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This tea is amazing. It's origins are in South Africa, it has a refreshing taste that melds well with many kinds of flavors, and its healthful properties are numerous and phenomonal.
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Learning about Rooibos
- Rooibos Encyclopedia entry
- Detailed info on Rooibos from Wikipedia
- A Rooibos Story
- A personal testimony of rooibos, including some history and the charming story about how a South African mother popularized rooibos in the modern age.
- Health 24 - Healthy foods - Rooibos Tea
- More about the health benefits of rooibos.
- Rooibos Tea: Research into Antioxidant and Antimutagenic Properties
- Want the nitty gritty details on the antioxidant properties of rooibos? You need to read this paper.
- Health Benefits Of Rooibos Tea - Natural Living
- Health Benefits Of Rooibos Tea - Natural Living editor at BellaOnline tells why she drinks it every day.
Rooibos Basics
- Okay, first off you have to know how to pronounce this sucker. Rooibos is an Afrikaans word for red bush, and it is pronounced ROY-boss. Try it out loud once. ROY-boss. Easy.
Next, you have to know it is delicious, and caffeine free. I drink green tea in the morning, and switch to rooibos in the afternoon. An antioxidant double whammy, tea drinking also provides special moments in hectic days.
Rooibos is now easy to find in bagged or loose varieties. Most grocery stores carry Celestial Seasoning's Madagascar Red. I drink loose rooibos. It's not really any harder to put a spoonful of tea in teapot than to drop a bag in, but if you are used to bags, it will take some getting used to. The variety of flavors available in loose is better, and the tea tastes better.
To brew loose rooibos you will need to use a fine metal mesh strainer, or a teapot with a metal mesh strainer. The leaves are so fine, they will escape from lesser teapots.
Use the links above to find out more about rooibos and its health benefits, then use the links below to get some to try for yourself.
Note:
I don't like fruit teas. Until I tried various fruit flavored rooibos. I love them. Metropolitan teas, available at Culinary Teas, have yummy natural fruit flavors, and never curdle milk. I love Blueberry Bang Rooibos with milk for a Blueberries and Cream flavor.
Where to buy Rooibos
- Culinary Teas
- Culinary Teas carries the Metropolitan Tea line of Rooibos. I can highly recommend the Bourbon St. Vanilla, and the Chocolate Mint. Click on Tea accessories to find a stainless mesh strainer to brew loose tea with any teapot.
- Adagio Teas
- Adagio teas offers loose rooibos in 12 different interesting flavors, plus an unflavored rooibos. Also, click on teaware to check out the PersonaliTEA teapot. It's metal mesh filter makes it perfect for brewing rooibos.
- Dragon Water Teas
- Beautiful teas, including some organics. You might want to check out their teapot selection, too.
Great Stuff on Amazon
Having Tea: Recipes & Table Settings
Amazon Price: $15.64 (as of 12/24/2009) 
Cooking with Tea
Amazon Price: (as of 12/24/2009)
America's Best Tea Room Recipes
Amazon Price: $8.00 (as of 12/24/2009)
Is Rooibos tea?
Wherein I reveal my lack of sophistication
There are lots of places on the internet where, as you begin learning about teas, you will come across the statement that rooibos is not a tea. Oh, go get a life. Go look up tea in your dictionary. It may be a second or third meaning, but included there will be a definition something about tea being an infusion made by steeping leaves. Any leaf. Not just camellia sinesis leaves. Most people seem to mean just this when they say "tea"- infusion of leaves in water. So if it makes me less sophisticated that these genteel folks in the know, so be it. I'm going to brew myself a cup of Rooibos TEA.
Reader Feedback
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- OrganicLooseTea OrganicLooseTea Aug 21, 2008 @ 11:15 am
- Loving the lens - I experienced all kinds of green and white tea in china this spring. I'm looking forward to South Africa as my newfound love of tea takes me around the world! If you get a chance check out my
Organic Loose Tea blog
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- trying trying Apr 14, 2007 @ 12:43 am
- I'm a big tea drinker so I like reading about it. I especially like ginseng, green tea, maple tea and black tea.
