Strawberry Pie Honeybush

I had to run blog this tea quickly before I go to bed. I have been searching for the perfect strawberry tea and I may have found the one. It is SOO delicious, with some nice cinnamon-y notes to complement the warm strawberry.

Big thanks to Jenn for sharing this with me!!
This one, it’s interesting. When I first opened the package I thought it smelled a bit chemically. Like artificial flavouring? (but then I get that alot- that’s how I find fresh papaya as well!)
Steeped, it retained the same scent, and to a degree… the flavour as well.
I added some sugar to bring it out, and that certainly did help.
As the cup cooled, the flavour definitely improved. I’m not sure I tasted strawberry though? Who knows, I’m still a little off with the buds!
Either way, it was very comforting. Sweet and just a touch sour- in a good way.

I don’t know what I’m tasting here, but it tastes almost like an herbal tea. Whatever it is, it is light and muted. Having read the reviews, I was stoked to taste the crust and everything, but I don’t…I don’t think. I think I can pick out the strawberry and cinnamon, but boy is it is a stretch. It’s hard for me to pinpoint any particular flavour. I think my next batch will be a bit more leaf and a longer steep time. I may have under steeped and used too little leaf for the batch. Or, my taste buds are still in disarray from burning my tongue on hot tea yesterday, or having hot wings tonight, though I waited a bit for my mouth to cool down, and had some potato chips to bland things up a bit more (the wings were really hot!).

I’m gonna give this another try, another day, but thanks to Jenn for sending this to me. I’m pretty stoked to have some caffeine free options, and I like that the honeybush isn’t as strong as the rooibos.

This is pleasant as a beverage, but I’m reserving rating til a further steeping, when hopefully, the real flavour will pop, and I can more accurately review this.

Oooh, yum, yum, yum!! This is a seriously good tea. I don’t know how it truly tastes like a strawberry pie, but it does! Wow, I can’t even explain what it tastes like, but I know this is one of the best caffeine-free blends I’ve ever had. Now, please excuse me while I continue to inhale this tea!

Mmm, this one is good too. I’m having good tea luck today. I was worried that I wouldn’t like this one. I get cinnamon, then strawberry, then cinnamon, and then the aftertaste leaves me with a feeling of a brown sugar oatmeal crumble topping. I don’t get ‘crust’, but I think the crumble topping is even better. I sweetened it with a little agave nectar. This is my first ValenTea sample. I might have to buy more of this.

Hey guys guess what? It’s another ASHLEY TEA!

This is a better time for honeybush. Busy work night, followed by a nice swim. I’m health nutting like nuts. My face looks thin but dag nabbit I’m too sissy to jump on the scale!

Steeping steeping. Smells wonderful! Strong strawberries. Dark dark brew. Waiting for it to cool is the worstest part! I’m getting a lot of cinnamon in here. Not as buttery/crust-ish as the Coconut Cheesecake, but It’s still yummy. As I’m getting to the bottom I’m tasting more strawberry, but it isn’t overwhelming. All in all I liked it! Might not be something I’d buy, but It’s just what I needed before bed. Goodnight everyone!

My second 52 Teas order (Valentines samples) arrived today. It took a month to get here, just like the first. I was disappointed by the teas in my first order and felt most sure about this one out of the order so I chose to make it first it because I really want to like ’em!

This is good. The smell is heavenly. But, I’m not getting the WOW STRAWBERRY that others seem to. For me it’s definitely more in the scent than in the flavour. I do really enjoy the vanilla and subtle and warm cinnamon in this one, though. It really hints at baked goods. My boyfriend’s mug cooled off when he didn’t finish it (he liked it but was distracted by video games) so I finished it and quite liked it cold.

I’m really glad there is none of the weird stuff happening in this one like there are in the earl grey cheesecake, apple vanilla chai, and peach cobbler for me. I think I will wind up ordering some.

I’m spending this whole stormy, rainy day cloistered indoors—and sipping this feels so cozy and uplifting. I mostly taste tangy strawberries and sugary cinnamon. Maybe even something graham-y like pie crust? This is a very “homey”, warm strawberry.

I love it!

I don’t want to overdo it with this one, but I already want another cup. I thought I disliked strawberry teas. Or, maybe I just dislike strawberry tisanes… but anyway, this is a perfect honeybush blend. It’s so very much like shortcake- definitely a sugary strawberry, or a strawberries n’ cream. I hope this really is calorie free and it’s not made out of ground pie, because I may be addicted to it. My complements to the chef! (This is SO going to get latte’d with vanilla soy milk.)

The smell from the bag of tea was hard to tear away from…I measured the leaves, waited 8 minutes and OMG, strawberries, alot of strawberries in my cup! Vanilla creaminess in my cup with Strawberries…Did I mention the strawberries? I love this tea:) My only regret with this tea…IT took me so long to realize I liked honeybush that I avoided this for far too long. mmmm…strawberries, vanilla, cream, oh my.

