Rooibos Tea

What is Rooibos Tea?

The 300-year-old rooibos (noticeable "Roy-boss") plant is just a child compared to the 1,000-plus-year-old Camellia sinensis plant that yields what we understand as black and green tea.

Rooibos is native to South Africa that isn't even a proper "tea". Instead, when gathered and dried, it's a plant  brewed into a reddish-brown organic infusion called "African red tea" or "red bush tea" by the industry. 

It comes with a truckload of claimed benefits and no known side effects!

What is it about this young, robust Rooibos Tea that has captivated us?

While early tea-drinking Dutch settlers of South Africa popularized the brewing of rooibos in the 1700s as an option to the more costly, imported black tea, rooibos as a commercial tea crop didn't develop until the 1930s. This young, up-and-coming herbal tea-producing plant continued to grow. In the late 1990s, green rooibos was created, a less oxidized version of the more identifiable red rooibos. And in the early 2000s, the industry developed powdered rooibos for cooking, focused rooibos for a tea-like "espresso" beverage, and rooibos extract to utilize its flavouring and as a cosmetics product additive.

A DISTINCT CROP

Rooibos is distinct since it is indigenous to South Africa's mountainous area of Cederberg (simply north of Cape Town), where it still flourishes today. One of the most bio-diverse regions in the nation, Cederberg boasts a World Heritage secured wildlife area, 500-million-year-old sandstone rock formations and a 6,000-year-old rock art legacy left by the San people, or Bushmen, who originally lived in the area.

Residents have been gathering and brewing the naturally growing rooibos in the Cederberg area for centuries. While farmers still gather the wild growing rooibos in this area, a few commercially grown rooibos have been transplanted to other areas of South Africa. South Africa is the only nation worldwide producing rooibos, boasting upwards of 450 growers who produce approximately 15,000 lots of rooibos yearly. About 7,000 lots of South Africa's rooibos is exported to more than 30 nations worldwide. Germany, Netherlands, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States are the herb's biggest importers.

The rooibos plant, Aspalathus linearis, belongs to the bean family of plants that flourish in dry, mountainous regions with periods of substantial rainfall. The description of the plant comes from its linear growing structure, which creates long, needle-like leaves. The plant blooms in early spring with yellow-coloured flowers. Each flower produces a vegetable with a single seed inside that pops out when ripe and arrive at the dry ground around the plant. The early gatherers of wild rooibos discovered that ants collected these seeds, so they usually hunted anthills for the sources needed to repopulate rooibos plants. Today, farmers sift through the sandy soil around the rooibos plant to collect the fresh seeds that start the brand-new crops each spring. Rooibos plants take about 18 months to go from seedling to harvest-ready and are generally collected throughout South Africa's summer season.

How is Rooibos Processed?

Rooibos is harvested and processed in a similar style to the Camillia Sinensis tea plant.

When collected, the bushy rooibos plant is cut by hand, and its stems and leaves are bound into bundles. The packages are sorted and, after that, cut or bruised to encourage oxidation. Oxidation, or direct exposure to oxygen, brings out the plant's essential oils and helps the leaves develop their fantastic colour and flavour. The more oxidized the rooibos, the more red in colour and sweeter and richer in taste it becomes. This is the version we understand as red rooibos. A less oxidized rooibos is steamed and dried right away instead of oxidized, so it stays slightly green and keeps a grassy, mineral-like taste. This less oxidized version is called green rooibos.

Rooibos is likewise graded like tea from the Camellia sinensis plant, where the grade depends on the leaf to stem content ratio. Higher degrees of rooibos contains more delicious leaves and less stem and dust.

How is Rooibos Used?

Like any other tea or herbal infusion, rooibos is soaked in hot water to produce a tea-like beverage. Because it's a herb, rooibos is caffeine-free. So it's a popular alternative to traditionally caffeinated drinks like tea or coffee.

Smoky, sweet, woody, grassy, vanilla, flower, geranium, honey, natural and caramel are just a handful of the words that can describe the taste spectrum of drinking a rooibos tea. Rooibos Herbal Tea brews into reddish-orange alcohol that yields woody and earthy notes with tips of sweet vanilla. Full-bodied and nutty, our rooibos has a creamy, lovely surface. Rooibos is scrumptious sipped by itself, but it likewise holds up to a splash of milk and a little sugar or honey, which is the traditional South African way to drink rooibos.

5 Health Benefits of Rooibos Tea (Plus Negative Effects).

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Rooibos tea is gaining popularity as a tasty and healthy beverage.

Consumed in southern Africa for centuries, it has become a cherished beverage worldwide.

It's a delicious, caffeine-free option to black and green tea.

What's more, supporters applaud rooibos for its potential health benefits, claiming that its antioxidants can secure against cancer, heart disease and stroke.

However, you may question if these benefits are supported by proof.

