In most Nguni communities, when the hum of cultural songs and the steam of cooking pots fill the air, people gather for a ceremony. Kids watch closely, learning the ways that keep a community together. Mpho Majeng was one of those children, mastering her grandmother’s rare skill of brewing traditional beer with hops.
Majeng has now turned that knowledge into Hops Drinks, a business built on that same tradition.
She grew up in Mdantsane, kuGompo, Eastern Cape, in a close-knit family as the only girl with three brothers. This made her especially close to the women in the family, though she was always a daddy’s girl at heart.
A legacy of hard work and tradition
Majeng fondly remembers childhood visits to her grandmother, Nomntu Gqiba, in Middledrift, Banzi location. Life there was a little different from Mdantsane; in Banzi, she saw unity in practice.
Her grandmother made her home a welcome haven for everyone, kept warm by her skill in brewing traditional beer with hops.
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“I used to watch my grandmother brew hops, and she would always say, ‘A glass of hops a day keeps the doctors away’.”
Now, she has taken her grandmother’s recipe and commercialised it for health-conscious consumers and busy professionals through Hops Drinks.
She also credits her mother, Makekeletso Majeng, who runs a tailoring business, for her drive. “I look up to her; she is my inspiration. I saw the challenges she faced and how she still rises above them with love.”
With great-grandparents who also owned a bakery, hard work is in her blood. “My mom always taught me that money does not fall from a tree; you work hard for your money. I still carry that with me even today.”
Every one of these memories has led her to found a business that is a true blend of her background, culture, and heritage.
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A bold transition
After matric, Majeng studied retail business management at Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT), followed by small business management at Stellenbosch Business School.
Post-graduation, she worked in Cape Town for Shoprite Checkers, starting as a trainee and working her way up to management.
Eventually, she moved back to the Eastern Cape in 2011 and worked as a store manager for Boxer Superstores in kuGompo. After years in retail, she felt she had learned enough to move on.
“I told myself that I want to learn more, then leave. I did exactly that,” she says.
Her initial plan was to start a training centre, accredited with the Wholesale and Retail SETA. She worked on getting accreditation for her manuals to train people, but the plan didn’t work out.
At that crossroads, she remembered a ceremony her family was preparing for, where her grandmother Nomntu was brewing hops as usual.
“I realised that with all my retail experience, I had never seen a product like this on the shelves,” Majeng recalls. “That’s where I started brewing Hops Ice Tea and selling it to people.”
Brewing a sustainable future
In 2018, Majeng officially registered Hops Drinks. To solve the challenge of having no equipment of her own, she partnered with a microbrewery in Chintsa, kuGompo, for contract brewing.
“Contract brewing is when you use someone else’s premises or have your production done on their site,” she explains. “It helps a lot when you are manufacturing on a small scale.”
Majeng tells Food For Mzansi that she sources her hops from George in the Western Cape. Her Hops Ice Teas come in two flavours: original and lemon.
“I see the product growing geographically and increasing its footprint outside the province,” she says.
However, she notes that the business comes with its own set of challenges. Funding is tight, especially when it comes to food safety and compliance. Since compliance is so expensive, she had to stick with contract brewing to keep the business going.
She has also found it tough being in a male-dominated industry. Being the first woman to bring a product like this to market is a challenge because when people hear “hops”, they only think of alcohol.
“Hops Ice Tea is a non-alcoholic immune booster,” she explains.
Majeng shares these tips for aspiring agripreneurs:
- Start small: Don’t wait for a factory.
- Solve a problem: Look for the gap.
- Build relationships: Partnerships are key.
- Stay consistent: Keep teaching your market.
- Know your cash flow: From sourcing to compliance, you must know your costs to survive.
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