In Maseru, a new small-factory has popped up to manufacture Maritšoana, the extremely tasty motoho beverage developed at the National University of Lesotho (NUL) Innovation Hub. “Simply put, Maritšoana’s taste and fineness have no rival in the market,” said Selometsi Baholo, the NUL Biotechnology student attached to develop and take Maritšoana to new markets.”So everyone is crazy about it!”
Maritšoana the company has just established the Village Factory in Maseru. The mini-factory is being joined by one Financial Cooperative in the City and some highly motivated Basotho businessmen. Now the entire city is on fire as people who have been waiting for the extremely popular refresher to hit the city are now celebrating!
You can get your fair share of Maritšoana in the following places and treat yourself with a delicacy of a lifetime: [1] Fruits and Veg City, Ha Mafafa, Maseru City Centre [2] Enrich Stores, Ha Mafafa, Maseru City Centre, [3] First Choice Supermarket, opposite Sefika Complex, Maseru City Centre, [4] ATM General Café, Koalabata, Maseru, [5] Thetsane Convenience, Ha Thetsane, Maseru, [6] ‘Na le Uena General Café, Ha Thetsane lekhalong, Maseru, [7] Lekhaloaneng Cash and Carry, Lekhaloaneng, Maseru, [8] ISAAS, NUL, Roma, [9] Mpeoa Supermarket, Naleli, Maseru, [10] Oasis, Lithabaneng, Maseru, [11] Bakubung General Café, Ha Seoli, Maseru, [12] NUL Innovation Hub, NUL, Roma.
Did you think something as simple as motoho could be developed over a period of four years?
That is what happened to Maritšoana, Southern Africa’s most delightful sorghum beverage. The reason is simple—there is nothing simple about making a very good motoho—it is a complicated process. You can appreciate this only if you have tried it! “We put our hearts and souls into this product,” Baholo said. “And we produced the best beverage whose influence in the market will stay for generations.”
You know when you have got it and these guys think they have.
What makes Maritšoana so special? We are going to list quite a few things.
First, the taste. Here is what one Maritšoana enthusiast said about it after taking a big mouthful at NUL Innovation Hub, “I had always thought I tasted the best motoho there was to taste—I was wrong! You can’t go back to any motoho after tasting this one.”
(Join PhuthaLichaba, the future bank of the People by NUL Innovation Hub here: www.phuthalichaba.com)
Now, the taste of Maritšoana was hard to master. That is because, “we emphasized on giving it a natural taste.” Yep! The so-called motoho you find in the markets is nothing more than lesheshelele mixed with chemicals. “With Maritšoana, the taste is based on the action of microorganisms in a carefully controlled environment,” Baholo said.
Then there is the fineness. Of course the many variants of motoho in the market are claimed to have this quality of fineness [o nepotsoe] because, quite frankly, fineness drives motoho lovers crazy. “But it is one thing to say your motoho is fine, it is quite another to make it fine,” Baholo said.
The last part is the hard part.
Yes, it was possible for our lovely grandmas to smoothen motoho in the good old days. Everything is possible when you do things in a small scale. For large scale operations, smoothening has always tricked even the most passionate producers of motoho. “Except that we did it ourselves,” he said. “It took extreme patience and we are still working on it, but at least we are already ahead of the market.”
Next follows life span. Those who have tried producing this beverage have been perplexed (surprised) by one thing. Motoho doesn’t last long even when it has not gone rotten. It collapses and separates into its constituents very quickly. So it has to go off the shelves quiet quickly or people will think something is wrong when there is nothing much. “We solved that problem too,” said the obviously elated Selometsi. “Our product is extremely stable.”
“Interestingly, we didn’t use any chemicals to achieve it.”
What do you think follows next? Maritšoana is The Village Factory.
A mini factory has been established in one village in Maseru to manufacture this beverage. “We hope that we will soon be employing more people in that village,” the young employers said.
The NUL Innovation Hub has since found that The Village Factory model is one of the best ways for its incubated businesses to expand without too much headache. “We don’t wait for Big Investors, we don’t wait for the Government, we don’t even wait for miracles, we just team up with ordinary people and expand—we did just that we Maritšoana,” said the Hub’s representative.
Last and not least, Maritšoana is laboratory tested and it has a certificate of analysis. “Being developed at the University meant Maritšoana was brewed and tested by some of the best minds in the area of science over the past four years.”
(Join PhuthaLichaba, the future bank of the People by NUL Innovation Hub here: www.phuthalichaba.com)
