Innovation and Product Development at Carmién Tea

What sets Carmién Tea apart as a preferred rooibos brand? Apart from bringing our customers rooibos direct from the farm, grown socially just and sustainably, we have one key element that consistently brings us rave reviews and several international awards.

“Our innovative, flavourful and functional rooibos blends underpin our aspiration towards a life of health and wellbeing for all.” MIENTJIE MOUTON, FOUNDER

We consider these blends our ‘distinctive trademark’, adding nutrient-packed superfoods to a rooibos base, thereby providing even more health benefit. These blends are customized for every stage of life. While focused on the latest rooibos research, great care is taken to continuously develop teas and tea products that are lifestyle enhancing and brand extensions offering a more complete shopping experience to our customers.

Key points taken into consideration in developing new products:

Range positioning: We identify the market sector at which the product is aimed ie. a premium product range for hotels, restaurants or the  catering sector/a bulk tea range/an organic product line to meet high expectations in terms of transparency/ a tea infusions product range in bottles or cans to reach new clientele.

Our choice of strategy influences the entire product development process including the choice of botanical ingredients.

Packaging: We shop and eat with our eyes so ranges are designed with the end consumer in mind ranging from bulk usage to an ingredient focused wellness range, to more visually appealing, decorative, high end pyramid tea blends aimed at pleasurable tea rituals and gifting.

Quality & Ingredients: Sourcing only the best quality ingredients is crucial to create a product that is as clean, natural and healthy as possible. Flavour and ingredient balance is key in every blend. Our master blender has to find the perfect balance in taste, aroma, mouthfeel in accordance with the Rooibos Sensory Wheel as well as visual appeal. We have a trained tasting panel doing daily tastings to ensure quality and taste continuity.

Certifications: Transparency and sustainability are key Carmién principles therefore we have several certifications and accreditations and we get audited by these certification bodies on a regular basis. Our entire process is BRC Global Standard certified giving our brand an internationally recognised mark of food quality, safety and responsibility.

Recent Carmién innovations:

Rooibos has multiple proven benefits of which its calming effect is of great value in a world filled with stress and anxiety. We have developed several calming tea blends by adding camomile, an ancient remedy with sedative effects. After much research, in collaboration with SAHPRA, we developed Calm, with 2mg added CBD – a relaxing blend of rooibos, passion flower, lemon balm, lavender and cannabis sativa L (CBD isolate )**

Rooibos with its natural immune boosting properties gained increased popularity in these COVID times. This caused us to develop Boost, an immune-boosting rooibos tea blend with added, echinacea, ginger, vitamin C and zinc to help combat winter colds and flu.

We also extended our ranges of rooibos powders with two immune boosting powders with hydrolysed collagen, perfect to add to a daily smoothie. Collagen is no longer exclusive to the super health-conscious but is now seen as an essential part of anti-ageing and daily health, improving skin health and supporting strong nail-, hair-, joint- and bone health.

Our first brand extension were two rooibos distilled gins, Floral Berry and Citrus Chai, following the worldwide ‘ginnaisance’. The adding of botanicals to gin, of course, suits rooibos like a glove. We pioneered our very popular G&Tea by adding a teabag to the classic G&T to bring out even more flavour.

In line with international trends and very hot South African summers, a  cold brew range specifically developed to be used in cold water now makes tea a perfect summertime drink, sweet yet sugar free, and great to add to your daily water intake for added benefit.

Last but not least, it seemed logical that we should not only look after man’s pleasure but also his beloved pet, especially as it is widely touted that pets have a calming influence on humans. We have just launched a rooibos pet food supplement with added turmeric root and rosehip. Our Carmién Pet Food Supplement is specifically formulated to improve and maintain joint health.