Food Festival boosts young entrepreneurs' dreams
Økologisk NuThe Aarhus Food Festival, which was held over the weekend, once again invited young entrepreneurs to showcase their products and test their ideas and dreams of creating a profitable food business. One of the entrepreneurial companies was Rå Maté ApS, which was founded last year by high school friends Magnus Graversen (24 years old) and Anton Skadhede (25 years old). They know each other from Egmont High School in Hou, where they both were students and for a period served as assistant teachers. "Our production started a bit for fun. We both really enjoy drinking mate tea, and many of our friends do too, but we couldn't quite find anything on the Danish market that tasted just right. So we started experimenting with brewing our own tea at home in Anton's parents' kitchen." They live in the suburb of Mårslet near Aarhus, where Rå Maté now has its warehouse. "Mate can have a somewhat bitter taste, so we adapted the tea for the Danish market, which prefers a slightly sweeter tea than what is normally consumed in South America," says Magnus Graversen, who chose to focus on organic production based on a desire to create a natural alternative to the many synthetic energy drinks available on the Danish market. Delivering cans by cargo bike In connection with product development, the Jutland-based entrepreneurs purchased all types of mate tea they could find online. Then followed a long period of test productions and tastings before they settled on a recipe brewed from Yerba Maté from Argentina, a bit of cane sugar, lemon and lime juice, and a small shot of carbon dioxide. A can with 250 ml contains about the same amount of caffeine as a small cup of coffee. Once they found the right flavor, they decided in the spring to have 1,000 liters produced at Freetap in Allerød on Zealand. This is the smallest production the brewery makes. It yielded 4,000 cans, which were sold over a month and a half to about 20 cafes and shops in Aarhus. This gave the entrepreneurial couple enough motivation to postpone their plans to start a degree in 2026. "We just had 12,000 more cans produced, which we continue to deliver to customers on our cargo bike," says Magnus Graversen, as Organic Now meets the entrepreneurial couple on Sunday at the Food Festival, where they are busy producing short videos for social media. "It has been insanely cool" On Sunday, the Entrepreneurs had to make way for the Danish Hot Dog Championship, a major annual event that attracts many visitors to Tangkrogen. But instead of going home, the young mate producers chose to spend the day promoting their "fizzing iced tea" from their cargo bike. "There are a lot of people who got to know our product during the festival, and it has been insanely cool. But it has also been long days, so I am completely exhausted now," says Magnus Graversen. He states that several companies contacted them over the weekend, and they are currently trying to figure out the future of Rå Maté — including financially, where it might at some point be possible to bring an investor on board. "So far, we have financed our expenses through our private savings, and we both have full-time jobs alongside Rå Maté," says the East Jutland entrepreneur. He believes that the next natural steps could be developing a new flavor variant, which could be ready by next year, and then turning their attention to Copenhagen, but first they need to recover from three busy days at Tangkrogen.
The Aarhus Food Festival, which was held over the weekend, once again invited young entrepreneurs to showcase their products and test their ideas and dreams of creating a profitable food business.
One of the entrepreneurial companies was Rå Maté ApS, which was founded last year by high school friends Magnus Graversen (24 years old) and Anton Skadhede (25 years old). They know each other from Egmont High School in Hou, where they both were students and for a period served as assistant teachers.
"Our production started a bit for fun. We both really enjoy drinking mate tea, and many of our friends do too, but we couldn't quite find anything on the Danish market that tasted just right. So we started experimenting a bit with brewing our own tea at home in Anton's parents' kitchen."
They live in the Aarhus suburb of Mårslet, where Rå Maté now has its warehouse.
"Mate can have a somewhat bitter taste, so we adapted the tea for the Danish market, which prefers a slightly sweeter tea than what is normally consumed in South America," says Magnus Graversen, who chose to focus on organic products based on a desire to create a natural alternative to the many synthetic energy drinks available on the Danish market.
Delivering cans by cargo bike
In connection with product development, the Jutland-based entrepreneurs purchased all types of mate tea they could find online. Then followed a long period of test productions and tastings before they settled on a recipe brewed from Yerba Maté from Argentina, a little cane sugar, lemon and lime juice, and a small shot of carbon dioxide. A can with 250 ml contains about the same amount of caffeine as a small cup of coffee.
Once they found the right flavor, they decided in the spring to have 1,000 liters produced at Freetap in Allerød on Zealand. This is the smallest production the brewery makes. It resulted in 4,000 cans, which were sold over a month and a half to about 20 cafes and shops in Aarhus. This gave the entrepreneurial couple enough motivation to postpone their plans to start a formal education in 2026.
"We just had 12,000 more cans produced, which we continue to deliver to customers on our cargo bike," says Magnus Graversen as Organic Now meets the entrepreneurial couple on Sunday at the Food Festival, where they are busy producing short videos for social media.
"It's been insanely cool"
On Sunday, Entrepreneurial activities had to give way to make room for the Danish Hot Dog Championship, a major annual event that attracts many visitors to Tangkrogen. But instead of going home, the young mate producers chose to spend the day promoting their "bubbling iced tea" from their cargo bike.
"Many people got to know our product during the festival, and it has been insanely cool. But it has also been some long days, so I am completely exhausted now," says Magnus Graversen.
He states that several companies contacted them over the weekend, and that they are currently trying to figure out the future of Rå Maté — including the financial aspect, where at some point it might be possible to bring an investor on board.
"So far, we have financed our expenses through our private savings, and we both have full-time jobs alongside Rå Maté," says the eastern Jutland entrepreneur.
He believes that the next natural steps could be developing a new flavor variant, which could be ready by next year, and then turning their attention to Copenhagen, but first they need to recover from three busy days at Tangkrogen.