STEVE KAUFMAN | contributing photographer Jeff Stum developed Rooibee Red Tea, a new line of bottled drinks.

A woman at the Norton Commons farmers market sipped a sample of Rooibee Red Tea and asked, “Is it decaffeinated?”

“It’s caffeine-free,” said Jeff Stum, developer of the new line of bottled tea. “Even decaffeinated tea has a trace of caffeine. Not ours.”

“Health-conscious people have been embracing the antioxidant features of green tea,” explained Stum. “Rooibee Red Tea has one-and-a-half times the antioxidant levels.”

The name comes from a scrub bush that grows only in South Africa. Its red leaves gave rise to the Afrikaan name “rooibos” (red bush).

“It’s not a classic tea plant, but its leaves are oxidized to make an herbal tea,” Stum said.

The tea is rich in absorbable iron, potassium, calcium, copper, zinc, magnesium, fluoride and sodium. It is also said to be effective in the treatment of insomnia and nervous tension, and some believe it has anti-aging effects.

But many of the visitors on this sunny Saturday morning were simply attracted to the flavor. One young visitor and her mother bought 30 bottles for a high school graduation party after tasting some samples.

Stum developed his tea expertise during a decade in sales and brand management at Brown-Forman. At one point, while trying to develop a product combining tea and Southern Comfort, he became familiar with rooibus, at the time sold exclusively as loose leaf tea in health food stores.

After leaving Brown-Forman, Stum decided to attempt his own bottled version, hooking up with two other small Kentucky companies: Wild Flavors in Erlanger, Ky., which developed the flavor emulsions; and Flavor Craft, in Bluegrass Industrial Park, which bottles the tea.

“Flavoring was important,” Stum said. “Rooibus has a nice floral bouquet, but we needed a variety of tastes.”

In addition to a natural, unsweetened variety, there’s sweet, lemon honey, peach, cranberry pomegranate and watermelon mint. The unsweetened flavor is a true zero-calorie drink.

Even the flavored versions, sweetened with organic cane sugar, have no fat and less than 100 calories per bottle.

Rooibee Red Tea is sold at Rainbow Blossom, Lotsa Pasta, Amazing Grace, Paul’s Fruit Market and some Whole Foods stores. But Stum likes the exposure he gets at Norton Commons on Saturday mornings.

“It’s a great chance to interact with the consumer, to sample hundreds of people a week and get face-to-face feedback,” Stum said.

And sometimes he can supply a high school graduate’s party needs.

“You don’t get that direct satisfaction from a retail sale.”