Coconut Cheesecake Honeybush

The smell of this one is really throwing me off. I often get a peppery taste with honey bush. I am finding this one to be supremely peppery once brewed. Peppered coconut.

The taste is ok. I am definitely getting creamy cheesecake. Just the slightest hints of coconut, however the coconut flavour gets stronger in the aftertaste.. The most prominent taste though is peppery honeybush. Certainly not what I anticipated.

“On the seventh (it is the 7th day, right?) day of Christmas, my true love gave to meeeee….”

…a lovely potful of of this delicious honeybush blend. This one is about neck-and-neck with the pina colada honeybush for my favorite from 52Teas.

“Another Traveling Tea Box?!?!”

Well I don’t think it tastes anything like cheesecake, but it is kind of yummy. I don’t have much experience with honeybush. This is sweet and lightly coconut. There is a kind of creamcheese scent that I’m not digging. It does make me curious to try more honeybush.

Soooooo Goood!!!! And my bag is just about out. . . .

Oh please Frank. . .Please make this one a permanent tea in your awesome selection!

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.

Tea of the evening…..

I think I am gonna curl up with a book for a while. Love this one!

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!

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.