How a South African village turned an alien tree into superfood coffee

But the animals did not digest the seeds and the trees grew quickly and took over. Today, approximately eight million hectares (20 million acres) of the Northern Cape are infested with mesquite. As the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) explained in its 100 of the World’s Worst Invasive Alien Species list, “Prosopis glandulosa forms impenetrable thickets that compete strongly with native species for available soil water, suppress grass growth and may reduce understory species diversity.” Other species on the list include the anopheles mosquito, the vector for malaria.

Coetzee’s love affair with these droopy, thorn-covered aliens began in 1996, when he was still living in Prieska, 400km (248.5 miles) northeast of Calvinia. Shortly after becoming president, Nelson Mandela launched the Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP), a nationwide “socio-economic policy framework” that sought to “mobilise all our people and our country’s resources toward the final eradication of apartheid.” One RDP project employed about 150 local people to chop down mesquite trees in and around Prieska.

Coetzee, a third-generation entrepreneur, saw an opportunity in the piles of dead trees. When he asked the government what they planned to do with the wood, he was told that he was welcome to lead research into its possible uses. Working with the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), he put together a lengthy document of options. While Coetzee had gone into the project with dreams of using the trees for firewood or charcoal, he now set his sights on a higher goal. Mesquite trees have very hard wood that’s similar to Rhodesian teak, and he spent the next three years setting up a woodworking factory in Prieska. At its peak, he had 30 permanent employees and exported furniture to the US and other markets. The dramatic strengthening of the rand under President Thabo Mbeki led Coetzee to close the factory in 2004 because exports were no longer profitable.

But he wasn’t done with mesquite trees. Years working with them had made him acutely aware of the environmental threat they posed to his beloved Northern Cape – and their potential as drivers of job creation.

“I realised that cutting and poisoning the trees wasn’t the best way of controlling the infestation,” he explains in his gravelly baritone. “It cost government millions of rands, but the seeds from the regrowth replanted through animals’ droppings and the spread is now totally out of control.” Collecting the seedpods, he realised, was a much cheaper and more effective way of dealing with the problem.

Coetzee started working with the CSIR on a plan to use the pods to produce what they felt had the potential to be “the ultimate animal feed” due to the incredible nutritional qualities of mesquite seedpods. In fact, the test results were so promising that they started thinking about using the pods for human consumption. In his research, Coetzee read about the Pima Indians who have eaten mesquite seeds for generations. “When Pima Indians move to the US they start to develop Type 2 diabetes,” he explains. “But when they return to Mexico and start eating mesquite again the diabetes disappears.”

This prompted Coetzee to take the seedpods to the University of the Free State for further analysis. Based on their results, they encouraged him to take his product to market, but there was just one problem: “I have a background as a builder and entrepreneur,” he says with a laugh. “The pharmacists I was working with had loads of questions and I had to school myself in an entirely different world.”

In 2005 Coetzee launched Manna Blood Sugar Support capsules, a “natural way to support healthy blood sugar levels”, that’s targeted at Type 2 diabetics and those struggling with weight or cholesterol issues. The product has done extremely well in South Africa, selling approximately 120,000 jars a year, and it’s also received the green light from two independent, peer-reviewed scientific papers. A 2013 study that tested the product on rats found that “P glandulosa was cardioprotective and infarct sparing as well as anti-hypertensive without affecting the body weight or the intraperitoneal fat depots of the animals.”

So why the pivot to coffee?

“It’s really hard to export a natural product that makes health claims,” explains Coetzee. “It would take years to get approval.” He adds, “My main drivers are job creation and water conservation, so I needed something that could go truly global.” After 18 months of intense experimentation, he had a product that looked, behaved and tasted similar to coffee.

When the whole seedpods arrive at the Manna Brew factory near Cape Town – a gleaming, sterile contrast to the bustle and grime of the Calvinia warehouse – they are cleaned and sorted before being roasted in a specially built oven. They are then milled, sieved and milled again. “Absolutely nothing is added,” stresses Coetzee. The powder can be brewed in an espresso machine, French press, stovetop or immersion-style coffeemakers and there’s also an on-the-go “teabag-style” product. Coetzee is currently developing coffee pods.

While Manna Brew is naturally caffeine-free, mesquite doesn’t contain caffeine, and it tastes remarkably similar to coffee: The adjectives “nutty” and “earthy” come to mind, and there’s a decided caramel aftertaste. Unlike coffee, there’s no acidity. The drink tastes great on its own but also goes with milk and milk substitutes. It’s gaining traction in South Africa where they’re currently selling about one tonne a month, both in restaurants and cafes and on retail shelves, and is being exported to Australia, the UAE and the US. “We’ve received loads of enquiries from the EU,” adds Coetzee, “But I’m still in the process of registering the mesquite pods as a novel food.”

Is he worried about competition? “We don’t have any patents,” says Coetzee. “Of course, guys will be copying us … What we have done is not easy.”

Room to grow

Al Jazeera visited Calvinia on the last day of the harvest. It was meant to last two weeks, explains Coetzee, but his 50-tonne target was surpassed in just five days. “This is the third year we’re buying pods in Calvinia,” he explains, “So the people were expecting us. We’ve had lines around the block every day, and very few quality issues.”

At 11am, an 18-wheel truck owned by a local firm arrives to ferry about 30 tonnes of pods to the Manna Brew factory. Hendrik Isaacs, 44, had just sold 42.4kg (93 pounds) of pods for 212 rand ($11) when he was one of 10 people offered 300 rand ($16) to help load the truck. They all jumped at the opportunity, hurling the sacks onto the flatbed before sprinting back to the warehouse for the next load.

“School fees are getting more expensive every year,” says Isaacs. “We’ve got it heavy here in Calvinia. The kids need clothes, shoes, bread … I really need this money, it’s good money, it’s a life for us.” Isaacs, like everyone in the village Al Jazeera spoke to, doesn’t have a permanent job, although he does do occasional work on the nearby sheep farms and tending residents’ gardens.

Over the five days, 660 people sold a total of 56 tonnes of seedpods to Coetzee. When you factor in wages, rental and transport, the harvest injected about 350,000 rand ($18,650) into the local economy. It’s a much-needed boost for a province that is the third-poorest in the country and, by some measures, the least developed: The Northern Cape has more people living in informal dwellings (PDF), 12.1 percent, and fewer children attending pre-primary school, 43.3 percent, than anywhere else in the country. It’s the country’s least populous province, and many of its people believe they have simply been forgotten. Mining and agriculture are its two main sources of income. And agriculture is under pressure due to climate change.

Coetzee, who comes from the Northern Cape, is well aware of these challenges – and of the limitations of Manna Brew’s impact. The world will need to drink a lot of mesquite coffee to stop the trees’ spread, and – even if demand skyrockets – the economic impact of the harvest will always be short-lived. But this doesn’t stop him from dreaming of a better future for the province that is so close to his heart. “This year we took in 56 tonnes at five rand ($0.27) a kilo,” he says. “Next year, we will definitely pay six rand ($0.32) a kilo. And if the coffee takes off, I might be able to buy 100 tonnes.”

Ten years from now, he hopes to be able to buy 1,000 tonnes at 10 rand ($0.53) a kilo. “If that happens we’d be able to work with towns across the region. And we’d have a real shot at getting the mesquite problem under control.”

It’s nice to dream but for now, he must get back to the business of making and selling Manna Brew – one cup at a time.