"Image Caption || The Cederberg, Western Cape, the only region on earth where rooibos grows. Photo: dconvertini, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0"

If you have ever picked up a caddy of rooibos and wondered what it actually is, whether it has caffeine, or if it deserves its reputation as a healthy drink, this is for you. I am Valerie, a Tea Sommelier, and I like to explain things in plain English with none of the gatekeeping. So here is rooibos, honestly.

First things first: rooibos is not tea (and redbush is the same thing)

This trips almost everyone up, so let me clear it up straight away. Real tea, black, green, white, oolong, all comes from a single plant called Camellia sinensis. Rooibos does not. It comes from a completely different plant, Aspalathus linearis, a red-stemmed shrub with fine, needle-like leaves that belongs to the same broad family as peas.

Because it is not from the tea plant, rooibos is technically a tisane, or herbal infusion, rather than a tea. That is why you will sometimes see people (me included) gently point out that "rooibos tea" is not quite the right name. In everyday life, though, nobody minds, and "rooibos tea" is simply what most of us call it.

You will also see it sold as "redbush." That is not a different product; it is just the plain English translation of the Afrikaans word rooibos, which means "red bush." Redbush and rooibos are the same plant, the same drink, two names.

"Image Caption || Rooibos plant (Aspalathus linearis). Photo: Amrum, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.5"

Where rooibos comes from, and why it can only come from there

Rooibos grows in just one corner of the world: the Cederberg region of South Africa, in a rare and beautiful scrubland habitat called the fynbos. People have tried to grow the plant commercially elsewhere, but it is so bound up with that specific combination of sandy, acidic soils, mountain slopes and a dry Mediterranean-style climate that it never tastes quite right.

That deep connection to one place is now protected in law. In 2021, rooibos became the first African product to be granted Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) status by the European Union, having already received a South African geographical indication in 2014. It sits alongside names like Champagne and Parmigiano Reggiano: only rooibos grown and processed in its home region can legally be called rooibos.

There is real human history here too. Indigenous Khoisan communities harvested and used rooibos for generations long before it was written about by European botanists. Commercial trade began in the early 1900s, and cultivation from seed was developed in the 1930s, drawing heavily on Khoisan knowledge of where to find the plant. It is worth remembering that story when you drink it.

"Image Caption || Rooibos (Aspalathus linearis) growing in rows in South Africa. Photo: Charles Stirton, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0."

Does rooibos have caffeine?

No. Rooibos is naturally caffeine-free. This is not decaffeinated rooibos, where caffeine is removed; the plant simply never contained any in the first place. Caffeine occurs naturally in only a handful of plants, and Aspalathus linearis is not one of them.

That single fact is the main reason so many people reach for it: you can drink it late in the evening, or give it to someone cutting back on caffeine, without a second thought. It is also naturally low in tannins, which is why it stays smooth rather than turning bitter, even if you forget about it and let it brew for ages.

Red rooibos and green rooibos

Most rooibos you will see is "red." After harvesting, the cut leaves are bruised and left to oxidise (a process sometimes wrongly called fermentation, as no microbes are really involved), which turns them a rich red-brown and brings out that characteristic sweet, woody flavour.

"Green" rooibos skips the oxidation step, so the leaves stay greener and the flavour is lighter, grassier and more delicate. Same plant, different processing. Red is the classic; green is worth trying if you like something subtler.

So, is rooibos good for you?

This is the question I get asked most, and I want to answer it honestly rather than sell you a fairy tale.

Here is what we can say with confidence, because it is simply true of the drink itself: rooibos is naturally caffeine-free, and it is low in tannins. For a lot of people, that is the whole appeal. It is a warm, comforting drink you can enjoy at any time of day without the caffeine, which makes it an easy swap if you are trying to wind down in the evening or cut back on how much caffeine you drink.

You will also see rooibos described as high in vitamin C and rich in antioxidants, and those two claims come up a great deal. It is true that the plant contains antioxidant compounds called polyphenols, including one, aspalathin, that is fairly distinctive to rooibos, and these are a genuinely interesting area of research. But I want to be straight with you about the limits, because this is where the popular story tends to run ahead of the proof. A compound sitting in a dry leaf is not the same as a compound in your cup: how much of it actually infuses into the water, and how much your body then makes use of, is a real and open question. The vitamin C claim in particular is one I would treat with caution, because the amount that ends up in a brewed cup appears to be small. And much of the wider research is still early, done in laboratories or in small studies, so it does not yet add up to firm proof that a daily cup will do any one specific thing for your health.

So my honest position, as someone who loves the drink, is this: rooibos is a lovely, naturally caffeine-free infusion with some genuinely interesting compounds that science is still exploring. That is plenty to recommend it, without me having to promise you the earth.

And one thing I say almost every week on my market stall: if you are asking about a particular health condition, I urge you to speak to your doctor, not to me. People come up and ask which tea is good for something, sometimes something quite serious, and my answer is always the same. Please do not take medical advice from someone on a market stall. Your health is far too important to rest on hearsay.

How to brew rooibos

Rooibos is refreshingly forgiving. Use about a teaspoon of loose leaf per cup, pour over water at 100°C (straight off the boil is fine), and leave it to steep for anywhere between three and seven minutes. Because it is low in tannin, it will not turn bitter if you leave it longer; it just gets deeper and sweeter, so brew it to your taste.

Now, how you actually drink it is where I have to warn you that you are wading into a genuine battleground. In South Africa, whether rooibos should be taken with milk or without is a proper feud, argued with every bit as much passion as the great British questions of whether the jam or the cream goes first on a scone (or how you even pronounce "scone" in the first place). Both camps are quietly certain the other lot are heathens. Personally, I stay well out of it. Milk or no milk, honey, lemon, sugar, or nothing at all: as long as you enjoy your rooibos, I genuinely do not mind how you take it. Make it yours.

If you would like to try some

At Team Tea I keep a plain, top-grade rooibos for purists, and a Vanilla Rooibos blend that is one of the most-loved blends I sell: naturally caffeine-free, smooth and sweet, with soft vanilla and a caramel-toffee warmth. Both are the real thing, grown in the Cederberg, and both are just as good last thing at night as first thing in the morning.

Whatever you choose, I hope you enjoy it, and now you know exactly what is in your cup.

— Valerie, Tea Sommelier