Ministry of Rooibos Open till four Search

The independent guide · est. 1931

Rooibos, answered plainly.

The red bush of South Africa's Cederberg: what it is, where it grows, how it is made, and what is known about it.

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Asked most often

Does rooibos have caffeine?

No. There is nothing to remove: the plant has never contained caffeine.

Read: What rooibos is
Why is it red?

The cut, bruised leaf is heaped overnight and its own enzymes oxidise it from green to deep amber. Drying in the sun finishes the red-brown.

Read: How it is processed
What is green rooibos?

The same plant, dried quickly instead of oxidised. It stays nearer the leaf's green, tastes lighter and grassier, and keeps considerably more aspalathin.

Read: What rooibos is
Where does it grow?

In the Cederberg and the uplands around it in South Africa's Western Cape. The sources draw the wild range differently.

Read: The Cederberg
Is it good for you?

It is caffeine-free, low in tannins and rich in antioxidants. One small trial points to an effect on blood fats. There is no evidence for detox, cures or weight loss.

Read: Rooibos and health
How should I brew it?

One heaped teaspoon, or one teabag, to a cup of water at a full boil, steeped for five to ten minutes. It is low in tannins, so a longer steep does not turn it bitter.

Read: Brewing

Today The plant 18 Jul 2026

South Africa’s Rooibos Seeds Are Headed to the International Space Station

The South African Rooibos Council is sending rooibos seeds to the ISS this October, the first indigenous South African species and the first African seeds ever sent to space, to see how six weeks in orbit changes how they grow.

Read the item

Amada44, CC BY-SA 3.0

Dispatches

Short, dated, cited.

All news
A colour botanical plate of four flowering legumes: yellow Crotalaria flowers with a bee, pink Crotalaria, a spiny orange-flowered Aspalathus, and at centre a sprig of needle-leaved rooibos with small yellow flowers and dark pods Ethel May Dixie, Public domain The plant10 Oct 2026 In 1911 a botanist presented the rooibos shrub as a new species In a paper read in May 1911, Rudolf Marloth described the rooibos shrub as a new species, Borbonia pinifolia, though Nicolaas Burman had named the plant in 1768. A pile of dried, dark reddish-brown cut rooibos leaf. KENPEI, CC BY-SA 3.0 The body1 Sep 2026 Rooibos and Breast Cancer, What a Lab Study Found A Stellenbosch University lab found that rooibos extract steers estrogen toward the receptor that suppresses tumor growth rather than the one that drives it, in breast cancer cells grown in a dish. The researcher who found it is the first to say what that does not yet prove.

Earlier

  1. 01 A 1933 Tea Sample Still Matches Today's Cup Article · The trade
  2. 02 Rooibos Could Draw Tourists Like Cape Wine, NWU Researcher Says News · The trade
  3. 03 Some South African Wine Uses Rooibos Instead of Sulphur Article · The process
  4. 04 The Soil Under Rooibos Cannot Tell It Is Farmed Article · The place
  5. 05 Some of the Oldest Rooibos Never Reached a Cup Article · The trade

Start here

Rooibos in five reads

New to the red bush? Read these in order. Each one ends where the next begins.

  1. What rooibos is What the plant is, in plain words.
  2. The Cederberg Where it grows, and where the sources disagree.
  3. How it is processed A night and a day in the drying yard.
  4. Brewing How much leaf, how hot, how long.
  5. Rooibos and health What the evidence does and does not show.

Explainer · The process

One night in the drying yard

How a cut branch turns red, from mid-afternoon to the next evening. Move along the clock.

Cut and bruised15:00–15:45

The bush is cut. The cutter chops branch, leaf and stem into lengths of 1.5 to 5 mm and bruises them.

Watered and turned15:45–19:00

From mid-afternoon the heaps are watered, turned and aired several times before evening.

The sweat19:00–05:30

Through the night the heap is watered and turned about every four hours. It sweats for 10 to 14 hours at 34 to 38 °C and turns from green to deep amber. The trade calls this fermentation; it is oxidation by the plant's own enzymes.

Pressed at dawn05:30–06:30

Around dawn the heap is pressed, so its own coloured liquid runs back through the pile.

Dried in the sun06:30–15:30

It is spread thin to dry in the sun for about nine hours, until its moisture is under about 8.5 percent.

Sieved, graded, steamed15:30–18:00

It is sieved and graded, and every batch is steamed at about 160 °C for 90 seconds.

Clock times are approximate. The durations, temperatures and measures are the recorded ones.

Explainer · The process

Four grades

The same cut leaf, sorted by how much of it is long needle, short stem and broken bits.

Superior

Long, even needles, with very little stem or broken material.

Leaf and stem
Long, even needles; very little stem or broken material
Colour
Intense red-brown
Aroma
Full and rounded

Choice

Somewhat shorter leaf, with a little more stem.

Leaf and stem
Somewhat shorter leaf; a little more stem
Colour
Good
Flavour
Pleasant, less intense

Standard

More short stem and broken pieces.

Leaf and stem
More short stem and broken pieces
Colour
Less even
Aroma
Milder

Industrial

Mostly stem and broken leaf.

Leaf and stem
Mostly stem and broken leaf
Aroma
Subdued

How rooibos is graded

Explainer · The cup

Red and green

One plant, two paths.

Red rooibosCut, bruised and left to oxidise. Path Cut, bruised and left to oxidiseColour Deep red-brownTaste Sweet, woody, faintly honeyedAspalathin Less
Green rooibosDried quickly instead. Path Dried quickly insteadColour Nearer the leaf's own greenTaste Lighter, grassier, more delicateAspalathin Considerably more

Both

  • No caffeine at all: never there, not removed.
  • Low in tannins.

The subject, mapped

Six topics. Each has its own page with the guides, explainers and latest writing on it.