Honeybush
A close relative of rooibos from the same corner of South Africa, named for the honey scent of its flowers. Several Cyclopia species are harvested and sold under one name, and they differ noticeably.
Identity
- Botanical name
- Cyclopia genistoides
- Family
- Fabaceae
- Part used
- Leaf, Aerial parts, Flower
- Origin
- The Western and Eastern Cape of South Africa
- Drunk in
- Western Cape, Eastern Cape
Character
Sweeter and rounder than rooibos, with an apricot note the red bush does not have. The two are frequently confused and honeybush is the softer.
Notes: honey, dried apricot, warm wood
History
Harvested from the wild far longer than it has been cultivated, and still substantially wild-gathered, which is unusual for a commercial botanical. Cultivation only became significant from the 1990s as rooibos demand pulled the whole sector along.
How it is drunk
Drunk domestically in South Africa much as rooibos is, and generally regarded as the softer of the two. Its export presence is much smaller.
Production
Cut, chopped and oxidised in heaps like rooibos, then dried. The flowering tops are included, which is where the honey aroma comes from — and why the harvest window is narrower than rooibos’s.
Preparation
Infusion · Steeped with milk
Herbal infusion (tisane)
1–2 g/100 ml · 95–100 °C · 5 min
Category-typical practice rather than a measurement for this specific botanical. Most infusions are far more tolerant of a long steep than tea is.
What gets confused
Several Cyclopia species are sold as one product without distinction. Wild-harvested and cultivated material are also not separated on most labels.
Related botanicals
Comparisons
- Rooibos vs honeybush — Two shrubs from the same corner of South Africa, processed the same way and constantly mistaken for each other. Honeybush is the sweeter and the less exported, and the difference is real enough to be worth choosing between.
Guides
Evidence for this page
This page is TeaHQ synthesis throughout. No external source stands behind any statement on it, including the botanical name. Twenty of the 150 botanicals have had their names and distribution checked against a taxonomic authority and this is not one of them.
Brewing parameters here are typical practice for the category rather than measurements of this plant, and each set says so.
This page makes no safety claim. It describes what Honeybush is, where it comes from and how it is prepared — not what it does to a person. The absence of a safety note here is not a statement that the plant is safe. How TeaHQ handles this.