The secret of an instant zobo drink processor

Chief Executive Officer of DC Foods, Oluwabunmilofe Awosode.

A few days ago, this year’s International Women’s Day was celebrated under the theme, ‘Investing in women: Accelerate progress’. FarmingFarmersFarms spotlights a remarkable young entrepreneur, who is reshaping the tea industry with zobo tea bags. In this interview, the Chief Executive Officer of Dainty Choice (DC) Foods, Oluwabunmilofe Awosode shares her journey, passion, and the empowering story behind her venture. Excerpts:

What inspired you to venture into the instant sobo tea industry, and how did you come up with the idea for packaging it in a tea bag for easy consumption?

Growing up as a young lady, I realised that many of the health issues we have is because of what we eat. I reflected on why the older generation lived longer and healthier, and I found out that, it is because of what they consume, and that is why they have enough health and strength to push through physical and health-wise challenges of life. I have always had the mind of how do we avoid having to take medications, or spend less on drugs, as a food scientist. I studied food science and technology and went ahead to study food science and home economics for five years in the university. It was the knowledge of these courses that motivated me to get these ideas of processing, packaging and developing healthy snacks and drinks for people. For instant zobo tea, I ventured into the healthy food and drink production in 2020 and because I wanted to solve a problem of people not having time to do that. But then, I encountered another problem which is; poor electricity. A lot of people see my soya milk drink and yoghurt, they really want to buy and store for the whole week or even longer, but poor electricity often discouraged them and that was how the instant zobo tea idea came forth. This product has no chemical preservation, yet it can be stored for a longer time and can be taken anywhere, whether with hot water or cold water.

As a female entrepreneur in the beverage sector, how do you navigate the challenges and the opportunities unique to your industry?

For every product I have, the challenges are different, but one thing I keep doing is I keep researching, and I keep learning. I go as far as downloading journals, reading, making notes; being a food scientist. You can’t be in this sector and be lazy; you have to do research and be innovative.

Could you share some insights into the process of developing your instant zobo tea product, from sourcing ingredients to perfecting the packaging for user convenience?

First thing, I know who to buy the zobo leaves from. And that, I am very intentional about. The process of converting it to powder is also important because I don’t want people putting their tea in a cup of water and they are tasting sand. I developed a recipe, which I do not joke with. For instance, I have been sending peanut to an organisation, since of 2021 and they tell me the taste has not changed. So, if I don’t get the precise content for my recipe; I would rather not produce. While packaging into the teabags, I’m also very careful so that people drink healthy. The spices in the zobo tea bag for instance, have antibacterial properties and the packaging is also very attractive.

CEO of DC Foods demonstrating how to make an instant zobo tea.

In celebration of the women’s day, how do you think your journey as an entrepreneur contributes to empowering women, whether in your team or as consumers of your product?

Experience, they say, is the best teacher because I realise that with gaining expertise over the years. The DC Foods entrepreneur that started with making small chops in 2020 is not the same person as of today. And this I am proud of to say; that my experience can help empower people. My uniqueness is from how I combine what I studied in school (food science) with entrepreneurship. Beyond this, I still enrolled in some training that opened me to how some food processors handled some products, to the extent of destroying some nutrients therein. I can say that the experience I have gathered in my seven years of studying food science, coupled with my industrial trainings over the years, and I developed over the business can help empower women, whether as consumers or producers. For instance, because of my knowledge, I make sure that my husband and child eat healthy. And even as a woman, you must eat healthy at your prime age else, you will not have enough strength to conceive or bear a child. I remember then as a pregnant woman, with a low packed cell volume (PCV), I knew what to eat and in less than three weeks, I was fine.

Could you give us a glimpse into what makes your product unique, and what secrets you think contribute to its success?

This is summarised under by business motto as “it’s healthy, it’s tasty”; in a bid to confront the infamous statement that “whatever is healthy must be bitter”. And I can say what contributes to this is the knowledge of food science I acquired over the years. For my beans flour for example, I asked questions about why some beans flour are hard and I had to follow a flow chart to combine something that my consumers will appreciate. Same with our oat chin-chin, which is very healthy yet tasty, even though oat is not naturally tasty. About success; I believe you are successful means every aspect of your life is successful – as a business owner, if other aspects of my life are not successful, then I am not successful. It is being able to balance things, putting priority and making things work – by drawing a scale of preference, setting my family as priority make things work for me. When you have a business, that you always have orders, you don’t want to rest until you have delivered, but what I do health wise, is to lie down after long hours of orders to take some rest even after feeding my child.

What message would you like to share with women aspiring to enter the world of entrepreneurship, particularly in the food and beverage industry?

My advice is there are always problems to solve and when you solve people’s problems, there will difficulties you will encounter and in the long run, you will make money. There was a day I lost 10 litres of soya milk and I was sad. Then, I had a chat with a friend in Port Harcourt, who was in a similar business and she told me she lost 79 bottles also that same time. There will always be times of rise and fall. Another thing is that you will always have to keep learning to improve yourself and finally, I remember while in school, our department was very demanding and we would always lament the rigorousness. Doing this business, I have found out anything that involves food, involves lives. As an entrepreneur, what you cannot eat or feed yourself, don’t add into product for people. You can’t call something unhealthy, and package as healthy for selling. What you cannot buy at the price you are giving out, do not also produce!