Coconut Cheesecake Honeybush

I ordered this awhile ago, but just getting around to trying it now. I love these honeybush blends from 52teas.

This one is no exception, creamy, sweet, with lots of coconut. I only get a tiny bit of tangy cheesecake in the aftertaste, but I am thinking it might come out a little more with a longer steep, I will have to try that next time.

I gotta try this as a cold brew too! Now, if only it would warm up around here so I felt like drinking cold tea.

YAY!! My tea order arrived today. I was seriously bummed because I had checked the mail earlier and there was nothing there. I was assuming it was due to the icy roads that canceled school today. However, a couple of hours later the flag on my mailbox that signals there is something inside was raised. I checked the mail again and my tea was there!!! Many thanks to my lovely mail delivery lady who braved the roads in order to deliver this tea.

Now, on to this tea. I, like many others, thought I had missed this tea completely but Frank decided to blend up some more and I grabbed a pouch. I love that this is a honeybush blend because I was anticipating the flavors to truly shine with that base. This tea is a really great and tasty blend! The many, many shreds of coconut in the mix really lend a nicely smooth flavor with the tangy cheesecake-like taste coming out as the tea cools and hanging around in the background.

I did add some milk to the cup, but I think I would prefer this tea better without that addition. I’ve really been noticing that I like more teas without additions lately and I’ll be sure to try that later on with this tea.

Brewed this up last night; didn’t care for it hot, let it cool and forgot about it. So trying it today! Probably not a good idea… meh. It’s the only cold tea upstairs and I’m thirsty !

I really can’t say that I’m getting Coconut Cheesecake… at all. I’m getting honeybush, rooibos, and maaaaayyybe some coconut? Well, at least at the end of the sip.

Blegh, this is not my favourite… at all. I’ll try it again fresh, but I didn’t much like it yesterday either. Sigh. At least I absolutely adore Malted ChocoMate…

Wow I did not expect to love this tea!!!! Of course I had high hopes for it but I was a little worried that the coconut would set off that itchy reaction I usually get. Well, no scratchiness is to be found. Sweet!!
Unfortunately, the coconut really sweetens up the tea. I think it’s overpowering the cheesecake factor because when I first dunked the bag, after about a minute I stole a little taste and I could pick out cheesecake right away. I was impressed!! but now? Nope, no cake to be found :(
This makes me sad because I was so looking forward to that. Although I do get a sort of sweet cheese aftertaste, long after I’ve swallowed.
I’m letting the cup cool a bit now in hopes that a temperature change might reveal something extra.
So big thanks to Jenn for sharing this with me!!! I owe you one.or fifty! :)

ok now that it’s cooled, I can kinda sorta (but not really if you know what I mean) see it going in the cheesecake direction. Tsk. Next time I’ll cut the steep time. I think I have enough left for another!

YUM.YUM.YUM.YUM.

I don’t know why I hesitated on ordering this one. This is so delicous, creamy and coconuty. I haven’t tasted the cheesecake much, accept in the aftertaste, and not sure I will get the chance to sip this cup as it cools as I am inhaling it. I love that I can’t taste the honeybush flavor much in this brew. Probably because I only steeped it for 3 minutes because the aroma was intoxicating. I really like it at this steeping time.

Thanks so much Lisbet for sending me a few teaspoons of this to try!

This smells so good. The smell of coconut and honeybush together is quite delicious. But as good as it smells it tastes even better. YUMYUMYUMYUMYUM!

Sweet, coconut-y, creamy deliciousness. As it is still rather hot, I don’t taste as much of the cheesecake flavor, but, I hope that flavor will pop as it cools… Yes… as it is cooling, I can taste more of the tangy cheesecake – SO YUMMY!

I mostly taste coconut in this, which is fine, as I love coconut. I was hoping for more of a desserty cakey tangy sweet taste. It’s still very yummy though. It reminds me of the Coconut Custard from Teas, etc, which is also very good. There’s a creaminess and a flavor of toasty coconut.

My favorite honeybush and cheesecake tea from 52 teas is still Lemon-Lime Cheesecake. If only Frank would reblend that, I’d be on it like a rabid raccoon. I guess I’m just a little disappointed when his other honeybush blends aren’t as awesome. But still, this is good. I’m definitely enjoying it.

Thanks SimplyJenW for the sample. :)

Honeybush, eh? Once upon a time, I quite liked honeybush. Worryingly, back then I also rather enjoyed rooibos, which I don’t care for at all these days. Last time, and the only time in years and years, I had a chance to reacquaint myself with honeybush was that pina colada blend which I also didn’t like, although primarily that was because of the alcohol note.

