Is green rooibos 100 times sexier than red rooibos?

So I was googling some stuff earlier and I happened upon this site, which states, "Green Rooibos has 100 times more antioxidants and 10 times more aspalathin than regular fermented Rooibos."

The latter statement I might buy. The former? Not so much. Green tea has more antioxidants than black tea, it's true, but not 100 times more, and I see no reason to believe that rooibos is that much different.

Unfortunately, there's a lot of conflicting information on the internet, as I've mentioned before. Some people claim green rooibos has more antioxidants than any type of infusion. Some say the green variety is 40 times as good for you as the red variety (also a very doubtful claim). It can be hard to sift through all the misinformation out there, but fortunately I found something. Not much, but something.

According to the article, green tea comes out on top, followed by green rooibos, red rooibos, semioxidized rooibos, black tea, and oolong tea.

I see two strange things here. Why would semioxidized varieties of tea and rooibos have fewer antioxidants than full oxidized varieties? I admit I'm not a scientist, but everything I've read has said oolong tea has a higher antioxidant ability than black tea.

Green rooibos is fairly new to the market, so there understandably isn't as much research on it as there is green tea. Hopefully in the next couple years this issue will be resolved, if only because it'd be nice to know where rooibos stands in comparison to tea. Until then, though, it tastes great, is good for you, and has no caffeine or tannins, so drink up.


EDIT: I caught an error as I was scanning through this just now—green tea doesn't actually have more antioxidants than black tea, it just has more powerful antioxidants. The oxidation process changes the chemical structure of the polyphenols present in green tea, but it doesn't remove them. More on this later.

Rooibos and Honeybush: the Story Continues

Okay, so now you know all about rooibos and honeybush. Or do you?

Like black tea, rooibos and honeybush are oxidized, which gives them their dark red color and depth of taste. They are prepared like this because while South Africans have been enjoying both of these plants for centuries (if not millennia), the British are the ones who introduced them to the global market, and they thought they'd treat it like black tea (as it is often considered a tea substitute).

Well, if you don't oxidize the plant what do you get? Green rooibos and green honeybush, just like tea. I myself just tried them about a week ago, and I was pretty impressed.

First off, as with tea, the green varieties of rooibos and honeybush contain a much higher level of antioxidants. The green varieties are fairly hard to find (green honeybush especially so), so there understandably isn't an awful lot of research about these antioxidant levels, so don't buy into any hype about either of them being better for you than green tea.

Green rooibos

Now, green rooibos looks an awful lot like lemongrass. It tastes slightly vegetal, but not nearly as much as green tea does, and it retains a slightly fruity and tangy flavor. Interestingly, it has a faint licorice-sweet aftertaste (not the taste of licorice, but the sweet aftertaste you get when chewing on some of the root), which makes me wonder if it contains similar sweetening compounds as licorice root. I like it and recommend it. Just judging from my experience, it seems to have a more marked sedative effect than oxidized rooibos, so you probably shouldn't drink a quart of the stuff in one sitting your first time like I did just now.

Green honeybush, which isn't very green at all

I expected green honeybush to taste very similar to green rooibos, but it did not. First, the smell. Green rooibos smells like dried plant. Green honeybush, however, smells like awesome. It has a very tangy, fruity aroma—if I dare say, it smells sexy. The taste followed suit. It seems less sweet than oxidized honeybush, but I think it's just because the green variety is much tangier and acidic tasting (not TOO acidic, just MORE acidic). I find it best to subdue this beast with a dab of honey. What results is a really good tisane without the vegetal notes of green rooibos (but also, unfortunately, without a detectable licorice-sweet aftertaste).


You may be tempted to treat these like green tea and use water that isn't boiling. I've only used boiling water. It tastes fine, and the reason you use cooler water with white and green teas is because you'll fuck up the flavor by making the tea release all kinds of bitter tannins and by destroying more delicate flavor compounds. Rooibos and honeybush have no significant tannin levels, and if they have delicate flavors that require lower brewing temperatures, I doubt you'd notice them over the fruity and tangy flavors so prominent in them—ESPECIALLY if you brew them for 8+ minutes (which I recommend).

I bought my green rooibos and honeybush from Upton Tea Imports. I've found green rooibos from a couple other companies, but not green honeybush. Their teas are pretty damn high quality so far, I've found (I am not affiliated in any way with the company), so if you want to try either of these tisanes, you can't go wrong with them.

Honeybush Tea

I've been on a big rooibos and honeybush kick lately, as sleep is important in my life, and sleeping is about the only thing tea won't help you with.

Now, I've known about rooibos for a long time. Honeybush, however, I've only found out about more recently.

Honeybush from Adagio tea—as you can see I've already used most of it

Honeybush is often lumped in with rooibos when you go to buy it. It brews a similar color, the dried plant looks like a coarser version of rooibos, and it even tastes somewhat similar. In addition, from what I've found online, it's even somewhat similar chemically, containing many antioxidants (but not aspalathin—that is unique to rooibos) and grows in South Africa as well. Unlike rooibos, however, it is not cultivated, so if you drink honeybush tea, you're drinking wildharvested tisane, not something grown on a plantation. This has its benefits (no pesticides) and its drawbacks (no quality control), which I won't get into here.

Like it's name implies, honeybush tastes sweet. Sweeter than rooibos. You don't need to add any sweetener to it—it tastes like it already has a small dollop of honey in it. And like rooibos, it's slightly fruity and tangy. I prefer it, taste-wise, to rooibos.

Basically, the same rules apply to honeybush as they do to rooibos: steep for a long time, drink as much as you want, expect to become immortal, etc. Just bear in mind that you'll pay a premium for honeybush tea over rooibos because it's rarer.

Rooibos

A few years ago (right around the yerba mate craze, I believe) there was another tea alternative that rose to prominence, with all sorts of lofty and baseless claims: rooibos. Also known as "red tea," it has nothing to do with real tea. It's a plant that grows in South Africa and brews a dark amber cup with a slightly sweet, tangy, fruity taste.

Jasmine rooibos tea from Adagio teas—good stuff

I'm not going to knock it. Some sources claim it has more antioxidants than green tea. This may be true or it may not be—rooibos does have a bunch of antioxidants, including one unique to it: aspalathin. Not much research has been performed on rooibos so this may not matter at all—not all antioxidants are equal, and the ones in rooibos may not interact with the human body in the same way as those found in tea. Still, rooibos is caffeine free, tastes good, and studies have shown it IS good for you (if nothing else, it contains several vitamins and minerals, including potassium and magnesium), so you may as well drink it if you like it.

I myself drink it most nights. In addition to having no caffeine, rooibos also acts as a mild sedative. For an insomniac like myself this makes it all the more attractive. Hell, it's nice to have at work, too—helps me deal with all the stress, although some people react more strongly to it and may be a little more sedated than they'd wish.

Rooibos has an extremely low tannin content, so it won't get bitter if you steep it for a long time. In fact, I recommend you steep it for upwards of ten minutes. It pairs well with flavors, too—try a good chaibos (that's chai made with rooibos) and you'll think it's black magic.

Rooibos steeped for 8 minutes

Interestingly, rooibos is also of use in cosmetic products. Like green tea, rooibos helps protect and heal the skin when applied topically, and acts as a mild sunscreen. If you make your own lotions or soaps, give it a try instead of or in addition to green tea. Just remember it'll impart a reddish hue onto whatever you make.