Rooibos

A shrub of the mountains

Rooibos is Aspalathus linearis, a shrub of the fynbos — the fine-leaved vegetation that covers the mountains of the Western Cape. It is a legume, related to peas and lupins, not to the tea plant. Up close it looks nothing like a tea bush: thin woody stems carrying dense, needle-like green leaves, with small yellow flowers in spring.

What is harvested is the leaf and the fine stem, cut in summer, bruised and dried. Brewed, it is sweet and slightly woody, with none of the astringency of black tea, and it is naturally caffeine-free — nothing is removed to make it so.

The bush is not red

This is the part that surprises most people on their first farm visit. A rooibos field is green.

The red comes later. After cutting, the leaf is bruised and left to oxidise — the same broad process that turns a cut apple brown — and that is what takes it from green to the deep red-brown in your cup. Skip the oxidation, dry the leaf straight away, and you get green rooibos: the same plant, lighter and grassier, sold as a separate product.

We describe the plant, the place and the process only. This page makes no claims about health or benefits of any kind — that is not something we are qualified to write.

From wild bush to farmed crop

Long before anyone sold it, rooibos was simply part of life in these mountains. The Khoi and San knew the plant, cut it and brewed it, and that knowledge is where the whole industry begins.

Trade came in 1904. Benjamin Ginsberg, a merchant working the Clanwilliam district, experimented with the leaf at Rondegat and borrowed the fermenting method used for Chinese Keemun tea to process it. He began selling it, and the idea caught on.

But there was a problem. Every leaf still came off wild bushes on the mountainside, and the mountain could only give so much.

The answer came around 1930, from a Clanwilliam doctor. Pieter le Fras Nortier set out to farm the plant, and found its seed stubbornly hard to raise — the story goes that a Khoi woman showed him seed gathered in an ants' nest. Nortier worked out that the hard seed coat has to be broken before it will germinate reliably. Local farmers, Oloff Bergh of the Pakhuis among them, took it into the fields. A wild harvest became a crop.

Recognising where the knowledge came from

For most of the century that followed, the people whose knowledge started it all shared in none of the trade. That changed in 2019. After years of negotiation the rooibos industry signed a benefit-sharing agreement with the National Khoi-San Council and the South African San Council: a levy of 1.5% of the farm-gate price on every kilogram, paid to the communities themselves. It covers the whole industry rather than one company, and it was the first agreement of its kind anywhere.

Sources: Wikipedia, "Rooibos" for Ginsberg, Nortier and Bergh; SA Rooibos Council and the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment for the 2019 agreement.

Why it will only grow here

Rooibos is fussy in a very specific way. It wants the acidic, sandy, nutrient-poor soils of the Cederberg and the climate that comes with them — wet winters and hot, dry summers, with the mountains shaping both the rain and the swing between day and night.

Take it out of that combination and it does not perform. Every attempt to farm it commercially somewhere else has stayed an attempt.

So the crop is tied to one landscape as tightly as any wine region, and in 2021 the European Union said so formally, granting rooibos protected designation of origin status — the same protection that reserves the name Champagne or Parma ham for one defined place.

More than 90% of South Africa's rooibos comes from the Cederberg. Those are the mountains on the eastern skyline from town — see the Cederberg from Citrusdal for what else is up there.

Citrusdal is one corner of the growing region, not the whole of it: rooibos country runs north through the Cederberg and up onto the Suid–Bokkeveld escarpment. We cover that wider region on our sister guide, Visit Rooibos Country — the farms you can visit, the co-operatives, and the plant's own story.

Source: Bizcommunity for the EU protected designation of origin (2021).

From the Cederberg to more than 50 countries

A century after Ginsberg's first packets, the valley's bush travels further than most of the people who grow it.

Sources: Bizcommunity, February 2026 for export figures and markets; rooibos industry sources for the Cederberg share, as used on our fruit and rooibos page.

Indonesia, Sri Lanka and China are named as growing markets. Almost all of it leaves in bulk, and that is the quiet point behind what comes next: the valley grows the thing the world buys, and sees very little of the people buying it. If you are one of them, you can send one trade enquiry and we pass it to producers here who can supply it.

And now, rooibos is going to space

Rooibos seeds are scheduled to travel to the International Space Station in October 2026. The project involves the South African Rooibos Council, the space-education company MaxIQ Space and the South African National Space Agency, with seven Cederberg schools and Parklands College taking part.

