Thirty-two-year-old Princess Cosbert’s story of how, about two years ago, she came to establish an enterprise that is beginning to make its name as a manufacturer of what is commonly referred to in Guyana as ‘bush’ tea (teas brewed from an assortment of leaves, vines, barks, berries and flowers that grow randomly in various parts of the country) is not one that you are likely to forget easily. There is, she says, a connection between the birth of Nature’s Finest, the name under which her herbal teas trade, and her recovery from an illness which almost took her life.
Her story derives from what, about four years ago, was a frantic search for a remedy for what conventional doctors and other healers told her was life-threatening illness, resulting from what she believes was her failure to “look after my health” or to heed the advice of her father, a Herbalist named Winston Cosbert, whose recommendation that she use liquefied herbs regularly was rejected on the grounds that the concoction “tasted bad.”
Princess’ was far from the first instance in which conventional medicines failed to restore good health and in the final analysis it was the sobering realization that whatever was ailing her was gradually taking her life that led her to reach for a herbal remedy. It had been a question of money too. There came a point in time when she realized that the money she had been earning from working as a Cosmetologist – which job, incidentally, she was forced to give up following medical advice that her illness might be linked to the chemicals used in cosmetology – was all being channeled in the direction of medical bills.