Red Tea
More than 300 years ago, Red Tea was a traditional drink of the indigenous inhabitants of the Western Cape in South Africa. The locals harvested the wild plants and produced tea by bruising the spiky leaves with wooden hammers and drying the fermented plants in the sun. The botanist Carl Humberg first reported the resulting beverage in 1772.
Since the early 1900's, Red Tea has been treasured as an elixir for the mind, body and spirit. This rich, red tea came from a wild plant of the legume family called Aspalathus Linearis which grew on the slopes of the beautiful Cederberg Mountains in Cape Town. They believed this tea to have tremendous healing powers, and it is known in South Africa as "the Miracle Tea."
Its commercial exploitation really began in 1904 when Benjamin Ginsberg, an immigrant from Czarist Russia, found the local "mountain people" drinking a particular beverage that they called Rooibos -- which means "red bush" in English and realized that the beverage had trading potential. Ginsberg's family had been in the tea business for many years, and this provided him with the expertise to market this "mountain tea". As cultivation methods were developed, production increased through the years boosted by a shortage of Ceylon tea during World War II.
Many Red Tea lovers enjoy it as is - with nothing added. Others add milk, honey, sugar or lemon. It can be served cold and mixed with fruit juice, champagne or red wine in a punch bowl. For the health conscious, Red Tea provides calcium, iron, potassium, zinc, magnesium and sodium.
During the late 1920's, the popularity of this unique tea spead throughout the Cape. Its demand grew to the extent that Pieter le Frans Nortier, a South African medical doctor and keen amateur botanist, discovered the value of the tea as an agricultural product and encouraged widespread cultivation of the tea.
Red Tea grows in coarse, sandy soil that is low in acidity and therefore retains water from the winter rains. Most of the year, a dazzling coat of yellow, orange, white and blue flowers, briefly replaces the dry brown shrub, causing even the air to taste sweet. The fine, spiky leaves of the Aspalathus Linearis (a legume) are brewed. Red Tea is an infusion and is prepared just as you would a more familiar tea or infusion. Heat the teapot with boiling water, add leaves or bags (one heaped spoon or one bag per cup), pour boiling water into the pot and allow to steep for two to three minutes. The fact that it is caffeine-free makes it especially popular as a nightcap - a soothing beverage at the end of a long day. Red Tea can be reheated on the stove or in a microwave without harming its delicate flavor in any way.
Today, the fame of Red Tea has spread far beyond the borders of South Africa and is firmly established in the market. In the last five years it has proven so popular that it is currently exported to 135 countries around the globe.
Medical science is only just beginning to discover the many health advantages of Red Tea and ongoing research firms that it has many uses and benefits.
The Red Tea plant is one of the few plants that have made the transition from local wild resource to a cultivated crop. It makes a unique beverage with a characteristic sweet flavor. Recent studies have shown that Red Tea is naturally high in Super Oxide Dismutase (SOD), an outstanding antioxidant and a prime preventer of free radical damage.
We are proud to be able to get direct from the importers authentic Red Tea. Farmed in the same area whence it was first discovered.
Red Tea20 bags $5.00 order #ART-VAN