VALUE ADDITION | MEERLANDSVLEI
“ In the past, people said our white sandy soils produced poorer-quality tea, but I believe that if you, as a drying-yard operator, put in more effort, you can produce good-quality tea. It requires extra attention and the use of higher temperatures than normally recommended. We are comfortable working with temperatures of up to 47 ° C in the sweat heaps, which is considerably higher than the norm,” he says.
Willie says that this year, under the current drought conditions following the dry summer of 2025 / 2026, they generally had to moisten the sweat heaps three times because the tea contained too little moisture.
“ You have to keep an eye on it and respond to the natural conditions and the appearance of the tea.”
There is a slight contradiction in the process, because the tea has to be made wet in order to get it dry. But the moisture is needed to develop the flavour, together with temperature and oxygen, which allow fermentation to take place.
Above: Rooibos has formed part of Herman Rossouw’ s farming operation since 1985. Today, the tea is processed on Meerlandsvlei’ s own drying yard.