How to buy rooibos well

Before you ask anyone

Decide four things, because every answer you get will depend on them:

• Use. Service in a café, retail under your brand, an ingredient, or personal use. The use decides the cut, the format and the paperwork.
• Type. Red or green, or a tasting to decide. See types and processing.
• Quantity and rhythm. A sample, a one-off order, or a repeat supply. Suppliers quote differently for each.
• Destination. Where the leaf must arrive, because that decides the shipping documents.

The brief builder asks exactly these and writes them into a brief you can send to several suppliers at once, so that their answers line up.

The lot

Rooibos is a crop: every sack comes from a particular harvest in a particular place. Grading takes account of colour, flavour, aroma and cut length, but a grade name does not tell you which harvest it came from. Ask about the lot before the grade.

1. Which harvest season and year is the lot you are quoting from?
2. Where was it grown, and where was it processed?
3. Are you the grower, the processor, a packer or a trader for this lot?
4. How much of this lot is left, and will my repeat order come from the same lot or a new one?

The cut and the specification

Cut length is what makes one grade suit a tea bag and another suit a loose pot. A name such as "fines" or "superfines" tells you the supplier's intent; only the specification tells you the length. The grades page says what a specification should contain.

1. Can you send a written specification for this grade: cut length as a sieve distribution, colour, moisture with the method, and harvest year?
2. Which of your grades is meant for bags, which for loose brewing, and which for blending?
3. What does your grade name mean in numbers, and is it the same from lot to lot?
4. Was anything applied to the leaf after drying, and when?

Samples

A sample is only useful if it comes from the lot you would actually receive. Ask for that explicitly, and brew every sample the same way; the brewing page gives a tasting method.

1. Is this sample drawn from the lot you would ship, or from a showcase batch?
2. Can you send samples of two grades so I can compare cut lengths in my own equipment?
3. If I approve a sample, how do you make sure the shipped lot matches it?

Packaging and shipping

Bulk rooibos is sold in bags of a stated net mass. Ask for the sizes, the material and how they are sealed, because that decides your storage and handling; the sourcing and export page covers the standard, the inspection and the documents.

1. Which bag sizes and materials do you ship in, and what is the net weight of each?
2. How are bags sealed, palletised and protected from damp in transit?
3. What is the minimum order for each packaging size, and what is the lead time from confirmation to dispatch?
4. Which shipping documents can you provide for my destination, and who arranges freight?

Paperwork

Ask which documents travel with a shipment, and ask to see copies before you commit. Anything a supplier claims about origin or status should be something it can document on request.

1. Which documents accompany a shipment: a certificate of analysis, origin paperwork, a packing list, the export inspection approval?
2. Can you document any status you mention, and can you send current copies now?
3. What shelf life do you state for this grade, and on what basis?

Terms

Terms vary by supplier and by order. The honest answer to "what does it cost" is a written quotation for a specific grade, quantity, packaging and destination, which is why this library publishes no numbers of its own.

1. What is your quotation for this grade, quantity, packaging and destination, and how long is it valid?
2. What payment structure do you work with, for example a deposit and then the balance before dispatch, and what are the percentages?
3. On which trade term is the quotation made, and when does risk pass?
4. What happens if the shipped lot does not match the approved sample?

Comparing answers

Put the answers from each supplier side by side, question by question. Three things usually decide it:

• Who answered in writing, with numbers. A specification and a document list are worth more than adjectives.
• Who could say where the lot came from. Origin and harvest year, immediately, without looking it up.
• Whose sample you preferred blind. Taste before terms, then confirm the shipped lot will match.

If you want to put these questions to the farm behind this library, the trade page lists what Cloudskraal Farms sells and how to reach Alex Nel directly. If you want to put them to anyone, the brief builder writes them up for you.