Green rooibos tea

Resistance to acid hydrolysis (C-glycosides)

Contains the unique flavonoid antioxidant Aspalathin - a C-glycoside
dihydrochalcone

No caffeine (only trace amounts)

No condensed tannins (only trace amounts)

High total polyphenol content (> 30% of total tea solids extracted during normal hot water infusion and expressed as gallic acid equivalent (w/w))

A South African patent describing a process for producing an unfermented or green dried plant material from a fresh source of the plant material includes the step of pasteurizing or drying appropriate portions of the plant material under appropriate conditions (low temperature, deep vacuum) whilst minimizing contact of the plant material with oxygen in order to inhibit oxidation thereof.

Market exposure enjoyed to date has mostly been in fermented form. This fermented form is achieved through a combination of wetting, heating and drying of leaves and stalks which yield most of the characteristic colour, flavour and aroma of these herbal tea-like products. This process is understood to involve thorough oxidation of the naturally occurring poly-phenolic compounds. The dry material is then classified, sifted (to remove stalks and fine organic dust) and pasteurised to yield brownish-red dry herbal tea leaves.

Recently, market demand has called for the production of unfermented or semi-fermented herbal teas. The green formats are seen to yield dry green herbal teas in which maximum levels of the original naturally occurring anti-oxidants are retained.

Green rooibos is unfermented rooibos tea with higher level of flavonoids than red rooibos tea