I’m also extremely picky when it comes to coconut flavoured things.

So honestly, once again, I’m concerned.

On the other hand, I recall the coconut cream pie blend which I found quite pleasant. And I definitely do like cheesecake. So maybe I’m being overly cautious?

The aroma is sweet and creamy and coconutty, so although it’s not spot on cheesecake for me, I can recognise a cheesecake somewhere in there. Primarily, though, I’m getting a strong note of cinnamon. Does this have cinnamon in it at all? It shouldn’t, as far as I can see. But cinnamon sugar is a very strong association for me here. The whole thing, far more than cheesecake, reminds me of a real christmas-y rice porridge with cinnamon sugar and butter on top. That is food for nisser! ( cough Idon’tlikericeporridgeeither cough ) I suspect it’s the honeybush itself that gives me that cinnamon idea.

I’m quite puzzled by the flavour. There’s something sweet on the swallow, but most of the flavour is unfamiliar to me. Maybe it has to do with me not being experienced with honeybush and therefore isn’t certain of which flavours are there naturally and which are part of the added flavouring.

I can find coconut in the flavour fairly easily and when I really pay attention, I can also distinguish it from the honeybush, which, the more I think about it, the more honey-y I think it tastes. No matter how carefully I concentrate, however, I cannot find the cheesecake.

So a coconut flavoured honeybush is all I’m finding here, and you know what? To my vast surprise, I’m finding it rather pleasant, although I’m still not feeling any need to explore honeybush further.

YUM!!! Thanks, Stephanie, for this sample! I’m so glad I got to try this! It’s delicious, and I’m not even that big a fan of coconut. I added a little sugar and soymilk, which made it a fabulous after dinner dessert tea!! It reminds me a little of Butiki’s coconut cream pie, except, instead of rooibos, it has honeybush. Steeped it at 205 degrees for 5 minutes. I put myself on the waiting list, so if it gets reblended, I’ll definitely pick some up. :)

Used 1.5 tablespoons for ~375ml of water.

Detecting coconut on the sip. The aftertaste has a very authentic coconut flavour. Very sweet throughout. Honeybush taste really comes out in the middle of the sip. I’m tasting the slightest bit of savoury tang which I can attribute to the cheesecake part of this tisane but, overall, I’m not strongly reminded of cheesecake from the flavour.

As the tea cools the creaminess is coming out, reminding me of coconut cream pie. That authentic coconut flavour is creeping into the main flavour of the tea from the aftertaste. I am impressed at how close it matches the flavour of biting into coconut flesh.

Second infusion at over 8 minutes. The flavour is noticeably weaker and would not likely do well past the second infusion.

In the future, I would like to try infusing this for a longer amount of time (8 minutes or more) to see if I can get more of a cheesecake flavour out of this tisane.

Many thanks to Kittenna for sharing this with me!

Oh man, this is good. If you like coconut, I hope you ordered it. I don’t know how it tastes like cheesecake too but it does. The level of coconut is perfect in this tea and then it has something in the background which mellows it a bit (the cheesecake flavoring). Man, I’m really digging it.

Update – both my cats keep trying to drink this tea!

This is another sample generously shared with my by Ninavampi! I will admit, I’m a huge coconut fan but the honeybush aspect of this? Makes me a bit nervous. But I enjoy Teas Etc’s Coconut Custard, so maybe it won’t be as bad as I fear.

Gotta say, the smell of the unleaf isn’t exactly calming my fears. It’s okay, but I don’t get coconut at all. More like… vanilla flavored Greek yogurt. Post-steeping, though, that’s got me really worried. I smell tart-sour like unripened berries and cough syrup and hamster bedding (wood shavings, basically, but a little sweeter).

Hold me. I’m scared. sip

Uhm. Okay. Not as bad as I was fearing but I had gone pretty far down the fear road because the smell is so rooibos-y (aka sour wood). But the taste… is okay.

I mean, I’m not really getting coconut, but there is something vaguely creamy going on. I keep thinking of cream cheese. Kind of bland and white and creamy and smooth and coating. So yeah, I’m going to go with this tastes like cream cheese.

That is, underneath the icky wet and slightly rotting wood.

Honeybush is better than rooibos for me because it doesn’t seem quite so rotten, but yeah, this is wet, squishy wood, like a fallen tree that’s been rained on for the past three days and it’s started swelling and going soft. (Rooibos is more like that tree fell into a pond three months ago and grew things on it.) Theoretically, it is possible that there is some coconut in here and it is a more nutty, woodsy style coconut that is just blending into (and being dominated by) the wood from the honeybush.

