POLOKWANE – Tshwaragano Mathibe is putting a modern spin on a ginger beer recipe that has been passed down from generation to generation in his family, and making a profit from it.
He started making ginger beer at the age of five and decided to turn his love for this beverage into a business at the start of January last year. Traditional ginger beer is a naturally sweetened and carbonated, non alcoholic beverage, produced by the natural fermentation of prepared ginger spice, yeast and sugar. Tshwaragano brews his ginger beer with ginger powder made from fresh roots, adding special ingredients to turn it into what he calls a “magical traditional ginger beer juice”.
“My mother wanted to pass on the ginger beer recipe to my two brothers and sister, but they were not interested in learning it, that is when she decided to teach me instead, and from then on I turned it into a business. Since this is mostly a female-dominated field nationwide, I want to prove to other men out there that we as men are also capable of making ginger beer. Mine just tastes a lot better,” he jokes. Tshwaragano has a son who he wants to pass the ginger beer recipe down to with the hope that he will not reject the idea like his own siblings did years before.
The 25-year-old entrepreneur believes ginger beer is a form of folk medicine which has a number of health benefits such as relieving flu, migraines, menstrual pains, ulcers, toothaches, nausea, digestive problems, and act as cancer prevention, to name but a few.
“As far as I know, I do not have any competition in the male world when it comes to making ginger beer, so I think it’s safe to say I am the best male ginger beer maker in Polokwane. It is something I love doing and I believe it is either something you can or you cannot do, it takes natural talent,” he explains.
He sells home-brewed ginger beer after he decided to try his hand at entrepreneurship instead of working a “nine-to-five” job. This, he explains, affords him the ability to generate an income and take care of his mother as she is left all alone after her other children married.
This talented entrepreneur supplies his ginger beer directly to customers from his home, some even as far away as Gauteng.
Tshwaragano, kind-hearted as he is, also donates his ginger beer to many of the charity homes in the city and surrounding areas and often visits with them during the festive season.
“I prefer home-made ginger beer to the alcoholic variety of ginger beer one can buy because it is healthy and you can never go wrong by drinking a bit of sour beer.”
The biggest problem with businesses these days, he explains, is that people always follow the money instead of their dreams when in fact it should actually be the other way around.
“If you put the time and effort into following your dream, everything else will fall into place,” he concludes.