Backlogging

I received my first 52 teas order last week! Yay!!! :-D

This was the first tea that I opened. The smell is delicious!!! I’m not if it smells exactly like strawberry pie, but it is a really delicious sweet vanilla-y strawberry smell. I don’t find the smell to
be too heavy on the cinnamon, which I was a little worried about, and I don’t find it to be artificial
smelling at all. It is the perfect balance of ingredients! I tried this first without any milk or sugar,
steeped for 10 min. I could definitely smell the deliciousness while I was drinking it, but couldn’t
detect a whole lot of taste (I was starting to get a bit of a cold at the time though). However,
altogether i would say that it was a pretty enjoyable tea-drinking experience and I decided that I
would make sure to try it again after I started to get over my cold.

Another perfect 10. There’s just no way I can imagine any of 52’s teas to be better than they are. So far they are all exactly what I would create if I could create such amazing flavors. Frank you are like the Willy Wonka of tea. This stuff is indeed magical.
Despite being perfect on it’s own, I added my usual spoon of cream and a touch of brown sugar. If I’m going to have dessert in a cup I’m going all out. Yummm.

Here goes. It is the week of 52 teas.

This has a really nice smell as it is steeping. I was so enthusiastic, I forgot to smell it dry in the bag. Next time!

The strawberry comes out as well as the subtle butter smell. I’m not sure that I’m catching the brown sugar or cinnamon. Actually, there it is, a little bit of cinnamon, but just a hint, which I rather appreciate. Cinnamon can be overbearing.

The strawberries are sweet and just a little tart, as if they are just ripe, and not yet mushy. The is a really pleasant sipping tea. It’s very hot right now (I brewed it with boiling, as you can see), so I’m interested to see if other flavours pop as the tea cools.

Definitely glad I got this one to add to my nightime tea options. Which reminds me, I have to go review Frank’s chamomile. It was really, very, good – and anyone who can make chamomile taste good deserves serious props (a word I learned from my 17 year old, lest you think I’m hipper than I am!).

Wow this is one strawberry tea! Yum Yum Yum. When you open the package that is about all you can smell… the tail end of the smell is a bit of cinnamon and maybe just a hint of crust!

After steeping it the liquor was a nice warm red color, the smell had a more hints of cinnamon with strawberry. The first taste all I could taste was strawberry nice warm strawberries. It was so good, this tea doesn’t need any sweetener, it is wonderfully sweet!

The next few sips were a lot of strawberry and hints of cinnamon… I didn’t get the buttery flavor but this tea is still wonderful! I might play around with the steeping time and see if I can get the buttery taste to come out more, great job Frank!

Um, wow. It does taste exactly like strawberry pie.
Not at the same time – you get the whiff of strawberry from the tea, and then the taste of the strawberry, and then in the swallow there’s this hint of graham cracker crust.
I don’t taste a lot of cinnamon in this – but that is totally okay because I like what I am tasting.
I am loving Honeybush lately – and especially loving that I can have some tea before bed that won’t disrupt my sleep!

This was a yummy intro to 52Teas! The dry leaf smelled really good, and it was nice to be able to distinguish the strawberry pieces…you can even see the seeds! I steeped it for 10 minutes, based on reviews, and it worked. I was a little worried that I oversteeped it because the liquor was really dark. It smelled strongly of cinnamon. At first, I tasted lots of spice. What was interesting, was that the tart, juicy strawberry hits at the back end of the sip. I think I am liking this honeybush over rooibos. Really delicious!!

I was afraid that I had underleafed this but luckily I did not! The last experience I had with a new-to-me tea company’s idea of strawberry left me with a glass of something that reminded me of cheap strawberry hard candies. Not fun. This, on the other hand, is a delight. It’s sweetness is counterbalanced nicely with spicy cinnamon. This is the perfect thing to drink while I read comics and listen to my cat slowly try to “help” take Christmas decorations down in the living room during this snowstorm.

Rating: 85. Gonna keep this one around!

Afternoon dessert: Iced Strawberry Pie Honeybush Latte! I made a big batch of this a couple days ago and sampled it. It saddened me a little because I really love it latte-style, hot. So I put it in the fridge and kind of forgot about it.

Here I am now reminded that I need to drink it. I think the tea ended up making nice with the milk because it’s so much better now! So note to self: Make this ahead of time if it’s to be enjoyed cold. It is a smidge better as a hot latte, but also a pretty great caffeine free iced version too.

Yummy! I’m learning that Frank’s teas totally deliver on the advertised flavour. This is amazingly just like strawberry pie. Love the smell of the dry tea. Love the strawberry and vanilla notes once steeped. Don’t love the fact that my mug is now empty… LOL Oh and I drank this straight up, no sugar or milk, which is quite rare for me. This tea is definitely a new fave :-)

As noted before this tea is pretty fantastic. I would gladly keep it in my cupboard.

The liquor is reddish brown and is scented with stewed strawberry, vanilla, and a faint pastry/sugar cookie scent. There is an initial taste of cooked sweet berries, vanilla and a hint of cinnamon, followed by shortcrust pastry and a faint hint of woodiness from honeybush. There is a faint feeling of tartness and dryness at front of mouth. The balance of vanilla fruit and cinnamon is very nice.

A 2nd steep has more cinnamon, is sweeter, and leaves the fruit less defined.

A really nice tea. I slightly prefer the creaminess in Nina’s Gemini, but I would gladly rotate between the two of these teas.