Guides
Brewing Rooibos
The complete reference on brewing rooibos: how much leaf, what water temperature, how long to steep, why a long steep never turns the cup bitter, how to make it iced or as a latte, and how green rooibos differs from red.
Fynbos
Fynbos is the fine-leaved shrubland that covers South Africa's southwestern Cape, one of the six floral kingdoms of the world and the ground rooibos calls home. What the shrubland is made of, why fire keeps it alive, how rooibos's own trick of soil chemistry fits it for the ground, and the protection and the threats the whole system now lives under.
Rooibos and Health: What the Science Supports
A reference on rooibos and health, sorted by how strong the evidence is: what is settled (caffeine-free, low in tannins, antioxidant-rich), what one small human trial suggests, what is shown only in animals, and what has no clinical support at all.
The History of Rooibos
The full history of rooibos, from a wild Cederberg shrub used by the Khoisan, through Benjamin Ginsberg's 1904 trade and Pieter Nortier's 1930 cultivation breakthrough, to the trademark fights and the protected name it carries today.
How Rooibos Is Processed
The Ministry's standing account of how a cut branch becomes tea, from the fermentation heap and the drying yard to grading, the food-safety step every batch clears, the weed that has to be kept out, and the separate path that ends in an extract.
The Rooibos Trade
How the red bush is priced without a public auction, where the crop actually goes, what its certification marks verify, how the name is legally protected, and how concentrated the buying side really is.
The Sustainability of Rooibos
Sustainability in rooibos is four subjects rather than one: the fynbos the crop is planted on, the wild plant that still grows unfarmed above it, the certification marks that each promise something different, and the question of who owns the land and who receives the money. This is the canonical account of all four, with the figures each of them rests on.
The Cederberg
The Cederberg, a sandstone mountain range in South Africa's Western Cape, is the home of rooibos and almost its only home. This is the canonical account of the region: its location and boundaries, the acid fynbos soil and winter-rain climate that suit the bush, the legume and fire adaptations that fit it to the place, and the geographical protection that has fixed the name to the ground.
Rooibos
Rooibos is the caffeine-free infusion made from Aspalathus linearis, a needle-leaved legume grown only in South Africa's Cederberg. This is the canonical account of what it is, where it comes from, how red and green styles are made, what the science says, and how to brew it.