I’m going to go with a big ole “not for me” with this one. Cream cheese tea is interesting and thumbs up to 52Teas for getting that taste right (cause I figure cream cheese is just one step from cheesecake) but the flavor is too dominated by icky honeybush for me to deal well. But at least I got to try it!

One of the teas I received in a swap with Tegan Fyretyde!

The dry leaf of this smells amazing. I can smell the coconut but I can also smell the cheesecake. IN THE DRY LEAF! CHEESECAKE! Mind=blown! I didn’t even know that cheesecake had a smell, but it does and I can smell it in the leaf and now I can die a happy man.

I’m not actually that familiar with honeybush, but I rationalized that I could brew it the same as I would a rooibos, so that’s what I did. I used about 1 1/2 teaspoons of leaf for my 12 oz Noble Mug and used 195 degree water for 5 minutes.

The result is a very typical red-ish color. Unfortunately (and I don’t know if this is because of my mug or the leaves) the brew smells kind of icky…. Like…. BO. Ew. Luckily, it doesn’t taste like that. It’s very sweet. Really sweet. I mean I guess that’s understandable because it came from My*Sweet*Honeybush. But I mean it’s REALLY sweet. I can tell it’s coconut. It’s still pretty hot but there is a slightly creaminess in the background and that typically tang of a cheesecake. As it cools, the cheesecake aspect comes out more and more. It’s really nice actually, because the flavoring is REALLY accurate! It really does taste like coconut cheesecake, and I’m in love!

This is an excellent dessert tea. I really love it and I will definitely be repurchasing this (thank goodness it’s in MySweetHoneybush’s permanent collection-THANK YOU FRANK!). This is phenomenal, thanks again to Tegan Fyretyde for sending some along!

I am beginning to wonder if my internal cheesecake flavourings are different to Frank’s, because I haven’t gotten cheesecake from any of them I have tried. That being said, this is a lovely tea for coconut lovers. It is sweet and creamy and I do wonder if I should try it with milk next time I drink it.

This is REALLY GOOD! Coconut and I am getting a bit of a tangy bite to it, I think the cheesecake part. I hope Frank is considering adding this to the permanent collection! Yummy! You know a tea is good when you finish it in no time and want/crave another cup! That is definitely occurring with this one!!!

No doubt this is amazing. I would request this be added to the permanent list. Only reason it didn’t get a 100 is because I didn’t get any cheesecake flavor at all. Still it is wonderful and want a constant supply. Until then I will drink this sparingly.

Heaven. That’s what I call this tea. If you like coconut, you’re cu-cu & nuts to NOT get this blend. Frank has a way with honeybush, as one fellow tea writer said and she is so right. At first whiff, I’m in love. I brewed a cup at my desk and a coworker thought I had applied coconut lotion. (She sniffed around and finally cajoled me into giving her a sample.) This tastes like creamy coconut bliss. I cannot live without this tea. What will I do when it runs out?!

Delicious! I’m not sure that I can taste the cheesecake, but this is definitely a richly flavored coconut tea. My husband, who does not like coconut, commented that the steeping tea was the strongest coconut smell he had ever smelled. Good thing he doesn’t have to drink it! I’m thinking that while my sugar and soymilk made a lovely dessert tea, it might be holding back the cheesecake flavor. So, I’ll try it sometime plain, or maybe with soymilk but no sweetener.

52teas 12 Days of Christmas Sampler 2011 – Day 7

Uh oh. A honeybush blend. I knew this was coming, but I’m still not very prepared. It’s not one of my favorites. In fact, it’s probably my second to last least favorite. Rooibos claims the gold medal though.

Anyway, this is pretty honeybush-y. I’m getting strong, sweet cough syrup. There might be a little coconut in there, but mostly it’s just unpleasant to me.

I’m not a very good commentator for this blend. If you’re deciding whether or not to buy this particular tea, don’t base your decision off my review. I can’t really say anything nice about honeybush. It’s not for me. So, look to other Steepsterites for descriptions of how this really tastes because they’ll be more reliable sources.

Okay shifty look I like this one, but I don’t love it like some of the other reviewers. That’s not because I don’t enjoy coconut- because I really and truly do. I just don’t get the cheesecake thing. I am liking the sweet coconut (second cuppa I tried vanilla soymilk and it’s yummy). I do feel like there’s maybe, if I use my imagination, a hint of cheesecake crust in there, but I’m trying a bit too hard, methinks. Don’t get me wrong, I am still enjoying this one though!