Rooibos

 
One of our first blog posts were titled “So what’s in there – Rooibos” but that was a long time ago. We’re talking Rooibos again because we’ve recently taken some steps to establish a Caperitif Garden – where we grow more of the ingredients on our estate in the Swartland – and a few weeks ago we harvested our first batch of Rooibos!

As mentioned back in the day;

Rooibos

Afrikaans pronunciation [rɔːibɔs], meaning “red bush”.

Scientific name Aspalathus linearis.

A broom-like member of the legume family of plants growing in South Africa’s fynbos.

Rooibos tea does not contain caffeine and has low tannin levels compared to black tea or green tea.

Here are some pictures from our first harvest on Kalmoesfontein, we got roughly 500kgs from the 0.5 hectare.

The green tea was then shredded and will now ‘sweat’, oxidize and dry out, at which point it turns red.

It’s our uniquely South African ingredients, of which many are fruit, and our quality wine base that makes this product different from European vermouths. Rooibos is just one of the very local, good-for-you components of this Cape Aperitif, keep an eye out for posts about more.