A Message from our South African Chef
Thanks for visiting! It’s been almost a year at the time of this post, since Covid changed the World, and we launched Happie Bees Biltong. Quite the story-in-the-making, and I’m thrilled to be able to share this piece of my heritage with you via the joy of healthy & superior snacking.
In 1977 before I could put two words together, my parents uprooted it all and swapped our home in Johannesburg, South Africa for Dallas, TX (it might have been a JR Ewing thing ;). A lot was left behind - friends, family, traditions and the birthplace of the generation before them.
Every year, we would return to South Africa to visit my grandparents, friends and other family. The very first stop between the airport and the house was the butchery. I could smell & taste the Biltong as soon as the airplane began its decent.
When you swing open the door of a South African butcher shop, you’re instantly met with the long-awaited aroma of coriander, vinegar and other familiar spices. Biltong hangs freely behind the counter along with Droewors, (dried sausage) and all the meats in the case ready for the next large braii (BBQ).
The butcher would look me in my smiling eyes as he asked, “howzit my boy….how would you like your Biltong”? “Natural, sliced thin and a bit wet”, I would reply. With a wink, he would turn around and pinch a couple of sticks to test their consistency. “Wet” Biltong is taken off the rack just a bit sooner and inside reveals a moist, medium-rare center that lends to an easy bite. “Natural” refers to the fatty side of the cut that dries along with the meat and yet keeps the Biltong from getting too dry while permeating it with its flavor. And the thickness….well to each their own.
By the time I got to my Grandfather’s house, the brown bag of Biltong was half gone. I knew I had to save some for him, even though the bowl on his recliner where he would sit nightly enjoying his Johnny Waker while watching BBC news was never short of Biltong. After a giant year-long-missed hug from my Grandfather, I would offer him some of my fresh cut Biltong. He would take some from the bag, fill his own snack bowl, scoop me up, and take take me around the corner to get more.
On the flight home, I would miss the South African treats, delicacies and braiis almost more than my friends. So back to Dallas we went where butcher shops had never heard of “Biltong”, and I was left hanging. Except….once in a blue moon, we would luck out. My father would make the very serious commitment to make a small batch of Biltong for the family. He would use the laundry room to marinate, spice and hang the strips of meat from little paper clips from an overturned laundry basket. The same familiar smells of the butchery in Johanessburg would permeate the house. Those 6-7 days when I’d run home from school to see if the Biltong was ready would be the longest week of the year. And when the word got out…the friends from school would multiply on my run home.
One day in 2012, 4 years after I had I moved back to Texas from California where I’d spent 11 years in digital marketing, I had read Seth Godin’s book, “Thinking Backwards”. I had always wanted to create and sell a product online as I had done for my clients. So I started my backwards business model. I personally funded a Biltong company, “Biltong Brothers”. I launched a website, designed a traffic-building strategy, started getting orders, and wrote a business plan based on the potential. But I had one sad problem…no Biltong, and with a full-time job and a growing family, no time to produce.
It would be 8 years later and downtime due to Covid that would prompt me to try again to share my favorite treat with America. “Happie Bees” (meaning bites of beef in Afrikaans) would launch in attempt to bring the essence and authenticity of the real South African butchery experience to market. I combined my father’s recipe, 10 years of backyard Texas BBQ experience and my 25 years in digital marketing to launch Happie Bees, and the response has been tremendous.
Ironically between then and now, Biltong companies have popped up, and you might see “Biltong” in your local grocery checkout lines. In fact, the largest Biltong manufacturer in the US resides ironically in our backyard here in North Texas. That couldn’t be better news for Happie Bees. While Biltong is a far superior & far healthier snack than beef jerky, the store-bought Biltong companies leave their products far short of authentic…some of them mixing flavors that you would never find in South Africa, and being disingenuous to what makes Biltong, Biltong. Nonetheless these companies are doing the heaviest lifting - Biltong education.
For us, the convergence of KETO, Carnivore diets, an overall awareness of smart & healthy snacking, and home-ordering has helped Happie Bees get off its little feet and spread its wings. Although Biltong is a 17th century tradition, it is my father’s recipe….an immigrant from South Africa, a man who left everything to start a better life for his family….it is that authenticity mixed with quality and 100% Certified Angus Choice beef mixed with imported spices that make our Biltong the best in America. And that’s not just us saying that. That’s the South African families that moved to Texas with us that tell us we taste just like home.
As an immigrant, a business owner, a father of 4 and a home-based chef, I’m excited for you. Whether you’re trying to live better, train harder, eat healthier, trim the fat (metaphorically), expand your horizons or are just wanting to try new things….I applaud you, and I appreciate you. I hope that you can find value in your own history and do something that you know will benefit the World.
Bee Happie,
Terrence Gordon
