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Green Rooibos: From Crop to Cup

GREEN ROOIBOS: FROM CROP TO CUP

Carmién is not only renowned for being a marketer and exporter of rooibos but as one of the only brands that are the producer, processor and marketer/exporter. This enables us to fully commit to environmentally safe farming and being in control from crop to cup.

Carmién supplies rooibos tea directly from the farm in South Africa as we are based in the unique rooibos region (60 000 ha), the only place in the world where rooibos tea can be grown. This offers our customers full traceability from cup to crop.

In May 2021 rooibos became the first African food to receive the status of Geographical Indication (GIs), Regulation (EU)No 1151/2012, granting it the Protected Designation of Origin (PDO). Sixteen regions within the Western and Northern Cape of South Africa are the only regions where rooibos can be grown and be called Rooibos Tea.

Green rooibos tea has a naturally sweet taste, with a distinct grassy edge and a smooth enjoyable flavour profile. Unlike Camelia Sinensis green teas, green rooibos tea is very low in astringency and has a calming effect. Very distinctive to green rooibos is its light orange to yellow cup infusion.

Green rooibos is unfermented rooibos. It consists of green needle-like leaves which are harvested during the winter months, carefully handled and immediately dried to stay green. When cutting the rooibos leaves, the plant cells are broken which activates the plant phenolic activity, automatically starting the fermentation process. To ensure that this natural process is stopped completely, the leaves are dried by hot air in a closed unit as soon as possible after cutting. This ensures a high-quality green rooibos with optimum phenolic content, low moisture content and excellent control of microbial activities to and prevents any discolouring of the green leaves, giving a longer storage time.

Carmién and Bergendal Rooibos factory erected a highly technologically advanced green rooibos plant in 2018 and have been producing the finest quality green rooibos since then.

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