The history and ethnobotany of Cape herbal teas — South African Journal of Botany

Claims

1. first-record-late-19th-century
   Rooibos tea is absent from the early literature and was first mentioned in the historical record in the late 19th century; no Khoi or San vernacular name for it has ever been recorded.

   "rooibos tea, Aspalathus linearis, conspicuous by its absence in the early literature and first mentioned in the historical record in the late 19th century"

   Locator: section: Abstract · Quote language: en
2. thunberg-borbonia-not-rooibos
   Thunberg's July 1772 note about tea made at Paarl concerned Borbonia cordata (Aspalathus cordata), not rooibos; the anecdote has sometimes been cited uncritically and wrongly as evidence about rooibos.

   "Of the leaves of Borbonia cordata the country people make tea (Thunberg, July 1772, at Paarl); no common name was given. This anecdote is sometimes uncritically cited and erroneously associated with rooibos tea (Aspalathus linearis)"

   Locator: page: 20 · Quote language: en
3. tradition-not-traced-before-1875
   Statements that rooibos tea is a traditional drink of Khoi-descended people of the Cederberg are correct, but the authors could not trace the tradition back further than the last quarter of the 19th century. They raise the possibility that indigenous teas were found during a commercially motivated survey for substitutes for imported black tea.

   "Statements that rooibos tea is a traditional drink of Khoi-descended people of the Cedarberg (and "poor whites") are correct but we have not been able to trace this tradition further back than the last quarter of the 19th century."

   Locator: page: 28 · Quote language: en