Exploring South African botanical drinks
Two shrubs from one corner of the Western Cape, one of which grows nowhere else on earth despite a century of attempts to move it.
Who this is for
Someone who knows rooibos as a supermarket product and not as a place.
What you should come away with
An understanding of why these two taste alike, and of what a protected origin actually protects.
The Cederberg and its neighbour
Rooibos first, then the softer relative that grows on the mountain ridges east of it. Both are oxidised in heaps, which is why they share a shape.
Starting point. Everything after this is measured against it.
Naturally sweet and slightly woody, with a vanilla note and no astringency at all. It tolerates boiling water and a long steep without turning bitter, which very few botanicals do.
Why this step follows
Neighbouring Cape shrubs processed the same way, and honeybush is the sweeter and rounder of the two. If rooibos works for you, this is the same shape of drink with the edges taken off.
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.
Read alongside
- Traditional botanical drinks around the world
A tour of what people actually drink where, and of how often the same plant arrives in a place by a completely different history.
- Leaves used in botanical drinks
The largest botanical category, and the one that divides most cleanly: leaves grown to be drunk, leaves that are kitchen herbs with a second life, and leaves that are by-products of a fruit crop.