All About Rooibos

The Story of Rooibos

The story of Rooibos began about 200 years ago in the Cedarberg region of the Western Cape in South Africa.

It was the locals of the area who first discovered that the fine, needle-like leaves of the Aspalathus linearis plant could be used to make an aromatic sweet and flavoursome drink.

The local people harvested the wild-growing Rooibos plants, cut and bruised the plants using axes and hammers. Then would leave them to ferment in heaps, before drying them in the hot African sun. Today Rooibos is still processed in a similar way!

Rooibos was well-known to the people of the indigenous tribes around Cedarberg and was used as an aromatic drink. However as the tribe people moved away the traditional herbal drink was forgotten.

Then at the turn of the 20th century Benjamin Ginsberg a Russian pioneer, tried Rooibos and decided it was so great he would market this sweet "mountain tea". So Benjamin began to trade Rooibos from the local people. Following some setbacks due to the first and second world wars the Rooibos industry is now growing rapidly and this fantastic product is now enjoyed in many countries around the world.

The Rooibos plant, Aspalathus linearis, is a shrub-like bush and is part of the legume family.

In its natural state it is around 1 to 1.5m tall but when harvested tends to grow to about 0.5m.

Rooibos seed is very precious because each legume bears only one seed which pops open and shoots out as soon as it is ripe.

For this reason the seed was extremely expensive before it was discovered that ants were its main harvesters.

Today some farmers still collect seed from ant hills, but more commonly by sifting the sand around the plants.

How it is made

Rooibos is produced in a similar way to Tea.

After 18 months of growth the Rooibos plants are pruned for the first time and then cuttings are harvested annually. These cuttings are neatly bound into bundles and transported to the processing yards. The sheaves are then fed into special cutting machines so the product has a nice neat appearance.

Rooibos can then be bruised between rollers to trigger the important chemical process, fermentation. The plant sheaves are left to air and ferment in low heaps and the product changes from green to the characteristic amber colour and develops the distinctive flavour and sweet aroma of Rooibos.

Following fermentation, Rooibos is spread thinly over large drying yards to dry in the hot African sun, after which it is sucked up by special vacuum machines.

The product is sorted and graded according to length, colour, flavour and aroma. This guarantees a uniform standard of high quality across all grades suitable for packing into the bags.