The question is simple: what do microgravity and cosmic radiation do to rooibos seed? Seeds flown to the station are compared against control samples kept on the ground, and germination and growth are measured once they come back.

The second half of the project is about visitors, not seeds. It is led by Prof. Martinette Kruger of North-West University's TREES research unit, with Curtin University in Australia collaborating, and in February 2026 students from both came to the Cederberg to work on tourism products. Kruger's framing is that "rooibos is much more than a beverage; it is a destination brand because it can only be produced in one small part of the world", and that "rooibos could do for the Cederberg what wine has done for the Cape Winelands" — while being clear that "tourism should not replace farming; it should add value to it". The obstacle she names is a web problem more than a farming one: "the challenge is ensuring that every international media story points people back to the Cederberg".

If you want to help with that, there is one useful answer, and it is the next section.

Source for this whole section: Bizcommunity, "Rooibos space mission could put Cederberg tourism on the global map".

This section was written in August 2026 and describes a scheduled future event. Check a current source before relying on the date.

Come and stand in a field of it

A rooibos farm is not a winelands estate, and that is most of the appeal. The fields sit high and open with the Cederberg behind them, the bushes in rows on pale sand, and the work is right there in front of you: cutting in summer, then the bruised leaf spread out in the sun to turn colour.

A tour usually means the field, the drying and sorting, and a tasting that puts red and green side by side — so the difference stops being something you read about and becomes something you taste.

These are the rooibos-related places we hold sourced information for. Visits are generally by arrangement, not walk-in, and we publish no prices or opening hours because we hold no verified source for them — phone the farm first. More options on things to do.

When to come

Rooibos is harvested in summer, so the hot months are when you are most likely to see cutting and drying for yourself. Summer here is genuinely hot and dry — the trade-off is that it is also the best season for the Cederberg's swimming holes. Harvest weeks shift with the season, so ask the farm rather than trusting a month.

Spring is the other good answer: the bushes carry their small yellow flowers, and the West Coast wildflower season is on. Season by season, including weather averages, is on when to visit.

It has come a long way from the mountainside, this bush. It has never moved house.

Common questions about rooibos

What is rooibos?

A drink made from the leaves and fine stems of Aspalathus linearis, a fynbos shrub native to the Cederberg. Not related to the tea plant, and naturally caffeine-free.

Where does rooibos grow?

In the Cederberg and the surrounding Western Cape, with Citrusdal and Clanwilliam at the centre of it. More than 90% of South Africa's rooibos comes from the Cederberg, and it grows commercially nowhere else on earth.

Is rooibos only grown in South Africa?

Yes, commercially: in the Cederberg and the country around it in the Western Cape, nowhere else. It needs acidic, sandy, nutrient-poor mountain soil and a climate of wet winters and hot dry summers. Commercial attempts elsewhere have not worked, and the EU recognised the tie between product and place with a protected designation of origin in 2021.

Is the rooibos sold in Europe grown in the Cederberg?

Almost certainly. It grows commercially nowhere but this corner of the Western Cape, and more than 90% of South Africa's crop comes from the Cederberg. Germany, the Netherlands, the UK and France are long-established markets among more than 50 worldwide, and about 10 930 tons was exported in 2025.

What does rooibos's EU protected designation of origin mean?

In 2021 the EU granted rooibos a protected designation of origin — the same scheme that protects names like Champagne and Parma ham. Inside the EU the name may only be used for rooibos grown in its defined South African area. It is a legal statement that the product cannot be separated from the place.

Is rooibos a real tea?

Not botanically. Tea is Camellia sinensis; rooibos is a legume-family fynbos shrub. It is brewed like tea, which is why it is sold as one.

Does rooibos have caffeine?

No — it is naturally caffeine-free, with nothing removed to make it so.

What is the difference between red and green rooibos?

The same plant, handled differently after cutting. Red is oxidised, which gives the colour and the sweet woody flavour; green is dried straight away and tastes lighter and grassier.

Can you visit a rooibos farm?

Yes — several farms around Citrusdal and Clanwilliam run tours and tastings, usually by arrangement. Start with Carmién Tea's rooibos farm.

Why are rooibos seeds going to space?

To test what microgravity and cosmic radiation do to germination and growth, in a project involving the South African Rooibos Council, MaxIQ Space and the South African National Space Agency, scheduled for October 2026. We have no involvement in it.

Last updated September 2026 · every figure on this page is sourced · no health claims, prices or opening hours are stated.