Sweet Dreams

The garden valerian belongs to the honeysuckle family and grows primarily on the shore and edges of the forests in Europe, western Asia, the Far East and Siberia. Its delicate-fragrant flowers taste pleasantly aromatic and are bursting with valuable essential oils.

To this day, the redbush - which is also called rooibos - from the legume family is cultivated exclusively in the cedar mountains of South Africa. Growing to a height of two metres, the plant is only harvested once every year. Its leaves are made into rooibos tea, which is the mild-fruity and slightly sweet tasting national beverage of South Africa.

It can already be recognised from a distance because of its bright yellow, sweetly fragrant papilionaceous flowers: the honeybush. It only thrives in two of South Africa's provinces, where it is harvested wild from mountainsides, peaks or high-elevation rock formations. As its name already reveals, the sweet-mild taste is reminiscent of honey.