Rooibos, a history
Mwa Ramotswe
The first I ever heard of bush tea or rooibos (Aspalathus linearis) was in the wonderful novel The Number One Ladies Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith in 2003. In it, a modest, intelligent and independent (and “traditionally sized”) woman named Precious Ramotswe opens a detective agency. During down times and periods of reflection during her day, she brews a pot of bush tea . The novel captures clearly the love of the author for Africa. I identified with it quite a bit.
Of course, I wanted to know what this bush tea was. I hunted around and eventually found, sometime in early 2004, bulk rooibos at Whole Foods. I bought some and made a cup. It was hard to drink with all those bits of rooibos needles floating around. But, not much long after that, commercially packaged tea bags became available. It’s a very tasty tea with no caffeine and lots of antioxidants. I recommend anyone’s chai flavor.
The Number One Ladies Detective Agency became quite popular. And the prolific McCall Smith wrote several sequels. Was Mwa Ramotswe responsible for the popularity of rooibos tea? What’s the story?
Well, as my wife will tell you, random bits of information is my specialty. Here’s what I just found out:
Annique Theron
In 1968 a woman who later changed her name to Annique Theron had a rather colicky 14 month old baby. The story goes something like this: they live in South Africa; baby’s crying; mom’s just made a pot of “poor man’s tea”; mom makes up a bottle for the baby (why wasn’t she nursing if she was poor? darn propaganda!); to warm the bottle mom adds some of her tea; baby drinks bottle and for the first time in her life calms down. So Annique goes on to do what she calls “studies” where moms with colicky babies give the baby some rooibos. She declares the studies a success and writes a book. I haven’t read the book but it from the website I see she makes lots of unsubstantiated and “snake oil” type claims using the “appeal to lost knowledge” principle that humanity USED to know how to heal itself, etc.
An Ancient Remedy
Cloaking the slopes of the magical Cedarberg mountains in South Africa, is Rooibos. A natural herb unique to the Cedar Valley in the Western Cape.
Many centuries ago, this tea plant was well-known to the people of the indigenous Khoisan tribe; used by these ancient folk as a herbal remedy for a wide range of ailments. But as their people whittled away, the herbal lore of Aspalathus linearis was forgotten.
Unfortunately for anyone except Annique’s bankers she turned the book’s success into a line of high end supplements and cosmetics. No bush tea for America.
When the Apartheid government fell and the South African economy opened up to global trade in 1994, Annique Theron rushed to Europe and the US to register the word Rooibos as a trade mark for her company. So, it was impossible to sell any rooibos tea in the US without going through Annique.
Rooibos, LTD.
Rooibos BPK., LTD. has been in business growing and distributing rooibos tea since 1954. Understandably, they were ticked off that Annique registered as a trade mark what was in their opinion a generic term. So they took her to court. After 10 years, they succeeded in getting the trade mark thrown out.
Unlike Annique, Rooibos, LTD only mention the presence of anti-oxidants, minerals and that it’s caffeine-free.
US Stores
Thanks to the work of Rooibos, LTD and the unusual good sense of the US Patent and Trademark office, we can now find rooibos teas in US stores. Besides health food stores, it’s even available at some regular grocery stores.
Several brands are issuing rooibos varieties including Tazo, Republic of Tea, Yogi, and Celestial Seasonings. The only new company specializing in rooibos I’ve noticed is The Kalahari Tea Company. They sell a straight rooibos, a rooibos with oil of bergamot called, humorously, Earl of Africa, a tasty rooibos chai (with Indian tea spices in it) and Honeybush Blush that combines an herbal tea made from the East African honeybush plant with rooibos needles. The Yogi Tea company also makes a nice chai. Celestial Seasonings have a real hit-or-miss reputation for me. In the case of their oddly named Madagascar Vanilla Red, it’s one hundred percent miss. “I thought they only used natural ingredients,” was what tasting it made me think. The emphasis in the name is on the vanilla, which they imply comes from Madagascar, and not the “red” which only grows in South Africa.
Enjoy!
In Charlottesville, Virginia (US):
Jeff Lavezzo