Rooibos Tea Route

Rooibos is Aspalathus linearis, a legume shrub of the Cederberg fynbos, and every attempt to farm it commercially outside this corner of the Western Cape has failed - it needs this soil, this rainfall pattern and these temperature swings. That exclusivity is now legally recognised: rooibos holds protected designation of origin status in the European Union, granted in 2021, the first African product to receive it. The plant is not a tea at all and contains no caffeine; the red colour comes from oxidation after the cut needles are bruised and left to ferment in heaps, while unoxidised green rooibos is a different and grassier drink. Farms around Clanwilliam run tours through the harvest, the cutting yards and the tasting, and the surrounding Cederberg is worth the drive on its own. The industry's history with the Khoi and San communities who first used the plant has been the subject of a benefit-sharing agreement.

What you actually see

• A single origin - commercially grown nowhere but this corner of the Cederberg.
• Protected status - EU protected designation of origin from 2021.
• The fermentation heaps - bruised needles oxidising from green to red in the yards.
• Green rooibos - the unoxidised version, grassier and quite different.

When to go

January to March for harvest; August to October for the fynbos flowers. A day.

Honest expectations

Farm tours need booking and run to a schedule. Summer in Clanwilliam is extremely hot. The drive from Cape Town is long and the last roads are gravel. Outside harvest there is not much processing to see.

Nearby

The Cederberg rock art sites are east; Clanwilliam dam is beside the town.