1. Low in Tannins and Free from Caffeine and Oxalic Acid.

Caffeine is a natural stimulant found in both black and green tea. Consuming moderate quantities of caffeine is usually safe. It might even have some benefits for exercise performance, concentration and state of mind. Nevertheless, extreme consumption has been linked to heart palpitations, increased anxiety, sleep problems and headaches.

For that reason, some people select to avoid or limit caffeine consumption.

As rooibos tea is naturally caffeine-free, it's an outstanding alternative to black or green tea.

Rooibos also has a lower tannin level than regular black or green tea. Tannins, natural compounds present in green and black tea, hinder the absorption of specific nutrients, such as iron.

Finally, unlike black tea-- and green tea, to a lesser degree-- red rooibos includes no oxalic acid. Consuming high quantities of oxalic acid can increase your kidney stones threat, making rooibos a good choice for anybody with kidney issues.

SUMMARY

In Comparison to regular black tea or green tea, rooibos is lower in tannins and devoid of caffeine and oxalic acid.

2. Packed With Antioxidants.

Rooibos is associated with health benefits due to its high levels of health-promoting antioxidants, including aspalathin and quercetin. Antioxidants may help secure cells from damage by totally free radicals. Over the long term, their results might decrease your danger of illnesses, such as heart disease and cancer. 

There is some evidence that rooibos tea can increase antioxidant levels in your body. However, any boost recorded has been slight and doesn't last long.

In one 15-person study, antioxidants' blood levels increased by 2.9% when participants drank red rooibos and 6.6% when they drank the green range. This uptick lasted for 5 hours after the individuals consumed 17 ounces (500 ml) of tea made with 750 mg of rooibos leaves.

Another study in 12 healthy men determined that rooibos tea had no significant effects on blood antioxidant levels than a placebo. This is perhaps because the antioxidants in rooibos are short-lived or inefficiently taken in by your body.

SUMMARY

Rooibos tea has plenty of health-promoting antioxidants. Nevertheless, these antioxidants may be unstable or inefficiently taken in by your body.

 3. May Boost Heart Health.

Antioxidants in rooibos are linked to a healthier heart. This might take place in various methods.

First, drinking rooibos tea may benefit from high blood pressure by inhibiting angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE). ACE indirectly increases blood pressure by causing your capillary to contract.

In a study in 17 individuals, consuming rooibos tea prevented ACE activity 30-- 60 minutes after consumption. However, this did not translate to any changes in high blood pressure.

There is more appealing proof that the tea can enhance cholesterol levels.

In a study in 40 overweight grownups at high threat of heart problem, six cups of rooibos tea day-to-day for 6 weeks decreased "bad" LDL cholesterol while increasing "great" HDL cholesterol.

Nevertheless, the same result was not seen in healthy individuals.

Healthy cholesterol levels offer included security against different heart conditions, consisting of heart attacks and strokes.

SUMMARY

Rooibos tea might benefit heart health by favourably affecting high blood pressure. It may also reduce "bad" LDL cholesterol and raise "excellent" HDL cholesterol in those at risk of heart disease.

4. May Reduce Cancer Risk.

Test-tube research studies keep in mind that the antioxidants quercetin and luteolin, which exist in rooibos tea, can eliminate cancer cells and avoid tumour development.

However, the amount of quercetin and luteolin in a cup of tea is minimal. Numerous vegetables and fruits are much better sources.

For that reason, it's unclear whether rooibos packs enough of these 2 antioxidants and whether they're absorbed efficiently enough by your body to provide advantages.

Remember that human research studies are required on rooibos and cancer.

SUMMARY

Specific antioxidants in rooibos tea have been shown to eliminate cancer cells and avoid tumour growth in test tubes. However, no human research studies have confirmed these impacts.

5. May Advantage People With Type 2 Diabetes.

Rooibos tea is the only known natural Source of the antioxidant aspalathin, which animal studies suggest might have anti-diabetic results.

One research study in mice with type 2 diabetes discovered that aspalathin well-balanced blood glucose levels and reduced insulin resistance, which could prove promising for individuals who have or are in danger of type 2 diabetes.

However, human studies are required.

SUMMARY

Animal studies recommend that particular antioxidants in rooibos tea can help stabilize blood sugar level and enhance insulin resistance. However, human research is required.

Unverified Advantages

The health claims surrounding rooibos tea differ extensively. Nevertheless, there is a lack of proof to support many of them. Unverified advantages consist of.

Bone health: Proof connecting rooibos usage to improved bone health is weak, and particular studies are scarce.

Improved digestion: Tea is often promoted as a method to minimize digestive issues. However, evidence for this is weak.

Others: Regardless of anecdotal reports, there is no substantial proof that rooibos can assist sleep issues, allergies, headaches or colic.

Of course, the lack of evidence does not always mean that these claims are false-- just that they haven't been studied comprehensively.