For many South Africans, rooibos is simply tea. It is poured into children’s bottles, served with breakfast, drunk after dinner and kept in kitchen cupboards alongside the familiar household staples. Long before rooibos became a globally traded commodity or appeared on supermarket shelves around the world, the plant was understood through generations of indigenous knowledge. Today, a cup of rooibos can tell a much larger story. At Northern Plateau Rooibos, that story begins in the Bokkeveld region of the Northern Cape. It continues more than 300 kilometres away in Salt River, Cape Town, where visitors can sit down for a