Discovering Just Wild Rooibos
Long before modern farming altered the landscape of the Northern Cape, this resilient plant - Aspalathus linearis, commonly known as Rooibos - thrived purely in the wild. Today, with some intentional preservation, we can still enjoy wild-harvested rooibos. Under the careful and nurturing eye of its custonidan, we get to enjoy this very specail brew of wild-harvested, virgin-veld rooibos.
When I first tasted this uncultivated wild rooibos in the mid 2010's, it sparked a deep, familiar warmth. At first, I couldn’t quite place the feeling, but as I sat with more cups of this delicious rooibos, breathing in that rich, earthy aroma and comforting rooibos flavour - the memory suddenly became crystal clear. It tasted just like the rooibos tea from my childhood. As a toddler, while my mother worked as a teacher, I was cared for by my adopted grandmother. Ma Esau would brew the most delicious rooibos tea, slowly simmering it on the stove-top in an enamel kettle, then served with just the right amount of milk and a hearty dose of love. It was pure, simple comfort.
Decades later, holding a cup of this wild, virgin-veld rooibos, I realised that its untamed nature holds that exact same magic: the power to bypass the noise of the modern world and take you straight back to the goodness of a time before,
evoking Nostagia.
