Rooibos Tea Health Benefits
Rooibos has been a popular drink in South Africa since the early 1900’s and started to gain popularity in the US and UK for its health benefits. Whether its deserving of the reputation for being an ‘elixir of life’ is what I’m going to find out!
Rooibos is Afrikaans for “red bush” which is the name it often goes by in the US and UK such as…. It bears no relation to the Camellia Sinensis plant responsible for our beloved green and black teas.
Rooibos does contain high levels of antioxidants such as aspalathin and nothofagin which aren’t found in traditional Camellia Sinensis and with lower caffeine content and tanins it has fewer side effects common in very high levels of tea intake. Although its worth noting tea has quite low level of caffeine anyway and few people suffer caffeine related side effects from tea unless sensitive.
I did note in a previous post on which tea is healthiest that Rooibos contains just 60-80mg of antioxidants per cup compared to the whopping 300-450mg available in green tea. Even black tea that has gone through a heavy oxidation process has more than rooibos with 130-200mg per cup.
Although it has to be said that amount of antioxidants isn’t the only indicator of the health benefits of rooibos. With its lower caffeine and tannin content it can be a useful alternative to those suffering from caffeine sensitivity.
Rooibos tea also happens to be a nice tea to drink for its own sake! I won’t switch to it as my ‘tea’ of choice any time soon but its certainly one I now keep in my cupboards whenever wanting the occassional nutty and sweat red bush.
My Top 3 Rooibos Teas
I have always been a huge fan of white tea, but I have recently been introduced rooibos tea and it has opened my eyes to how good tea can be! Rooibos tea is my new favorite. I used to always buy from teavana, and they have nice tea, but I bought a rooibos tea called Tiramisu Rooibos from this new online tea house CaliforniaTeaHouse.com because they have a little lower prices and free shipping and it is freaking amazing!! You have to try it.
I absolutely love rooibos. But are you sure it has caffeine? I thought it had no caffeine.
I am great fan of tea.Recently i got used to rooibos and i started to love it too.People always used to tell it is not that good for health.But i believe that a little amount every day may not affect the health.
Thanks for the nice and new informations that you gave.
Keep it up.
The Rooibos tea here, in the States, tastes nothing like the tea in South Africa. 11 o’clock and Freshpack are the best brands in SA. If you can find them here, get them.