Organic Lemon Rooibos

Description

An organic loose leaf rooibos blend with piquant flavors of lemongrass and lemon myrtle. Naturally caffeine free.

Lemon Myrtle Health Benefits

Lemon myrtle is a flowering plant native to the subtropical rainforests of southeast Queensland, Australia. Lemon myrtle’s botanical name is Backhousia citriodora and its common names include lemon scented ironwood, sweet verbena tree, lemon scented myrtle, sweet verbena myrtle, lemon scented backhousia and lemon scented verbena.

The key ingredient in lemon myrtle is the high concentration of citral in its leaves. Citral comprises 90-98% of the essential oils in lemon myrtle, as opposed to less than 10% in lemons and limes.

Citral possesses anti-bacterial and anti-fungal properties. It is non-acidic, and high in anti-oxidants. Traditionally, lemon myrtle has been used to treat muscle cramps and spasms, rheumatism, headaches and fevers.

Lemongrass: Health Benefits

Lemongrass has many compounds, minerals and vitamins that are known to have anti-oxidant and disease preventing properties.
The primary chemical component in lemongrass is citral which has strong anti-microbial and anti-fungal properties. Lemongrass inhibits microbial and bacterial growth in the body, helping to prevent and cure bacterial infections in the colon, stomach, urinary tract and respiratory system.

Its leaves and stems are high in folic acid and essential vitamins such as pantothenic acid (vitamin B5), pyridoxine (vitamin B-6) and thiamin (vitamin B-1). Lemongrass also contains many anti-oxidant minerals and vitamins such as vitamin C, vitamin A, potassium, zinc, calcium, iron, manganese, copper, and magnesium.

Lemongrass can act as a diuretic and is highly effective in flushing toxins and waste out of the body; improving the function of many different organs including the liver, spleen and kidneys.

Lemongrass is used as a calmative agent; to help them deal with anxiety and nervousness. People who suffer Insomnia report its ability to help them rest and sleep deeply.

Rooibos: Health Benefits

Find out how rooibos can improve your health here.

Rooibos History

Through the 17th and 18th centuries, European travellers and botanists visiting the Cederberg region in South Africa commented on the profusion of “good plants” for curative purposes. In 1772, Swedish naturalist Carl Thunberg noted that “the country people made tea” from a plant related to rooibos or redbush.

Traditionally, the local people would climb the mountains and cut the fine needle-like leaves from wild rooibos plants. They then rolled the bunches of leaves into hessian bags and brought them down the steep slopes on the backs of donkeys. The leaves were then chopped with axes and bruised with hammers, before being left to dry in the sun.

The Dutch settlers to the Cape developed rooibos as an alternative to black tea, an expensive commodity for the settlers who relied on supply ships from Europe.

In 1904, Benjamin Ginsberg, a Russian/Jewish settler to the Cape, riding in the remote mountains, became fascinated with this wild tea. He ran a wide variety of experiments at Rondegat Farm, finally perfecting the curing of rooibos. He simulated the traditional Chinese method of making very fine Keemun, by fermenting the tea in barrels, covered in wet, hessian sacking that replicates the effects of bamboo baskets.

In the 1930s, Ginsberg persuaded local doctor and Rhodes scholar Dr. Le Fras Nortier to experiment with cultivation of the plant. Le Fras Nortier cultivated the first plants at Clanwilliam on the Klein Kliphuis farm. The tiny seeds were difficult to obtain, as they dispersed as soon as the pods cracked, and would not germinate without scarifying. Le Fras Nortier paid the local “volk”, some of whom were his patients, to collect seeds. An aged Khoi woman came again and again, receiving a shilling for each matchbox filled with seed. She had found an unusual seed source: having chanced upon ants dragging seed, she followed them back to their nest and, on breaking it open, found a granary. The attempts by Dr. le Fras Nortier were ultimately successful, which led Ginsberg to encourage local farmers to cultivate the plant in the hope that it would become a profitable venture. Klein Kliphuis became a tea farm, and within ten years the price of seeds soared to an astounding £80 a pound, the most expensive vegetable seed in the world. Today the seed is gathered by special sifting processes, and Klein Kliphuis is now a guest farm.

Since then, rooibos has grown in popularity in South Africa, and has also gained considerable momentum in the worldwide market.