Root beer tea

Well, not exactly. But that was my intention when picking up a bag of loose leaf rooibos tea the other day. I used to love drinking root beer when I was kid and was especially fond of root beer floats. Recently, I tasted some root beer tea at a convention and thought it was quite delicious. Since I gave up drinking soda pop over a decade ago, I thought I would try to recreate this wonderful tasting concoction. I remembered that rooibos was the main ingredient.

I hurried home, boiled some water and poured it over one teaspoon of rooibos. The steep time is ten minutes for this herb, which seemed like forever at the time. Finally, the tea was ready and I took the long awaited sip.

The results? Nice tea. Smooth and slightly sweet, but tasted nothing like root beer to me. Wondering where I went wrong I searched the internet and found out that rooibos is, indeed, the main ingredient, but the second and only other ingredient was sarsaparilla root. Just in case my taste buds were askew, I saved some for my husband. Unfortunately, he concurred. We were not transported back to our childhood days and would not be making root beer floats.

Since I already purchased the tea, I decided to do a little research. Rooibos (Aspalathus linearis) is not a true tea as in tea grown from Camellia sinensis plants. It is an herbal tea though. The name rooibos means “red bush”. In South Africa, this tea has been used “by some tribes for medicinal purposes and by white South Africans for treatment of hay fever symptoms, asthma, eczema and to soothe heartburn, ease the pain of stomach ulcers and relieve nausea”. https://www.drweil.com/diet-nutrition/nutrition/tea-red-green-or-black/.

According to Dr. Andrew Weil, rooibos is caffeine-free, low in tannins, and contains minimal amounts of calcium, potassium, iron, zinc and magnesium. It also contains antioxidants and may have similar health benefits of green tea.

On Dr. Josh Axe’s website, he lists nine potential benefits of drinking rooibos tea. Everything from improved heart health and weight loss to cancer and diabetes prevention and even bone support. Dr. Axe states that rooibos has 50 percent more antioxidants than green tea. Dr. Weil was not as big a proponent for rooibos’ antioxidant potential and recommended staying with the proven benefits of green tea, at least until more research could be completed.

As with most things in life, too much of a good thing may be harmful. There are a few precautions Dr. Axe lists on his website. If you are going to be drinking large amounts of this red tea, then talk to your physician first. Some healthcare providers believe rooibos can negatively affect patients with liver or kidney disease and certain hormone related cancers. Check out the entire list here: https://draxe.com/rooibos-tea/.

Even though the taste of rooibos did not even remotely remind me of root beer, I think I will incorporate it into my regular tea rotation. It was delightful and a little fruity. Now, if I can just find some sarsaparilla root.

Kelley Rawlsky has an M.S. in horticulture and is the director of Bringing People and Plants Together, an organization dedicated to bringing horticulture education and therapy to the community. For more information: PeopleAndPlantsTogether@gmail.com or follow us on Facebook.