Organic Honeybush Vanilla

Country of origin: South Africa, Madagascar, China.

Honeybush manufacture type: Similar to regular black tea there are 4 steps: harvesting, cutting, fermentation (oxidation), and drying. The harvested bush clippings are brought to the factory where they are mechanically chopped to help the cellular breakdown responsible for fermentation. Next, the cuttings are either formed into firmly packed heaps and covered with canvas sacks, or as is the case with much of the newly cultivated Honeybush, placed in pre-heated baking ovens. (With the rise in consumption of Honeybush, baking ovens are gaining popularity since they make it much easier to control the quality of the finished product.) Once the tea has fermented, (about 3 days if a curing heap is used, or about 30 hours if an oven is used,) it is spread out on canvas sheets and allowed to dry for one or two days.

Vanilla manufacture type: A process for increasing the yield of natural vanilla flavor. Green vanilla pods are hydrated. The resulting hydrated pods are ground, forming a liquid phase and a solid phase. The resulting ground hydrated product of green vanilla pods is treated with an enzymatic system including at least one enzyme. The enzyme system possesses from about 10 to about 1000 units of beta-glucose activity per gram of green vanilla pods. The ground hydrated green vanilla pods and the enzymatic system are incubated at a temperature of from about 10° C. to about 40° C. for a period of between about 2 hours and about 30 hours sufficient to allow the release of the vanilla flavor. The liquid phase containing the vanilla flavor is separated from the solid phase.

Honeybush is close relative of South African Rooibos, is a delicious tisane with a rich honey overtone, flavored with genuine Madagascar vanilla beans. Rich in vitamins and Antioxidants.