The Franschhoek Valley has become a magnet for young couples searching for a better work/life balance and quality private schooling. The latest example of this trend is Monique and Pete Ethelston – the driving force behind ‘red espresso’, the Rooibos tea that behaves like coffee.
Since its launch in late 2005, the internationally-patented product has taken the world by storm, garnering numerous accolades including the prestigious new product award at the Speciality Coffee Association in the US – and it’s not even coffee.
The Ethelstons moved to Franschhoek in December. The thatched family home they rent in Delta Crest with their two small children, Maya (3) and Trinity (20 months), couldn’t be more different to the Mouille Point apartment they left behind.
“We moved here for lifestyle and balance and we’re very fond of Bridge House,” says Monique. They had been exposed to the school through their good friend, Carl Pretorius, the founder of red espresso, who has three boys at the school.
An olive farmer in Paarl, Pretorius used to drink about six espressos a day. One day he felt like another shot but without the negative effects of caffeine so on impulse he stuck some Rooibos tea leaves into his espresso machine instead. That’s how the world’s first tea espresso came into being, though it took much experimentation to perfect.
Today Carl and his friends and business partners, the Ethelstons, promote a range red espresso based drinks, including red latte, red cappuccino, fresh red (an iced tea), and red symphony.
Monique’s job as marketing director is to introduce red espresso to people who are looking for a healthy alternative to coffee but are not willing to sacrifice on the sophistication and style of the coffee experience.
Her husband, Pete, is the managing director. Both formerly worked for Unilever.
“One of the reasons why coffee drinkers haven’t moved over to herbal teas is because of the ritual involved and individuality you can express with coffee,” says Monique, “The treat of going to your coffee bar and ordering your sophisticated, ritual drink with your friends – that’s what coffee’s got.”
So the challenge was to make Rooibos sexy and sophisticated. It also needed to involve some kind of ritual in the preparation, as with coffee. This was partly achieved with the stylish packaging, and partly by ensuring that the baristas serving the product are trained to add a swirl of honey and cinnamon to the red cappuccino or red latte – so that people feel like they are giving themselves a special treat when they order it.
Monique’s work on the brand resulted in her being declared a Marketing Rising Star in the 2008 Sunday Times Marketing Excellence Awards. Cosmopolitan Magazine named her a Mover and Shaker in the same year. red espresso has won too many domestic and international awards to list. Among them, Food Review magazine’s 2006 Product Innovation of the Year award and a Top 10 Product at the World Tea Expo in the USA in 2008.
The beauty of the drink is that not only is it caffeine-free but it is also extremely healthy. A shot of red espresso contains five times more antioxidants than green tea and ten times more than a cup of traditional Rooibos tea.
The product exploded onto the SA market in late 2005, selling about one million drinks in its first year. That has increased to about three million now in SA alone. red espresso is also a big success in Portugal where it is marketed as red Q. Within weeks of being launched there it became the second biggest seller in the Delta Q capsule range – a variety of coffee capsules prepared for home espresso machines by the biggest coffee roaster in the country, Delta Cafes.
red espresso is also exported to Canada, the UK, USA, Denmark, Switzerland, South Korea, Germany and several African countries. Key areas of expansion include Asia, Australia and parts of Europe.
The Americans put spirals of cream and hundreds-and-thousands on their red lattes, the Canadians serve it with apple cider and pumpkin spice, but the Mediterranean countries drink it straight up. Local chefs are also experimenting with red espresso in food because of its strong flavour relative to ordinary Rooibos tea.
In Franschhoek, red espresso can be ordered at Essence coffee shop. It’s more visible in Paarl, where it has its origins and where the company’s factory is located. Monique’s mission is to make it available more widely through the valley.
It is also stocked by Pick n Pay, Woolworths, Mugg & Bean, Primi Piatti, Col’Cacchio, Giovanni’s Deli World, and Seattle Coffee Shops as well as various retail outlets.
For Pete, the business is about taking a South African stalwart and revolutionising it into something new and innovative and then taking it to the world. “As a small team of family and friends, we’re also passionate about creating a business and product that’s healthy and has, at its core, family values and integrity,” he says.
Pete commutes from Franschhoek to Cape Town two to three times a week while Monique works mostly from home. They do a lot of skype-ing to keep in touch with the Cape Town team and their export partners and Pete travels extensively abroad.