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Rooibos, or Red Bush in Aficans, is rapidly growing in popularity throughout the world due to it's great taste and the amazing health benefits. The source of Rooibos tea (Aspalathus linearis) is a native of the Western Cape of South Africa. The needles of this shrub turn red when when fermented, and the brewed needles were first drank by the native Khoi people of the Cape.
The Khoi's magic cup of tea is no longer a secret. There is currently a boom in the popularity of Rooibos that is spreading around the world. This naturally caffeine-free cup is most popular in Germany, the UK, the US and Japan with more than 15,000 tons of Rooibos leaves brewed each year. The health conscious world has made this simple red bush a 23 billion dollar a year industry and still growing. Where else can you get the antioxidant equivalent and possibly even more so than green tea in a caffeine-free, smooth cup? 
Here are the top 5 benefits of Rooibos:
1) Rooibos contains quercetin. A powerful antioxidant that helps prevent heart disease, many forms of cancer and is an anti-inflammatory.
2) Rooibos contains aspalathin. A rare antioxidant that reduces stress and helps regulate blood sugar, protecting against diabetes and slows fat production.
3) Rooibos contains nothofagin. Another rare antioxidant that is an anti-inflammatory that helps reduce the risk of Alzheimer's disease.
4) Rooibos is very popular with pregnant women as it is an anti-spasmodic. Drinking Rooibos while you are pregnant soothes the stomach and lowers stress which is key for proper neurological growth for the fetus. It is also given to infants with colic to help reduce symptoms.
5) Recent studies in Japan show that drinking Rooibos help reduce the symptoms of many seasonal allergies.
Rooibos has a delicate, sweet taste. We've found that it blends very well with spices and preserved fruits and we use Rooibos as the base of several of our super popular tea blends such as Gingerbread Chai and Lemon Meringue Pie.
Are you looking for some natural beauty tips? I've been an educator for a cosmetics company for the last few years, so I'm always interested in what's on the ingredient panel. We carry a number of products that contain red, black, green, and white teas. Tea is always a great addition to cosmetics-they contain tannins that naturally tighten pores and antioxidants that protect the skin from aging.
While using tea as part of one's beauty regime goes back millennia, I've done some research for you and found some inexpensive, modern ways to keep you Beau-TEA-ful from head to toe. Here are some natural beauty tips using tea:
 Looking for a lightweight hair conditioner to improve shine and feel? Green tea to the rescue! Check out this simple recipe from Squidoo.com: www.squidoo.com/Hair-Conditioner
Puffy, dark, tired eyes? Sooth them with used tea bags. Check out the Livestrong website for instructions: www.livestrong.com/article/22062-use-tea-bags-under-eyes/
Spend a little too much time out in the summer sun? Find pain relief in some tea-soaked gauze pads. The burn will be relieved in no time.
Is your skin acneic or is your complexion just plain dull? Looking to bring large pores back down to their natural size? Twingodesses of San Diego has the cure for what ails your skin:
www.twingodesses.blogspot.com/2011/02/acne-remedy-apple-cider-vinegargreen.html
(Tip: In general if your skin is oily, exfoliate 3-4 times a week. If you're more dry or sensitive, 1-2 times a week is appropriate.)
Beat on your feet? Not only is a soak in tea relaxing, but tea also has anti-fungal qualities. Add tea leaves to your tub for a super relaxing, aromatic soak.
If you're a regular reader of this tea blog, the past month's posts have taken you to Spain, Hawaii, Britain, and my grandparents' dining room table. Next up: Israel.
I spent several months living and traveling in Israel last year. and I came home hooked on Middle Eastern favorites like just-baked pita, falafel (deep-fried balls of mashed chickpeas, usually served
with hummus), and halvah (a melt-in-your-mouth sesame candy). But if there's one thing that can transport me to that foreign place in the blink of an eye, it's the tea that I drank almost daily: Rooibos with cinnamon and vanilla.
This tea blend is not a notably Israeli one, nor is it particularly popular (as far as I know). I saw it on a shelf, tried it, and got hooked. It's created a quirky memory highway which I consider wholly mine - there just can't be many other people who also happen to associate this unassuming tea with this ancient, beautiful, and long-disputed land.
