Lesotho

Lesotho

Lesotho is a tiny country inside of South Africa. I was always intrigued as to how it got there. Apparently there are some major mountains that carved out that piece of land making it distinct from the area around it. Lesotho joins 2 other countries that are independent republics inside of another country. The others are Vatican City, and the Republic of San Marino. I'm always amused to look at the religious breakout of African countries, because Christianity is the highest percentage, but people still think of it as a heathen, non-Christian continent. According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, over 90% of the population is Christian. I'm not surprised in the least. I often wonder why people want to go to this part of the world as missionaries. If they are looking for converts, they are a bit late.

Religion aside, this is yet another country where over half of the population is under age 30. It's always a bit sobering to realize that I am over the hill (of the bell curve) in that country. But I digress, we're here to talk about tea. What did my research say that people in Lesotho like to drink? Our old friend, rooibos.
Yes, red bush tea. I'm not sure if they put sugar or honey in it, or if they just drink it plain. Given the fact that I don't like sweet tea, I have mine straight.
Okay, okay, I admit I recycled some pictures here. I have tried plain rooibos tea, and I really don't like it. Adding lemon or ginger helps. Mixing it with milk made it better as well, but drinking it straight would take a little more training to like. I will admit that I would choose it over sugary sodas if those were my only safe beverage choices available.

I did find an interesting link that talked about how rooibos is grown and processed. Check it out.

There was also one country in southern Africa I couldn't find any good information on. Namibia. I did find reference to moringa tea. If I ever come across some reasonably priced moringa leaves at the Indian grocery, I will have to try it.

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