Discover Rooibos Tea
How a familiar impression opens into a wider world of rooibos.
Discover Rooibos Tea
For some people, rooibos tea is still completely new territory. Others already know it, but mainly through the familiar flavour profiles of large brands.
Some have no clear idea yet of what rooibos actually tastes like. Others mostly know only a rather restrained, smoothed-out taste through which many people are first introduced to rooibos. This is precisely where the difference begins.
View into the valley at the R364 turn-off to Wupperthal. From here, the roads continue towards Wupperthal and into the Biedouw Valley – a landscape where rooibos can still be experienced not only as a product, but also as a plant and as origin.
A wider range of aromas
A rooibos tea can feel honey-warm and soft, malty and caramel-like, lightly vanilla-toned, creamy and rounded. Others show more spice, fruit or herbal depth. What at first seems mild and uncomplicated can, on closer tasting, develop a surprising amount of character.
A handful of dried rooibos from the harvest. This begins to make visible the distance between a familiar brand taste and what rooibos as a plant and tea actually brings with it.
This becomes especially clear when you get to know rooibos teas that remain closer to South African brands, their origin and their own flavour expression. Then the familiar name opens into a much broader taste spectrum.
What previously seemed like one single mild direction suddenly opens into a variety of aromas in which the individual rooibos teas show their own character profile.
Rooibos in blends
Rooibos shows a particular strength in blends. It does not merely accompany other aromas discreetly; it often brings them out more clearly.
Fruit, spices, herbs or blossoms often do not feel loosely placed on top of rooibos, but integrated, supported and sometimes even highlighted more distinctly.
Green Rooibos & Earl Grey in the tasting room at Skimmelberg. Tastings like these open the view to the flavour range of rooibos.
Where to go from here
In this way, a tea that many first come to know simply as mild becomes a flavour world in its own right. Those who engage with it discover not only more variety in the cup, but also more origin, more signature and more personality than one might initially expect from a rooibos tea.
This variety is best experienced by tasting. With the Ouhuis Selection and the Carmién Discovery Pack, two different starting points lead on from here: one closer to herbal and Fynbos-related expressions, the other more towards fruity, fresh and everyday styles.
Those who would first like to understand rooibos better can also continue from here to the knowledge and origin pages.