Turning the love for tea into a dream business, Josephine created HerCha to share her favourite drinks with all the people out there.
The inspiration behind the name of the business HerCha came from the word He(r)cha in Chinese which means “drinking tea” and that the idea to go out for tea by saying “Let’s go Hercha”.
“From there it inspires me to find the perfect blend of drink that we can enjoy at any time, anywhere on the go, and most importantly to have a good time with friends or family while Hercha a.k.a drink tea,” said the entrepreneur.
The business idea came from when Josephine and her sister were traveling whereby, they realised that there were various types of tea shops abroad.
They fell in love with tea leaves’ fragrances and began buying many tea leaves for friends and family back home.
The sisters’ cold brew journey began in 2016 when they joined many pop-up events selling their best seller cold brew Pandan French Earl Grey tea and self-mix blend tea lives. However, due to work commitment, the business went on hiatus in 2018.
Josephine further said that the second wave of the COVID-19 brought light to the business as she was able to reopen her business, thanks to travel restrictions that cause a rise in online shopping trends, she made several purchases on tea leaves and powders to brew on her own.
Stumbling upon matcha and hojicha latte videos on Pinterest and YouTube, she started noting down ideas of a potential business menu and began brewing them for her family and sending them to her friends as a cheer-up booster.
“It was not a perfect blend at first, but I received a lot of feedback from my friends after giving them a try and from there I made trial and error on the latte and finally I managed to get the blend that I love. They encouraged me to start back HerCha and who knows this might be the next big thing,” said the entrepreneur.
Currently operating as a home business, the business only has Matcha Latte and Hojicha Latte on the menu – perfect for tea lovers and adventurous people who want to discover more about tea.
“I would like to add more to the menu and go for more types of tea lattes in the future. I am also hoping to bring back our cold brew tea menu and selling other products such as tea leaves as a gift set to your loved ones,” said Josephine, adding that the business runs on Instagram at @hercha.bn
The young entrepreneur believes that it requires a strong and determined heart when doing business while at the same time staying focused, do more research, and always look for inspiration.
This article was first published on 20 November 2021 in our Weekly E-Paper issue 168|
THE BRUNEIAN | BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN
