Angela James

Rooibos tea is the national beverage of South Africa. Pronounced Roy-Boss, the name translates to “Red Bush”, which is a flowering shrub indigenous to the Western Cape of South Africa. The refreshing brew imparts a hearty flavour with subtle vanilla tones, and contains no caffeine and very little tannins.

The low tannin content means there is no bitter or astringent taste, which make the tea ideal for cooking.
The Rooibos bush provides the leaves for the tea, which by strict definition is a herbal infusion. The leaves are picked, fermented and dried.

The unique Rooibos bush only grows in the arid, hilly region of the Cedarberg mountain range of South Africa. It was first used as a healing beverage hundreds of years ago by the indigenous bushmen who would pick the leaves and stems, break them with wooden hammers, ferment them in small heaps and then dry them in the sun.

Today Rooibos is graded according to flavour, cut-length and colour with the certified organic “super-grade” being the highest designation of quality, as offered by Nu-Tea Imports. Every Rooibos batch is checked for moisture-content and purity. All exported Rooibos products are also checked and certified to be free of bacteria and impurities by the Perishable Products Export Control Board of South Africa.

As the Rooibos leaves are quite small, there is no quality difference between the bulk loose leaves and the leaves in tea bags which are also are oxygenated and not chemically bleached.