Characteristics of our Christmas-inspired infusion: Rooibos Orange and Vanilla
A rooibos-based herbal tea designed with the Christmas period in mind, so the so-called African red tea has been combined with sweet ingredients with a warm and enveloping flavour such as vanilla and cinnamon, but also orange, the most typical fruit of the season, to contrast with a note of freshness. Rooibos is an Afrikaans word (the language of the Dutch colonizers of South Africa) that indicates both the plant from which the product is obtained and the infusion prepared and consumed exactly like a tea.
Well, not exactly, according to many, rooibos should be left to infuse for longer, even ten minutes, while it is well known that real tea should not be left to infuse for more than five minutes because the longer you keep it infusing the more bitter it tends to become. But why do we say real tea? Because even if rooibos is prepared and consumed in ways that overlap with tea, even if its flavor is very similar to that of black tea, in reality tea should only be called an infusion obtained from an Asian plant called Camellia sinensis, while rooibos is obtained from a plant of the Fabaceae family native to South Africa whose name is Aspalathus linearis. Rooibos tends to be sweeter than black tea and the reason is also the reason why it is presented as a healthier alternative: it does not contain caffeine and has a very low tannin content.
A curiosity about the name: rooibos means red bush, too bad that the leaves of Aspalathus are green, but they become red with the fermentation that is part of the process to obtain the product with which the infusion is prepared. The process involves: fermentation, drying and shredding, just like tea and like tea, there is also a green version of rooibos which is nothing more than the result of not going through fermentation.
The spice known as vanilla is obtained from the fruits of an orchid, that is, a climbing vine, called Vanilla planifolia. Vanilla planifolia is native to Mexico and its name derives from the Spanish vaina which in turn derives from the Latin vagina which means sheath, perhaps referring to the shape of the flower, or that of the fruits which are pods similar to peas or beans. Europeans soon fell in love with vanilla, but it remained something for the rich for a long time, also because Mexico held the monopoly for two centuries because it was not possible to find a way to grow it elsewhere, not until the role of a certain type of bee in pollination was understood.
The sweet orange, scientific name Citrus x sinensis is one of the oldest citrus fruits and probably the most cultivated fruit in the world. It is not one of the original citrus fruits, however, of the two hundred species of citrus fruits existing in the world, only three are original: pomelo, citron and mandarin, all the others are hybrids, perhaps very ancient, perhaps natural, but hybrids, the x in the scientific name indicates precisely that. Originally from China and other areas of the Far East, sinensis means nothing other than native to China, now it is grown wherever the climate is suitable. A suitable climate for the orange, which is a winter fruit, means mild and rainy winters and in fact where are so many of them produced and of quality? Southern Europe, in particular Spain and southern Italy and the two states of the USA known for their mild winters, namely California and Florida. The orange, in addition to its sweetness, is renowned for
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