Stash Vanilla Rooibos Tea
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Stash Vanilla Rooibos Tea

For our unique Vanilla Rooibos tea we blend the finest natural vanilla flavor from Madagascar and Tahiti with South African Rooibos. The result is a tasty and aromatic drink with a reddish brown color, and a slightly sweet, lingering vanilla flavor. It's a great drink hot or iced, with or without milk and sweetener.

Rooibos (pronounce roy-boss) is an indigenous herb of South Africa that is made from the fine needle-like leaves of the "Aspalathus linearis" plant. At the turn of the century in the Cedarberg Mountain wilderness just north of Capetown, the locals harvested the wild plants with axes and hammers, leaving them to oxidize before drying in the sun. In 1904 Benjamin Ginsberg, a Russian immigrant from a family who had been in the tea industry for generations in Europe, began to sell this "Mountain Tea". By 1930 Dr. P. Le Fras Nortier, a well known medical doctor, had discovered the health benefits of Rooibos and cultivation and production began. During the plant's ripening process the leaves develop a reddish brown color, explaining why it was given its name "Rooibos" or "Red Bush".

Today, Rooibos has been growing in popularity because of its refreshing taste and health benefits. Like green tea, Rooibos is high in vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants which help reduce the risk of many chronic health problems. These antioxidants are reported to suppress cancer producing cells, slow the aging process, increase our natural detoxification defenses, and lower blood pressure. Rooibos also contains an anti-spasmodic so it helps to relieve digestive distress. African women enjoy Rooibos during pregnancy because it is high in iron, contains no caffeine, and relieves heartburn and nausea. In addition, their babies are given Rooibos to relieve colic.

Vanilla, the most popular flavor in the world, originated in Mexico. Vanilla pods, or beans as they are commonly called, are the fruit of an orchid. Of the thousands of varieties of the orchid, the vanilla plant is the only one with an edible fruit. The vanilla orchid is a rather small, trumpet-shaped greenish-white flower. In the center of the flower is a tube-like stamen that is pale yellow. Because of its shape, the orchid needs to be pollinated in order to produce a pod. Originally this was done by a tiny bee, the melipone, found only in Mexico. Vines were grown in other parts of the world, but without the assistance of the bees no pods developed. In 1841 a former slave, Edmond Albious, of the island of Reunion, devised a practical and speedy method of fertilizing the flower by hand. Today the beans are produced in the Bourbon Islands (Madagascar, Comoro, Seychelle and Reunion), Tahiti, Tonga, Mexico and Indonesia.

Each vanilla flower opens for only part of one day and if not pollinated on that day, no pod will be produced. Six to nine months after pollination the yellow-green pods begin to turn more yellow at their tip indicating they are ready for harvest. After the pods are harvested the curing process is started, which develops the flavor of the vanilla bean. The vanilla beans are immersed in hot water for a short period of time and then spread in the sun to absorb the heat. Late in the afternoon they are gathered and wrapped in blankets and straw, placed in wooden boxes and allowed to sweat over night. This process is repeated over a period of three to six months.