The story
Rooibos is a shrub native to the Cederberg mountains, about 200 km north of Cape Town. Khoisan people gathered its needle-like leaves, bruised and fermented them, and brewed a sweet red tea long before Europeans arrived; the Swedish botanist Carl Thunberg noted the practice in 1772. In 1904 Benjamin Ginsberg, a Russian immigrant from a tea-trading family, began selling it as mountain tea, and by 1912 he ran a shop in Clanwilliam. Around 1930 the town's doctor, Pieter le Fras Nortier, worked out how to farm the plant. Clanwilliam became the industry's hub, and rooibos is now exported worldwide.
Rival claims
No rival birthplace. The plant grows wild across the Cederberg and the nearby Bokkeveld plateau, but the tea trade and the first cultivation both began in and around Clanwilliam.
Also known as redbush tea, red bush tea, rooibos tea, African red tea.
On the Meridish menu
Rooibos was the aperitif course on menu No. 2 on October 2, 2026. Its clue in the game, which hints at the place without naming it:
A caffeine-free red tea from a shrub that grows almost nowhere except the mountains around this small farming town.
In Meridish, every dish is pinned to the town or city most widely credited with creating it. A guess within 25 km scores all 100 points. How scoring works.
Sources
- sarooibos.co.za/rooibos-history
- sahistory.org.za/place/clanwilliam-stellenbosch-district
- wipo.int/ipadvantage/en/details.jsp?id=2691
- en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rooibos
Food history is often disputed. Think we've pinned it in the wrong place? Tell us at hello@meridish.com, ideally with a source.
