The Nigiro and Origin Story

leaves. pot. water

The Trinity of Tea

From the very beginning of Origin, our vision was to take coffee & tea in South Africa to the level of the best in the world. Even with our over 80 teas, we just didn’t have the time needed to devote to our teas until Mingwei Tsai joined us. Nigiro’s team master is a passionate devotee to all things tea, who has prioritized sharing his love for tea over his PhD in civil engineering. Over many years of extraordinary effort, Mingwei has been a key driver of improving the quality and range of tea served in our country. He is also passionate about sharing his knowledge with tea lovers and food & beverage professionals alike.

Origin and Nigiro were one business in the early days, but we have since split into sister companies. Both sisters share the same underlying values of authenticity, quality, knowledge and expertise. 

Nigiro Tea offers an extraordinary range of over 150 fine leaf teas – from black to green, white and oolong teas, herbal and fruit infusions. They also have a wonderful selection of teaware. Nigiro also supplies tea and staff training to extraordinary establishments across South Africa, including Mingwei’s wife Lisa’s O’ways Teacafe in Plumstead, Origin’s own HQ roastery-cafe, the Mount Nelson Hotel, the One & Only HotelWaterkloofthe Silos Hotel,  the Twelve Apostles HotelLa Colombe and many others. 

A limited selection of 20 Nigiro teas is available in our web shop and to drink or buy for home in our De Waterkant HQ cafe. We can also special order any other Nigiro tea for you on request. 

For the full range of Nigiro’s speciality teas and teaware, please visit them or purchase on their web site, Please tell Mingwei and the team we say hi. 

…and in case you didn’t notice,  Nigiro is Origin reversed. Tea and coffee. Two sides of a beautiful story.. 

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