Vanilla Rooibos Rose Latte

If you want to eat for beauty and health, rooibos tea belongs in your pantry.

We concocted this beautifying latte with vanilla rooibos tea and rose water because they both have special properties that keep your skin, nails, joints, organs, and heart happy.

What’s better than cozying up with a blanket and sipping on a comforting latte that will keep you looking healthy and youthful?

Let’s start with what makes rooibos so special:

Truly Unique Plant Compounds

Rooibos is a South African bush and its leaves are used to make delightful cups of tea. It has no caffeine, so you can freely enjoy it in the evening or at night before bed.

It’s rich in a class of flavonoids (plant compounds) called dihydrochalcones, which are pretty rare in plants. Rooibos health benefits come from two even rarer types of dihydrochalcones:

• Aspalathin, which has only been found in Rooibos.
• Nothofagin, which has only been found in Rooibos and a tree called New Zealand red beech, which isn’t edible. In other words, you can only consume nothofagin from Rooibos tea.  

These two exclusive compounds boast antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, heart-healthy, and DNA-protective benefits.

Several studies have discovered both aspalathin and nothofagin can…

• Scavenge free radicals effectively. In fact, aspalathin wins over nothofagin in antioxidant protection. (source)
• Reduce vascular inflammation by killing major inflammatory molecules (source)
• Help prevent thrombosis (source)
• Prevent harmful mutations in your DNA (source)

More good news: Aspalathin is incredibly well-absorbed. The transport of this antioxidant through the intestinal barrier can reach almost 100%, which means (almost) nothing is lost from your tea cup to your cells. (source)

The next key ingredient is rose water, which is fantastic at preserving two important components in your skin, nails, hair,  joints, eyes, heart, and muscles, called collagen and elastin.

Both collagen and elastin work hard to keep your skin tight, hydrated, and youthful, your joints flexible, and your muscles functioning.

One study found rose has “anti-collagenase, anti-elastase, and antioxidant activities”.

Collagenase is an enzyme that destroys collagen, while elastase is an enzyme that eats up elastin, so you definitely don’t want either of them.

In addition, this tea has:

• Macadamia nut milk — A fatty milk high in manganese, thiamin, and vitamin B6. Manganese is necessary for strong connective tissues and it helps absorb calcium.
• Organic Manuka honey — A special type of honey with powerful antimicrobial and antibacterial properties.

In a nutshell, this vanilla rooibos rose tea latte will protect you against oxidants and inflammation while preserving the integrity of your skin and joints. Sounds good?

Try this delicious recipe and sip your way to vibrant health.