Honeybush
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 Honeybush or Heuningbos
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C. genistoides |
Honeybush (scientific name Cyclopia spp.; Family: Fabaceae), or 'Heuningbos' in Afrikaans, is commonly used to make an infusion in the same manner as tea. It grows only in a small area in the southwest of South Africa in the Langkloof area of the Eastern Cape and shares many similarities with rooibos.
Honeybush is so named because the flowers smell of honey. The taste of honeybush tea is similar to that of rooibos but a little sweeter.
There are 23 species of honeybush tea found in the wild, of which mainly 4 are used for commercial use. These are Cyclopia intermedia, known as 'berg tee' or mountain tea; C. subternata, known as 'vlei tee' or marshland tea; C. genistoides, known as 'kus tee' or coastal tea; and C. sessiliflora, known as 'Heidelberg tee', named after a town in South Africa, where it grows in the local mountain range.
There are two methods of processing honeybush for use in tea. In the traditional method, the leaves of the bush are harvested, cut and bruised (often with mechanical rollers), and then left in the sun to oxidise.
The modern, industralised process oxidises the leaves in rotating, heated tanks at temperatures of 70 to 90 degrees Celsius, for two to three days. The leaves are then air dried.
Afterwards, the leaves are sifted and graded according to the application:
- Super Fine (mostly used for string & tag tea bags)
- Regular Fine (mostly used for swimming tea bags or loose tea application)
- Coarse (mostly used for loose tea application)
Honeybush contains virtually no caffeine (< 0.01%) and is low in tannin (0.45%). Some of the active compounds present in honeybush include:
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Honeybush by Subhuti Dharmananda, Ph.D., Director, Institute for Traditional Medicine, Portland, Oregon
- Honeybush by Liesl van der Walt, South African National Biodiversity Institute
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