How we pack, label and send every order

A short walk through the packing room: how a basket moves from the shelf to the courier, what we check before a tin is sealed, and the practical limits that shape our weekly runs.

1. 2016

   First Cederberg lot

   One farm, one harvest, packed by hand into paper bags at a kitchen table. We learned quickly that long-cut leaf needs a wider strainer than most kitchens keep, so the first brewing notes went onto the labels that year.

2. 2018

   Honeybush joins the shelf

   A grower near the Langkloof sent a sample we could not turn down. Blending honeybush with chamomile took several rounds before the ratio settled close to even, and that blend is still the one guesthouses ask for by name.

3. 2020

   Refill pouches and glass jars

   Regulars kept returning jars for a top-up, so we started listing refill pouches sized to a 500 ml jar alongside the glass. Same leaf, less packaging, and a note field in the cart for grind and delivery windows came out of the same year.

4. 2022

   The five-tin tasting set

   New buyers were guessing at blends they had never brewed. Five 30 g tins, hand-labelled, packed in a box that fits a standard letterbox, solved most of that. It is now the first order for roughly half of our new customers.

5. 2024

   Weekly stock turns

   We moved to small, frequent runs instead of holding deep stock. Seasonal lots sell out and come back in limited quantities, which keeps the leaf fresh but means the same-day courier cutoff is a real constraint, not a slogan.

How an order actually moves through the packing room

Every basket follows the same route, and knowing it up front saves a lot of back-and-forth. Here is what happens between the moment you check out and the moment the courier takes the box.

• Weighed to the gram, not scooped by eye

  Loose leaf goes on the scale for every line in your basket. A 250 g refill pouch is 250 g of leaf, and the harvest note on the listing tells you which lot it came from.

• Your cart notes travel with the order

  Grind preference, a delivery window, a gift message: whatever sits in the note field is printed on the packing slip. We read it before the tins are sealed, not after.

• Same-day packing before the courier cutoff

  Orders placed before the cutoff leave the packing room the same day. Anything later rolls to the next working morning, which matters if you are restocking a guesthouse tray mid-week.

• Small runs, so seasonal lots run out

  Stock turns weekly and we restock in small batches. If a single-origin lot is gone, it is gone until the next harvest rather than swapped for a lookalike.

• Reordering the same three blends

  Regulars tend to settle on a fixed rotation and set it to repeat. New buyers usually start with the five-tin tasting set, then narrow down from there.

Not sure where to begin? The blend and supply options lay out what we pack for kitchens and guesthouses, and contact the packing room if your order needs a specific delivery slot.