On a sun-parched plateau, high in South Africa’s rugged Cederberg mountains, Boltwin Tamboer harvests rooibos tea in much the same way his forefathers would have done. Watched over by a cave adorned with 6,000-year-old depictions of elephants and winged medicine men, he slices through a fistful of the hardy shrub with a deft flick of his sickle before stashing the metre-long (3.3 foot) stems between his legs.
Working in 40-degree heat, he’ll harvest between 300-600 kg (661-1,323 lbs) of wet tea every day for the next two months. Some of this crop will be used as traditional tea. And, thanks to the growth of a newly imagined beverage, some will end up, curiously, in espresso machines.
