The origins of the ancient African red tea

Curious to learn more about the ancient African red tea and its exotic history? Curious to see what is the past of the famous Rooibos tea that is so popular nowadays? Read further…
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We’ve all heard lately about the gossip that’s around the famous African red tea and its endless benefits. We all have that one friends who keeps bragging about how this tea changed his or her life.

We’ve learnt a lot along the way about its benefits, the fact that it’s great for heart diseases, it even helps cope with diabetes, it has a great deal of antioxidants, it’s great for your skin and hair, it might even prevent cancer, is a great ally in digestion problems and it helps you lose weight.

This all sounds peachy and we all want to jump into another African red tea detox program to get the best of our bodies asap. However, did we ever stop for a sec and wonder where this amazing and miraculous tea originates from?

What’s the story behind the ancient African red tea?

The African red tea, also known under the name of Rooibos tea or red bush tea has a history that goes back in time way before out modern days. Its history begins in the Cederberg region, in South Africa.

The locals were using the leaves of Aspalathus Linearis for centuries already for medical, herbal remedies. Around the years of 1660 the first adventurers went as far as Cederberg and Olifants River Valley.

The migrants soon came to the conclusion (that the natives were aware of for centuries already) that the plant has an exquisite taste and it makes a great tea. The leaves were cut with axes and then left to ferment. The next step in the process was to lay them out to dry, and thank goodness the sun was ardent enough in Africa.

The first true entrepreneur was a Russian, Ginsberg, who realized the marketing potential that this tea might have. His family had a history in tea marketing, which explains a bit how Ginsberg got the know arounds of the mountain tea.

He started trading it with the local farmers. More and more people became interested in the special and hidden powers that the African red tea hides and have set to discover them and make them public.

After the Second World War a new era of possibilities opened for this African red tea.  This was made possible through the existence of the Rooibos Tea Control Board, which came into existence in 1954. In 1993 it became Rooibos Limited, a fully privatized company.

We can also note that the attempts to naturally grow Rooibos in the States or in Europe have failed entirely. Hence, even nowadays, the only place where we can find Rooibos is South Africa.

We can see that the ancient African red tea has an adventurous and exotic past, we can see that it was valued from the very start, when natives recognized its medical benefits, benefits we still worship nowadays.

People have strived to bring the tea to Europe and to the States exactly because of its huge impact and list of benefits. You might have also heard of the African red tea detox program, which only proves the point that this ancient tea hides miracles we could only dream of.

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