Rooibos and Yerba Mate Blends: Fabulous Additions to the World of Blended Tea

Rooibos and Yerba Mate Blends: Fabulous Additions to the World of Blended Tea

Blended teas fall into several buckets, based largely on whether the blends have Camellia sinensis in them. An herbal tea relies on botanicals, like chamomile, lavender and peppermint, and does not incorporate traditional tea. Other blends find their foundations in Camellia sinensis, but the style of traditional tea used determines the nature of the blend. Black teas are commonly blended, for example: what chai and Earl Grey, but blended black teas.

And then there are blends, relying on rooibos and yerba mate, that technically are herbal, but due to their main ingredients fall into an alternate category.

Rooibos tea brews into an arresting reddish elixir.

People across South Africa, and now around the world, drink tea brewed from the rooibos plant, a shrub native to South Africa. Rooibos does not contain caffeine, but electrolytes, which aid with hydration and overall health, flood the plant. South Africans drink it constantly. Rooibos is so unique, and so intrinsic to South African culture, that we don’t feel it falls into the broad “herbal tea” category.

The same goes with yerba mate, a plant that is brewed into tea in countries across South America. Yerba does contain caffeine, one of about 60 plants in the world that have the energetic compound. The plant’s role in places like Uruguay and Paraguay is even more pronounced than that of rooibos in South Africa — perhaps the caffeine has something to do with it! In South America, people sip their yerba mate from hollowed-out gourds, often through metal straw called a bombilla.

The plants offer different flavors, and both blend nicely with myriad other botanical ingredients.

Interested in trying some especially unique tea blends? Yerba mate and rooibos are a rewarding place to begin.


Rooibos & Yerba Mate Blends: Organic ImmuniTea  

Rooibos anchors this immunity-enhancing tea.

This tea’s name is a tip-off for one of its chief advantages — it helps the body build strong immunity. This delicious blend revolves around Rooibos’s earthy, herbal flavors, and thanks to the rooibos it also is loaded with electrolytes, which fight free radicals, unstable atoms in the body that damage cells. 

But the blend also contains other key ingredients for health.

Marshmallow root, for example, reduces inflammation and soothes muscle pain. The powerful plant also serves as a detoxifying agent, and helps improve kidney health. Like rooibos, echinacea offers a wealth of compounds that mitigate the damage caused by free radicals. Ginkgo leaf, from the ancient ginkgo tree, is known as the “youthful” herb for it abilities to promote blood circulation and boost heart health.


Rooibos & Yerba Mate Blends: Organic Detoxitea

Honeybush, a close cousin of rooibos, offers honeyed flavors.

What happened to rooibos? It’s still here, only this blend features its close cousin, honeybush, another shrub that is common across South Africa. Rooibos and honeybush are slightly different, but belong to the same plant family, Fabaceae. Both brew into tasty health-forward beverages. As its name suggests, honeybush offers honey notes, thanks to the plant’s honey-flavored flowers.

Why drink our Organic Detoxitea? For its overall flavor excellence, for one. But we custom-designed the blend to help cleanse the body’s organs — to promote detoxification. And for that reason, we think this blend is an excellent idea any time. 

The combination of honeybush, dandelion root, lapacho, lemon peel and cinnamon performs yeoman’s work in the body, helping it recover from the many toxins that swirl around us all every day: in the air, our food, water, clothing, bedding and much more.

One of the keys to this tea’s detoxification powers lies with lapacho, which comes from the inner bark of the pau d’arco tree in South and Central America, and Mexico. It is the national tree of Paraguay. Herbal practitioners across the region turn to lapacho to help treat a variety of conditions. Among other things, it stimulates the digestive tract and encourages the elimination of phlegm; it often is used to wrestle with the symptoms of colds and allergies.


Rooibos & Yerba Mate Blends: FoCo Cocoa

It’s knock-your-socks-off flavor in FoCo Cocoa!

Promoting health is part of Ku Cha’s mission. Tea in its natural state — including all styles of Camellia sinensis and herbal teas — delivers health to sippers. When brands can or bottle teas, and fill the beverages with sweeteners, preservatives and artificial flavors and colors, the health benefits drift away. But the tea itself, minus the filler? It all is pro-health.

That said, some teas — like Detoxitea and Immunitea — explicitly revolve around health, while also tasting great. And then there are teas like FoCo Cocoa. It is healthy — it’s all-natural tea! — but this one’s pleasures hinge on taste.

Our FoCo Cocoa, custom blended by a team member at our Fort Collins store, incorporates yerba mate, which imparts enchanting herbal flavors as well as a caffeine zing. It then doubles down on zing with black tea. To the combination of teas we add chocolate, cocoa, vanilla, cinnamon and black pepper. 

This one is made for sitting around the crackling fireplace with a blanket on your lap and a book in your hands. Or for a brisk hike in fresh snow. Would it complement a chocolate croissant from Moxie Bakery? Why yes it would!

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