The herbal tea based on rooibos, chocolate and walnuts combines the taste of the so-called African red tea with the warm flavor of chocolate and walnuts.
Rooibos chocolate and walnuts: characteristics of the ingredients
Rooibos is also called African red tea, there is no doubt that it originates from Africa, it is obtained from a plant native to the Cederberg region (South Africa) whose scientific name is Aspalathus linearis, but it is not correct to call it tea. The leaves of the Aspalathus are treated like those of tea, the preparation by infusion of the drink is almost identical, the flavor is very similar to that of a tea, with notes of earth and tobacco. So why is it not a tea? Because in reality only an infusion obtained from a plant native to Asia called Camellia sinensis should be called tea. However, clarifications aside, in reality rooibos (an Afrikaans word meaning “red bush”) probably originated as tea, that is, as a substitute for tea for the Dutch colonizers in South Africa for whom getting tea was too complicated and/or expensive.
Finally, a curiosity: if you were looking for a red bush, you certainly wouldn’t find rooibos, the leaves are green, not red. However, they turn red during treatment, to be precise because of the fermentation that precedes the subsequent phases which are drying and shredding.
Jumping from one continent to another, as many know, cocoa is native to the American continent, to be precise, a strip that goes from southern Mexico to northern South America, a cocoa-based drink was consumed by pre-Columbian populations, especially for ritual purposes.
The scientific name given to the plant Theobroma Cacao, recognizes precisely this use that pre-Columbian populations made of it, theobroma in Greek means “food of the gods”. It is a small evergreen tree of the Malvaceae family. It was brought to Europe by the Spanish and spread quite quickly, but the technical innovations that led to solid chocolate only arrived in the mid-1800s, so for about two centuries Europeans consumed cocoa only in the form of a drink as did pre-Columbian populations, with the not small difference that in Europe they began to sweeten this drink, while the natives of the Americas consumed it strictly bitter.
Finally, walnuts, here we return home, the walnut which is an imposing tree has always been known by the populations of the Mediterranean, the Greek colonists in the 7th century BC imported it from Asia Minor, but in Europe it was already present in the Balkan area. The original area of diffusion probably went from the Balkans to Central Asia. The fruits are consumed as dried fruit, but walnut oil and a liqueur called nocino are also obtained from them. Walnuts are attributed many beneficial properties, good content of vitamin B and mineral salts, especially magnesium and also a good content of antioxidants. They are also a very energetic food, therefore they should be eaten in moderation because excess calories are never good, however this intake of calories is guaranteed by fats that are part of the so-called good fats and therefore would also have a beneficial effect on cardiovascular health.
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![rooibos cioccolata calda [Natura d'Oriente]](https://www.naturadoriente.com/3513-home_default/rooibos-hot-chocolate.jpg)
