Rooibos for a Taste of Africa: this newly popular plant is making waves in tea cups everywhere.

ROOIBOS--pronounced roy-bos and translated as Redbush--is a South African herbal infusion, which has captured 25% of the local tea market since its commercial launch 100 years ago. The bush grows uniquely in a 60-mile radius around the town of Clanwilliam, 130 miles north of Cape Town, in the Cedarberg Mountain region.

In 2003 rooibos sales totaled over 10,000 tons, of which 4,000 tons was consumed in South Africa, and around 6,500 tons exported worldwide, especially to Europe. These export figures have expanded 300% over the past five years.

Long ago, local bushmen had discovered that the needlelike leaves of the Aspalathus linearis bush made a tasty, aromatic brew. They harvested the plants, chopped them roughly and bruised them with hammers, leaving the pieces to ferment in heaps, before drying them in the sun.

In 1904, a pioneer Russian immigrant named Benjamin Ginsberg realized the beverage had market potential. He started trading in the new his family background which had been involved for a long time in European tea trading. As popularity of the product grew, commercial farming of rooibos was established around the Clanwilliam area, in a region of craggy peaks and pure mountain streams. Today the processing technology is basically that of 100 years ago, but of course with use of much more refined mechanical methods and laboratory controls.

Sales expanded in the 1930s, when an enthusiastic doctor and nature lover discovered the value of rooibos as an agricultural product. His enthusiasm inspired other farmers and cultivation began. A further boost in production came during the war, when Ceylon tea was scarce due to transport problems.

However, the rooibos market collapsed when the war ended. The Clanwilliam Tea Cooperative was launched by farmers in 1948, and serious attempts were made to surmount the tough marketing conditions. New brand names were created, and distributors appointed, but new markets were hard to find.

Then in 1954 the Rooibos Tea Marketing Control Board was formed, as a semi-government institution. At that time, all agricultural products in South Africa were marketed through a single-channel system.

Finally, in 1993, the Rooibos Board became the second agricultural control board to privatize in South Africa, and was renamed Rooibos Ltd.