When I small this tea, I instinctively breathe it in deeply, slowly. My shoulders relax. When I sip it, I smile. This tea is unhurried. It doesn't conjure up hammocks and palm trees specifically, but it clearly brings me to the mellow mindset of a lazy, blue-skied afternoon.
Israelis, if you're wondering, usually drink stronger stuff, like mud-thick Turkish coffee. And the tea drinkers are crazy about black tea with mint - which is available bagged, but is best if you grab a fresh "nana" (mint) sprig or two for your mug. (Now there's a delicious idea I'm suddenly itching to revisit...)
When I arrived in Israel, my carry-on contained a small bag of can't-travel-without-'em teas (my longtime favorites). When I left, it was with a soothing new go-to. This magical tea is every bit as sweet as the memories I made while I was away.
I really enjoy mornings like this. I'm having a cup of Easter weekend tea, Peach Tree Oolong, and thinking about some great Easter memories of old times that in so many ways I wish had never left.
When I was little, we would always head to Rosebud, Texas to my great grandmother's house for Easter. Rosebud is one of those simple, innocent southern towns where neighborhood kids are friends and there are no fences between properties. There are no curbs along the roads through the town, so the storm water flows to the road-side, dirt bottom swales like nothing I've seen except for in small towns in Europe. These swales have their own ecosystems of grasses and the source of lots of fun for my cousins and I, crawdads (crayfish if you're from Louisiana). When we had our fill of crawdad fishing, we would head down to the 5 and Dime to pick up a very deadly watergun and bag of water balloons to spend the rest of the day playing games around the huge Magnolia trees in the yard. Meanwhile, our great grandmother would cook up the crawdad tails or she would be busy making us some big glasses of Bluebell vanilla bean ice cream covered in Big Red cola.
On Easter morning, we would wake up to Easter baskets by our beds filled with candy eggs and on many occasions, an Easter pet of some kind like an albino bunny or a blue duck. With three brothers each getting bunnies, our house was filled with screaming and running around chasing our new pets. We would all get in our matching Sunday clothes and walk to church. After church, we would pose for photos in my great grandmother's backyard, hunt for Easter eggs through the iris beds, then play croquet across her always lush, thick bladed Saint Augustine lawn.
How can I compete with times like that for my kids?
*image by bbcgoodfood.com
For many of us, food triggers an equal sensation and stimulation in the brain (memories and emotions), as it does in the mouth (think taste bud party). It's this sensation that companies like Dove chocolates, for example, use in adverts to exploit our determination to stick to that New Year's Resolution. (Remember those?). But more specifically, remember this? Dove Moments. One google search alerted me to this: "Chocolate won't let you down. Love, Dove".
After studying journalism in college, I developed an aversion to these types of ad campaigns. The ones that target our emotional connection to consume more; you deserve this moment, buy me!
Yet despite this aversion, when entering the atmospheric city of Granada, in the heart of Andalusian Spain, this exact campaign crumbled my reserve, especially when speaking of tea. The tie in was even more swoon-worthy, the aromas of the city's greatest treasure, the Alhambra. Completed in 1391, it's a testament of the Moors' stay in Spain, but also of their sense of art and architecture. A sense that is hardly matched elsewhere in Europe. It's here also that this imaginative empire ended, too. As a preface to the Spanish Inquisition, the Prince of this Muslum empire fled on request from Isabella I and Ferndinand II and with him the Islamic grip on Iberia soon ended.
The remaining evidence of the Moors and Islamic Spain still echoes in the city and gives Granada an irresistible energy, especially if you have a view of the palace with the snowcapped Sierra Nevada towering behind it. It's here that the blend of aromatic teas, with the name Scents of the Alhambra, that I lose any idea of "willpower". Whatever that may be. I want to conjure up the sense of history and the magic of this place for days and, if I'm lucky, weeks to come.
You can find dozens of tea blends with names like Scents of the Alhambra in the market stalls scattered around Granada's grand cathedral (Ferdinand and Isabella made their Catholic mark) in the city center or in any of the many tea shops scattered around the city.
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