Rooibos Tea has 50 times more antioxidant properties than Green Tea.

April 5, 2001 11:59 PM

Rooibos Tea has 50 times more antioxidant properties than Green Tea. It seems the South African brew is over taking the popular Chinese brew in the European health food/herbal tea circles.
posted by tamim (9 comments total)

I'm not a big fan of Rooibos. My parents were anti-sanctions (don't ask) so I've been drinking this stuff since we first visisted S.A. in 1976. Can't say I feel healthier than most people.

Rooibos has a mild, slightly sweet taste quite unlike ordinary tea. It's been on Dutch supermarket shelves for about two or three years now, but of course they'll mix it with something else like cinnamon. Just like they HAVE to have lemon in iced tea.
posted by prolific at 12:41 AM on April 6, 2001

But does it have excessive amounts of caffeine?

Keep trying, then.
posted by gleemax at 4:36 AM on April 6, 2001

I will not buy it until it'll contain near lethal amounts of caffeine or that other stuff. I don't see the big problem here, just do testing, and ante up until you get a kill, then take a bit off until life can sustain and ship the baby out. I'd just make sure to spear rumors that it makes your testicles larger, in advance, no heckler can spread legends then. There are millions of geeks walking the earth in shame, for everyone think they have small testicles for drinking *that* much mountain dew.

Ohh, and soviet tea was horrible, in was only drunk hot and all, but still, my dad was creative enough to get stuff out of kirghistan and those other '-stan' provinces, I think it was pretty good, but I don't really remember.
posted by tiaka at 5:47 AM on April 6, 2001

Rooibos/rooibosch is naturally caffeine-free, so you're out of luck there. (I think this piece is just part of an effort by the rooibos growers to expand their market.) However, if you're prepared to drink the taste assault that is Maté for your buzz, well, respect is due.

tiaka: was the -stan tea from your childhood the spiced stuff that's sometimes known as "Russian caravan tea" here? I know that down in ex-Soviet Central Asia, you have the long tradition of a tea that's basically a night-time meal, boiled up in a samovar with sweetened milk, spices and (ugh) lard. And that would send me to coffee for life.

(But "hot and all", surely, is the only way to drink tea? Unless you're in an Atlanta summer, where I'll let you off with those ice cubes.)
posted by holgate at 7:34 AM on April 6, 2001

Tannins in green tea interfere with iron absorption. One study I read showed that drinking green tea daily reduced blood iron levels to 1/3 of normal levels (find it on pubmed). Rooibos, however, had almost no effect on iron level.

BTW, the high anti-oxidant activity of rooibos could just be due to its high vitamin C content.
posted by jrbender at 7:43 AM on April 6, 2001

Well, actually a lost of the Russian tea was made in Georgia (Gruzghia). The tea I was talking about was from Uzbekistan, and yes, you are right, milk and spices and lard were put in. Most people I met never heard of tea and milk; I find that odd. Try it, take a tea bag, make tea, pour a bit of milk in and taste it. Really good, and lard is actually mostly like butter, makes it richer. It does sound weird, but it's really, really good. : )

I preffer tea to coffee, by taste and by look and so on.
posted by tiaka at 8:10 AM on April 6, 2001

I like rooibos tea. I get mine from Tealuxe in Boston...
posted by silusGROK at 8:51 AM on April 6, 2001

holgate: sweetened milk, spices and (ugh) lard. And that would send me to coffee for life.

Nepalis drink basically the same, but they substitute yak-butter for lard, once you get over the initial 'greasy water' sensation, it's actually quite nice. At least it is in Nepal, never tastes quite the same when you make it at home though (and I don't think it's just the absence of yak-butter).
posted by Markb at 9:32 AM on April 6, 2001

I'd just like to repeat the word yak-butter several times.

Yak-butter, yak-butter, yak-butter, yak-butter.

Okay, I'm done. Sorry about that.
posted by Aaaugh! at 10:45 AM on April 6, 2001