”