THE HISTORY OF ROOIBOS

Rooibos (pronounced roy-boss) tea was first used hundreds of years ago by natives in South Africa when they mashed the stems and leaves of the rooibos plants with hammers. The natives then left the remains of the rooibos plants to ferment in the sun and created from that result with hot water a flavourful drink.

That same drink was then discovered and reported in 1772 by botanist Carl Humberg. Unfortunately, at the time, the healing powers of the plant were left unknown, and it simply became popular because of its special taste.

In 1904 Benjamin Ginsberg, who came from a family that were tea traders for centuries in Europe, became interested in Rooibos tea and started commercializing it.

In April 1986, almost 200 years after Humberg reported the drink, a South African mother named A.Theron was worrying about her allergic infant that had been struggling with colic attacks for 14 months. In her stress, she had accidentally added Rooibos Tea to her baby's milk. Soon the constant crying and vomiting had stopped, and the baby slept peacefully for over three hours.

Obviously, this was an exciting discovery, and after failing to find any documented evidence of these healing properties, Mrs Theron took it upon herself to perform her own research on the properties of Rooibos. Soon after, eighteen babies with similar problems were given the Rooibos tea treatment, and the mothers quickly sent in news that the babies were doing better.

Mrs Theron findings were then published, and to date, those findings have helped thousands upon thousands of allergic people of all ages to overcome their symptoms with Rooibos.