For some of us rooibos tea is still fairly unheard of. I’ll be the first to admit I recently came across rooibos tea several months ago, and have been fascinated by it ever since. It made me want to dig deeper and research all I could about the different health benefits of rooibos tea.
If you’re unfamiliar with this type of tea, rooibos is a type of herbal tea. It comes from a plant called Aspalathus linearis, which is a shrub found in South Africa. Rooibos is commonly referred to as red bush, due to the way it looks. It’s usually reddish-brown in color, and has long, thin, leaves that closely resemble small pine needles.
You can find rooibos tea in two types of colors. The most common is reddish-brown rooibos, with the second being green rooibos. The colors vary due to how the leaves are produced for tea consumption, a process called oxidation. Green rooibos has a similar process as green tea. I find the taste of red rooibos tea to be smooth, rich, and sweet, whereas the taste of green rooibos tea reminds me of green tea.