A small Brazilian snack has turned into big business for Oxfordshire-based Katia Burghard. And now you can get in on the act too. Jaine Blackman reports

When the World Cup kicks off in Brazil in June there will be few women in Oxfordshire as excited as Katia Burghard.

For not only will the native Brazilian be rooting for the host country’s team from her home in Wantage, she also hopes it will give a boost to her business – Bolitas.

“I’d like people to enjoy the games with a bowl of yummy Bolitas and a bottle of beer or a glass of wine, in a truly Brazilian style,” says Katia, who sells the snacks frozen online and at selected Oxfordshire outlets and hot at Oxford’s Covered Market.

“I grew up in Brazil where Bolitas – that is my own brand really, they are called pao de queijo in Brazil – are one of the most popular snacks, so I decided to share our delicious cheeseballs with Great Britain,” says Katia, who has lived in the UK most of her adult life after meeting husband Mark when she was taking a course in film direction at The International Film School in Covent Garden, London.

Katia worked in advertising, marketing and film until the couple started their family – they have three sons – and settled in Mark’s home county of Oxfordshire.

“I always made Bolitas for my children and friends, as after-school snacks and for birthday parties.

“Friends and family then started to order cheeseballs from me, and from there, I turned the idea into a business.

“Once the children became more independent – my oldest son is in Brazil teaching English, my second is at Portsmouth University doing animation/computer graphics and the youngest is still at home with us – I gradually went back to work.

“I started from home, selling at farmers’ markets and school fetes and also created an online shop, until I found this small little shop in The Covered Market, one of my favourite places in Oxford,” says Katia, who celebrates three years at Casa das Bolitas next month.

“From the moment I sold the first bag of hot cheeseballs, I knew it was going to be popular. It is so rewarding to see a whole mixture of nationalities enjoying our Brazilian way of snacking.”

Bolitas are cheese-flavoured balls made with cassava flour and cheddar cheese, eaten as an anytime snack.

“As I don’t have access to the typical Brazilian cheese used for the traditional recipe, I have adapted the Bolitas recipe with our delicious cheddar cheese, and it works,” said Katia.

“I created several savoury and sweet flavours along the way, mainly listening to my customers preferences and feedback.”

Creating the Bolitas in her own kitchen, Katia now sells an average of 2,500 to 3,000 hot cheeseballs a week at the Covered Market at £2.40 for a bag of six.

And she’d like to expand the business and spread the Bolitas word.

“It hasn’t been very easy to combine business with everyday life,” she says. “But I am now ready to take things further and have taken a commercial kitchen which is almost ready, quite scary but exciting at the same time.”

To raise her profile and increase availability to a wider public Katia has launched a Crowdfunder project, where people pledge funds in return for a reward.

She is aiming to raise at least £4,500 to pay for the expansion. The project will only be funded if the whole amount is pledged by a certain date.

Katia’s rewards range from eight hot any flavour Bolitas (at the shop), a can of guarana drink and a 100g bag of Gluten Free cassava and coconut sweet biscuits for a £10 pledge to a party for up to 100 people, with a marquee, music, food and drinks for a £1,000 pledge.

There’s just one proviso: “Please, don’t book it when a Brazil game is on,” says Katia. “I will not turn up!”

For more information and to buy Bolitas go to bolitas.co.uk
 

For Katia’s Crowdfunder project go to crowdfunder.co.uk/casadasbolitas