>>> THE HONEYBUSH STORY....

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From crop to cup

After harvesting, several steps are involved in the process to get honeybush tea ready for the market. Firstly, the leaves and stems are cut into small pieces, moistened and then subjected to a high-temperature oxidation process. This is also known as 'fermentation' or 'curing' in the industry, and it is during this process that the tea develops its characteristic and sought-after sweet aroma and flavour, as well as its red-brown to brown colour, depending on the Cyclopia species. The tea leaves are then dried, sieved and packaged.

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Honeybush processing: One of the first steps in processing is to feed the plant material through a cutter. The workers from the farm Nooitgedacht here are (fltr) Esmeray van Ross, Julian Booysen, Piet Booysen and Leentjie Willeman. Photo by Heilie Combrink, courtesy of Netwerk24.

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Fermenting the plant material: Quinzano Willeman is overlooking the process of heating up honeybush plant material in a stainless-steel drum for 70 hours at 70 oC on the farm Nooitgedacht. Photo by Heilie Combrink, courtesy of Netwerk24.


A lasting honeybush legacy   *  What is in a name?

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From crop to cup   *   First records of a local cottage industry

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Dr Hannes de Lange: A reflection on the pioneering days

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Commercialisation of Cyclopia genistoides – a story that originated at the foot of Table Mountain

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The advancing role of research in growing the honeybush indust

ry

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Research on honeybush cultivation

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Research on honeybush tea processing

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Local growth and the start of an international footprint

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Looking into the future … Dr Hannes de Lange, Pioneer of the formal honeybush industry, December 2020

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A vision for the honeybush industry: Joyene Isaacs, chairperson Agricultural Research Council Board | Former HOD Western Cape Department of Agriculture, March 2021

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A honeybush timeline: milestones, highlights and interesting snippets

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Sources of information

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Acknowledgements

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Honeybush Homepage

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First records of a local cottage industry

Honeybush tea has a long history of regional use as a medicinal plant or herbal tea. Some of the earliest records indicate that it was used as restorative and expectorant in chronic catarrh and pulmonary tuberculosis. The earliest reference to honeybush is found in a European taxonomic script of 1705. Later, Carl Thunberg, a Swedish botanist, recorded the use of the name 'honigtee' during his travels in the Cape in the 1770s. In 1815, Christian Latrobe was served 'tea-water', believed to be honeybush, during his travels in the Langkloof area. He also mentioned the constantly filled infusion vessel, always visible to the visitor. Later, in 1829, James Holman referred to the 'infusion of a wild herb that is used for tea', during his travels through the Langkloof.

In 1881, results of an anatomical and chemical study of Cyclopia genistoides ('Cape tea') were published in The Pharmaceutical Journal and Transactions, with reference to the traditional name, 'honig-thee'. Regular harvesting and oven curing of 'blommetjiestee' were performed near Riversdale in the Western Cape in South Africa, in the 1890s. In 1925, Marloth referred to the regional use of specific Cyclopia species for tea. This could be a possible indication of their prevalence in these areas, e.g., C. genistoides in Cape Peninsula, and C. subternata in Caledon (Overberg) and George regions of the Western Cape. The cold infusion was referred to as 'an excellent thirst quencher in hot weather, especially with a slice of lemon'.

However, honeybush was largely unknown outside the areas where it grew naturally. The limited harvesting and tea production of the 20th century were centred in the Langkloof region in the Eastern Cape in South Africa. During the 1930s, the Nortjés harvested 'bergtee' (Cyclopia intermedia) in the eastern parts of the Kouga Mountain range and traded it for less than 2 cents per kilogram. The other prominent producers of the 1940s to 1990s were the Kritzingers from Misgund and Van der Watts of Kareedouw.