South Africa SA Blog Recipies

Southafricanisms: Rooibos Tea

If South Africa had to name a national drink, it would certainly be klipdrift Rooibos tea. This golden-red brew discovered by the Khoisan and popularised by Benjamin Ginsberg is a flavour as indigenous as licking the sweat from a Kudu’s snout. It contains no Caffeine and is brimming with bio-flavenoids and antioxidants. It is also commonly given to infants to help them sleep and relieve colic.

Date: February 22nd, 2007 | 5 comments

Support Small Farmers in South Africa with These Rooibos Tea Brands

If South Africa has a national drink, it’s rooibos, or “red bush” tea. A caffeine-free beverage made from the fermented twigs of the the rooibos plant (Aspalathus linearis, a legume which only grows in limited areas in South Africa’s Cedarberg region), it has been used as a refreshing daily tonic for thousands of years, beginning with the Bushmen, who first identified its restorative properties. Rooibos is low in tannins, high in anti-oxidants, and utterly delicious.

The rest of the world is discovering rooibos tea, too: it has become a large export business over the last ten years. As an overseas consumer, you can support Fair Trade practice in South Africa’s rooibos industry - much as you can in the world-wide coffee industry - by buying the tea from companies that purchase their stock at fair prices from small-scale rooibos farmers.

Two Cederberg communities, in Wuppertal and Heiveld near the Western Cape / Northern Cape provincial border (click here for a reasonable map of the area around Wuppertal, which is too sparsely populated to show on most other maps), comprise the source of all of South Africa’s Fair Trade rooibos, supporting a total of about 175 families on their smallholdings. The communities’ rooibos is hand-harvested and 100% organically farmed. Several US and European companies do business with these farmers; SA Blog encourages you to catch the aroma of the extreme African southwest by sampling their wonderful tea.

Fair Trade overseas rooibos tea brands:
USA: Equal Exchange USA | Alter EcoUK: Equal Exchange UK | Serrv InternationalFrance: Alter Eco FR | Jardins de GaiaGermany: Gepa | DWPAustralia: Alter Eco AUS

Here’s a wonderful summertime rooibos tea recipe compliments of the Heiveld organic rooibos farming community:

Date: April 10th, 2006 | 1 comment

Recipe: Greyton Crock Pot Coq au Vin

Recipe: Greyton Crock Pot Coq au Vin

(Part of Greyton - The 3-Part Serial Adventure (2/3))

Note: if you arrive in Greyton on Saturday morning, you can get many of these ingredients at the Farmer’s Market, held on Market Square, which runs until about 11h30am.

Prep: 15 min. Cooking Time: 50 min. Serves: 4.

1 whole chicken or equiv. in pieces
3-4 bay leaves
1/2 bottle white wine (red will also do – hey, it’s the country!)
1 med onion, quartered
8 cloves garlic, peeled & halved
8 dark olives, pitted & halved
1 tomato, quartered
2 carrots, thickly sliced
2 ears corn, shucked and snapped in half
Other vegetables according to …

Date: December 9th, 2005 | No Comments