Honeybush Tea: Top Benefits & Easy Recipe

This sweet-tasting beverage from the Cyclopia family, commonly known as honeybush tea, has many amazing benefits such as boosting immunity, detoxifying the body, preventing tumor growth, and improving metabolism. It also aids in treating inflammation and relieving menopausal and sunburn symptoms.

What is Honeybush Tea?

Honeybush tea is a South African herbal beverage made with the honeybush leaves. The leaves of this plant smell like honey, which is where this shrub gets its name from.

This tea is milder than black and green tea. Its flavor is somewhat floral and sweet, with a tinge of honey to it. The taste also depends on your brewing method and the variety of honeybush tea leaves you’ve used. It is caffeine-free since its made from the part of honeybush leaves that do not contain caffeine.

You can enjoy caffeine-free honeybush tea as a coffee alternative. Photo Credit: Shutterstock

Nutrition

Honeybush tea is known for its amazing antioxidant content, which specifically includes aspalathin and nothofagin. It also contains various minerals, such as potassium, copper, sodium, calcium, magnesium, zinc, iron, and manganese. This tea also provides a good supply of vitamin C, making it all the more beneficial for overall health.

Benefits

Let us discuss the benefits of honeybush tea in detail below.

Boosts Immunity

Honeybush tea, being rich in antioxidants such as phenols, and various other vitamins and minerals, helps in strengthening the immune system, thereby lowering the risk of infections and diseases. ^[1]

Improves Metabolism

By lowering the fat metabolism in the body, this tea helps to treat obesity and lets you shed those extra pounds quite easily.

Prevents Crohn’s disease

The presence of phenolic compounds in this tea help in treating inflammation and thereby reducing the threat of chronic inflammatory diseases. This tea also reduces the risk of irritable bowel diseases (IBD) or Crohn’s disease. ^[2]

Menopausal Relief

The properties of phytoestrogens in honeybush tea make it a good aid to relieve menopausal symptoms including mood swings and cramps. ^[3]

Anticancer Properties

An animal study conducted in 2010 showed that honeybush tea could reduce tumor growth. Furthermore, a 2016 study showed the proanthocyanidin-like compounds present in this herbal tea had a protective effect against cancer. ^{[4] [5]}

Treats Cough & Cold

The immunity-boosting and antibacterial properties of honeybush tea help in preventing coughs and cold, soothing throat ache, and treating influenza. This tea also contains a type of modified sugar called pinitol that acts as an expectorant and provides relief from catarrh. ^[6]

Regulates Diabetes

A study by the Molecules journal shows that honeybush comprises natural bioactive compounds, with commendable evidence of possessing antidiabetic properties from in vitro, in vivo, and few available human studies.  ^[7]

Others

There are some other benefits of honeybush tea that include the following: ^[8]

• Protects against sunburn
• Relaxes the body
• Reduces cholesterol levels
• Boosts bone health
• Prevents osteoporosis
• Aids in treating allergies

How to Make?

It’s very easy to make honeybush tea at home with a few ingredients. Take a look at the recipe below.

Easy-to-Make Honeybush Tea Recipe

Relish the healthy, caffeine-free red tea imbued with a lot of nutrients!

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Course: Beverage

Cuisine: Mediterranean

Keyword: honeybush, honeybush tea

Appliance: Stove

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Cook Time: 10 minutes

Total Time: 15 minutes

Servings: 2 cups

Author: Ishani Bose

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Ingredients

• 1 tbsp honeybush tea leaves
• 6-8 ounce water
• 1 tsp honey

Instructions

• To make honeybush tea, put 6-8 ounce of water to boil in a pan.
• Once the water boils, let it sit for some 1-2 minutes.
• Now, add one tablespoon of honeybush leaves to the water and let it steep for 6-7 minutes.
• Pour the brewed tea into a cup and enjoy! If you want, you can add a spoonful of raw honey.
  

Notes

You can also make an iced tea version of the same. To it, you can stir in lemon zest and a teaspoon of honey to enhance the flavor. You can garnish the drink with fresh honeybush flowers to give the overall taste of the tea a boost. 

Word of Caution: Although there are no side effects of this tea, moderation is advised while consuming. It may interfere with other medications and so consult a medical professional before adding honeybush tea to your diet.