Processing
Not Every Plant Cut Into a Rooibos Harvest Is Rooibos
A Cape weed common across rooibos country looks enough like the crop to be missed at harvest, and carries a compound the tea plant does not make on its own. Here is what South African chemists traced it to, and what independent testing has actually found.
Rooibos Extract Starts Fading the Moment It Is Made
The label on a supplement bottle or a jar of face cream says "rooibos extract." Here is what that actually means, how a factory makes it, and the one problem the powder creates for itself the moment it is made.
Rooibos Ferments in the Open, So Processors Heat It Before It Ships
Rooibos is fermented and dried outdoors on bare ground, which is exactly why Cederberg processors run every batch through a heat and steam step before it ships. Here is what that step actually does, what a 2014 peer-reviewed review found it does not fully guarantee, and how long the kettle you already use needs to run to close most of the gap.