There's a particular kind of craving that hits at around 8pm. You want something warm, something flavourful, something that feels like a treat - but you've already had your coffee and your body knows it. Herbal teas feel thin. Hot water with lemon feels punishing. You want substance.

That's exactly the gap that Rooibos sticky chai was made to fill.

What is Rooibos?

Rooibos is a plant native to South Africa. Technically not a tea, but brewed and drunk like one. It has a naturally earthy, slightly sweet, full-bodied flavour that holds up beautifully to spices. It contains zero caffeine, zero oxalic acid, and is rich in antioxidants. It's been drunk as an everyday brew in South Africa for generations, and for good reason.

On its own, Rooibos is lovely. Blended with the warming spice mix of a masala chai; ginger, cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, black peppercorns, nutmeg, star anise, and coated in raw Southern Highlands honey, it becomes something genuinely extraordinary.

Why our founder developed this blend

Chai Supply founder Rachel Biffin has a long relationship with Rooibos, one that began during pregnancy with the first of her three boys.

When you're pregnant or breastfeeding, caffeine becomes something to manage carefully. But the craving for warmth and flavour and a moment of genuine pleasure doesn't go anywhere — if anything it intensifies. Rachel found that a proper Rooibos chai, brewed on the stovetop with good milk and the right spice blend, gave her exactly what she needed. Not a compromise. Not a lesser version of the real thing. Just a genuinely delicious, warming, sustaining cup that happened to contain no caffeine.

It got her through three pregnancies and three very early, very long phases. It was what she sipped at 2am feeds. It was what she made when friends came over and she couldn't face another herbal tea.

Pictured: The Biffin boys with cups of Chai Supply

A blend for the whole family

The Rooibos blend became a household staple in the Biffin home not just for Rachel, but for the kids too. Tea parties in the garden. Couch time sips while being read to. The small rituals that make childhood feel warm and unhurried.

There's something lovely about a drink the whole family can share, one that isn't too sweet or artificially flavoured, but that children genuinely enjoy because it's naturally a little sweet, warm, and completely delicious.

When to drink it

Evenings, obviously, but also mornings if you're avoiding caffeine, afternoons when you want something warming without disrupting your sleep, during pregnancy or breastfeeding, and any time you want a cup that feels like a proper drink rather than a herbal afterthought.

Brewed on the stovetop with soy milk it's rich and creamy and deeply satisfying. Brewed black in a teapot it's earthy and clean. Poured over ice in summer it's cooling and aromatic in equal measure.

The same blend, minus the caffeine

We were deliberate about making our Rooibos chai as close to our Black chai as possible - the same whole spices, the same Southern Highlands honey, the same small-batch care. We wanted to make an equally good version for different moments and different people.

We think we got there.

Shop Organic Rooibos Sticky Chai