Tea Lovers | For Lovers of Tea Since 2001

Rooibos tea is a herbal infusion made from the Aspalathus linearis bush shrub that is native to South Africa. Rooibos isn’t actually a tea in the sense that it doesn’t come from the camellia sinensis plant – It is a herb that infuses in water to make a nutritious herbal beverage. Similarly to the production of tea, rooibos tea leaves (leaves form the Aspalathus linearis shrub) are cut, dried and fermented to produce a reddish-brown coloured leaf. Indigenous to South Africa, rooibos tea is the popular drink found in most South African households and is now currently sold in over 60 countries worldwide. It is interesting to know about how rooibos tea was first discovered. In the 1700’s early Dutch settlers in Cape Town discovered rooibos tea as an alternative to drinking expensive black tea from Europe at the time.  A European botanist Carl Thuinberg who visited Cape Town in 1772, studied the rooibos plant and the tea that could be brewed from it. Following this, Benjamin