Steep rooibos for 5 minutes at 100°C (212°F), fully boiling.
Rooibos is the needle-like leaf of Aspalathus linearis, a legume that grows in the Cederberg mountains north of Cape Town and, despite repeated attempts, essentially nowhere else. The leaves are cut, bruised and left to oxidize, which turns them from green to the deep red-brown that gives the drink its name — red bush. Green rooibos, left unoxidized, also exists and tastes lighter and grassier. Like herbal infusions it holds no caffeine, but unlike most of them it has real body, a natural sweetness, and a woody note with something of vanilla behind it.
Boiling water at 100°C (212°F) and a long steep, 5 minutes at medium. 3 minutes 45 seconds makes a lighter cup and 6 minutes 30 seconds a stronger one, though rooibos is unusual in that the strong end costs you nothing — no bitterness waits at the far side of it. Use a heaped teaspoon per cup, since the cut leaf is fine and packs down, so a level spoon is less than it looks. It takes milk well, which almost no other caffeine-free infusion does, and it makes excellent iced tea because it stays sweet and clear as it cools rather than clouding the way black tea does.
Timidity. Rooibos is routinely under-brewed by people used to watching the clock for green tea, and a three-minute rooibos is a pale, faintly woody disappointment when the same leaf at 5 minutes is round and sweet. It cannot turn bitter — there is essentially no tannin in it — so the usual caution is wasted here, and if anything you should steep it longer than the recipe. The other mistake is buying it flavored without noticing. A great deal of supermarket rooibos is heavily dosed with vanilla or caramel, which is fine if you want that and misleading if you do not.
Rooibos re-steeps poorly, and it does not need to. The cut leaf is fine and gives up most of what it holds in the first long infusion, so a second is noticeably weaker, though still drinkable if you stretch it. What rooibos does far better is sit. Because it will not turn bitter, you can leave the leaf in the pot indefinitely, keep topping it up through the afternoon, and drink from it all day — a habit that would be unthinkable with black tea. Brewed rooibos also keeps a couple of days in the fridge, which is why it makes such good iced tea.
Steep rooibos for 5 minutes in water at 100°C (212°F), at a full boil. Like herbal infusions it has no tannins to turn bitter, so 6 minutes 30 seconds and beyond only makes it deeper and redder — the usual mistake with rooibos is being too timid with it, not steeping it too long.
Yes, entirely. Rooibos is not tea at all but the leaf of a South African legume, so it contains no caffeine at any strength or steep length, which is why it suits late evenings and children.
Yes, and it takes milk better than any other caffeine-free infusion. Its natural body and sweetness stand up to it in a way chamomile or mint cannot, which is why it is a common substitute for a milky black tea.
Red rooibos is oxidized after cutting, which gives it the familiar deep color, woody sweetness and full body. Green rooibos skips that step and tastes lighter, grassier and more delicate, closer to a green tea in character.