The Cape's picturesque Cedarberg region, northwest of Cape Town, is home to a true South African gem. This is the only place in the world where the miracle shrub-like bush grows. Its botanical name is Aspalanthus Linearis, which grows naturally and thrives on the area's winter rainfall and coarse sandy soil.

This indigenous plant is more commonly known as Rooibos (Roy-bos) Afrikaans for "Red Bush". It gains its natural red colour when the leaves are dried and left to ferment in the sun. Because it is not part of the Camellia sinensis plant family, it is officially recognised as a herbal infusion rather than a tea. It is commonly referred to as Rooibos tea.

It was the ancient Khoisan people (commonly known as the Bushmen) who were the first to discover that the needle-like Rooibos leaves make a tasty, aromatic tea. The distinctive Khoikhoi drawings on cave walls have continued to amaze thousands of tourists, artists, historians and geologists from all around the world. Like Rooibos, these paintings have truly become another South African icon, reflecting a small yet significant part of the country's colourful heritage.

For hundreds of years, the Khoikhoi people relied on the Rooibos herb as a powerful remedy against many ailments. They used axes to harvest the plant in the open field, bruised the leaves with hammers before letting it ferment in heaps and then drying it in the sun. Today, it is made much the same way, although the process has been mechanised.

It was almost 100 years ago that Rooibos was commercially marketed for the first time. In 1904, a Russian immigrant, Benjamin Ginsberg, whose family had a centuries-old knowledge of the European tea industry, foresaw that the tea cherished by locals would find favour far beyond South Africa's borders and pioneered the commercial trading of this unique "Mountain Tea."

In Japan, a society famous for its tea-making tradition, comes another feather in the Rooibos cap. The product is known to locals as "Long life tea" and considered an "anti-aging" beverage that has been promoted either on its own, as a natural supplement, or as a healthy alternative to cold drinks. Probably the highest accolade yet has come from the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) in 1997 when it awarded a gold medal to Rooibos for its anti-allergic properties, discovered almost 20 years earlier.

In June 2000 the Dr Le Fras Nortier museum was opened in Shah Alam, Selangor in Malaysia and dedicated to Rooibos. It is the only museum ever to be dedicated to a herbal tea. The museum showcases the history, production and uses of Rooibos, the culture and attractions of South Africa as well as the life of Dr. Nortier, the South African medical doctor who brought Rooibos' therapeutic value and agricultural potential to the attention of the rest of the world.

The most important regulatory role-player is the Perishable Products Export Control Board (PPECB), which controls the quality and standards of Rooibos exports on behalf of the Department of Agriculture. International organisations authorized to handle organic certification, such as Ecocert, Lacon and the British Soil Association, are fast becoming increasingly active in the agricultural industry of South Africa.