Fermented Rooibos

Traditional red rooibos is cut, bruised, wetted and left in heaps to oxidize, a step also called curing or sweating, and then dried in the sun. The result is sweet, woody and smooth. Steeped at 100°C for five to seven minutes.

Origin & Story

Ask a rooibos farmer what happens between the field and the tin and the answer is a short, intense chapter of work called curing. Harvest runs from about January to March. The branches are cut into pieces a few millimeters long, bruised by rolling or pressing, wetted and piled in low heaps in the open air.

The heaps are the heart of it. Left for somewhere between 8 and 24 hours, turned now and then, the bruised leaf oxidizes, which is a chemical change driven by the plant's own enzymes. The trade calls this fermentation, but nothing ferments in the way beer or yogurt does, because there are no microbes at work. The green leaf turns red-brown, and the sweet, nutty, woody flavor appears.

The method is more than a century old. Benjamin Ginsberg, a Russian immigrant who worked out the process in 1904, is said to have taken his cue from the way Chinese Keemun black tea is made, and rooibos has been processed much the same way since. After the heaps, the leaf is spread in open yards and dried in the sun, graded by length, color, flavor and aroma, and finally steam-treated and screened to control bacteria.

That is why the label matters. Red rooibos is oxidized rooibos. Green rooibos skips the heaps and is dried straight away, and it tastes lighter and grassier.

Steep 3 g of traditional rooibos in 240 ml of water at 100°C for five to seven minutes, and let it go longer if you want it stronger.

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