Raspberry Banana Honeybush

Thanks to CHAroma for this tea! Aaaaaand a sipdown :D

So my nose has decided to plug up again, so I can’t taste this one as well as I would like. What I can tell you is that it tastes like a fruity flavoured honeybush. A touch artificial, and I’m not picking up specifically raspberry or banana, though I would probably guess that the fruitiness was a berry flavour if questioned.

I’m going to leave the rest to sit overnight… perhaps I can taste it properly in the morning.

ETA: Ok, so after leaving it to sit overnight, I can taste raspberryish flavours, and the tasty and sweet honeybush base, but I remain surprised at the lack of banana. Shocked, actually, because I have had a few banana-flavoured teas from 52teas before, and they don’t often lack in banana flavour! Even Malted ChocoMate kind of tastes like bananas! It’s pretty tasty though. I do have other HB evening options I’d prefer, though.

This is, quite possibly, the weirdest tasting hot beverage I have ever consumed. To me, the banana is very artificial tasting. But nothing has ever come close to real banana flavor except for real banana. That said, this is not bad. The raspberry seems to be doing background work, keeping the banana from being too over-powering. It’s sweet and barely tart and MUCH better cold.

I’ve been drinking this with leftover pie and other desserts. It makes a great compliment, actually. The smell sort of reminds me of Juicy Fruit gum. I’m really starting to love honeybush. While I’ll never buy this particular flavor, I know 52teas has lots of other honeybush that I’d love.

Thank you CHAroma!

Edit: Caught Mr. Snuggles (spoiled doggie) licking my mug. He hates real bananas though.

This tea has me a little frightened. It’s a honeybush, which I hear is very similar to rooibos. Rooibos and I don’t get along. I knew there was a probable chance of receiving a honeybush blend with my 52teas Tea of the Week Plan. But I also had heard so many good reviews of 52teas that I figured it was worth the risk.

And overall, I’m a very happy customer. All their blends are unique and delicious. And I’ve found while perusing my credit card statement that I’ve bought a lot more than just the 6 teas that came with my subscription.

But enough stalling. On to the honeybush tea! The dry leaves smell of raspberry and banana and slightly medicinal. The brewed tea aroma is still raspberry, but the medicinal quality has gotten stronger. I feel dread as I sniff the aroma. I want to like this; I do! But I’m not so sure…

Okay, time to sip it…Wow, actually I mostly just taste raspberry with an aftertaste of banana. Thank God! I really thought this was going to be awful (no offense to 52teas). With the second sip, I’m convinced that 52teas could blend just about anything and make it wonderful!

I mean really, I don’t even particularly like raspberry or banana-flavored things. And don’t get me wrong, the tea nails these flavors. Yet somehow, I find myself enjoying the cup. Insanity. Simply insanity. What is this world coming to?

That being said, if anyone would like a sample, I’m more than happy to share.

^{Did I mention that 52teas has done a popular tea revival? Check out their in stock blends to see a couple favorites return to your life. The world is a happier, brighter place with their rebirth.}

So yummy! I just got finished writing a full-length review of this tea, which will publish in a few hours on SororiTea Sisters, so I hope you’ll watch for it!

It doesn’t surprise me in the least that I love this blend, since I absolutely flipped for Monkey Farts from My Sweet Honeybush. This might be even better, because the tartness in the raspberry evens the sweetness of the banana out just a bit… or maybe it’s the other way around, the tart of the raspberry gets mellowed out by the banana. Either way, it’s really a delicious combination.

Tasting note thing does not like my laptop lately…it’s probably my terrible internet. Yesterday I was chatting w/some hockey friends (actually it was more like insulting another team in a chatroom for hours) and I was like I really want tea but I don’t know which one to make.
Little did they know when I cant decide it’s not because I can’t pick “green or black” or something…and when I said how many teas I have one of them told me I am their hero lol, so some of you with 100+ on here are legendary status then.

Tonight I decided to go with something new (though I did that last night too). My mom got me this for Christmas , I probably asked her to get it and I don’t even remember.

I like to leave honeybush steeping forever so the flavors get really strong. That’s like one of my favorite things about herbals, especially if they have something I love…so you can probably tell I love raspberry. This is like drinking raspberry juice. This could be strange hot, but it doesn’t seem weird at all to me.

I am really not a banana person, but the banana tastes like an afternote to me. This is really fruity, but not cloyingly so. I think that’s the honeybush part making its appearance. I think it really pulls this together, I can’t imagine this flavor with anything else but honeybush.

I bet it’s really good iced. I will give that a try sometime to take with me to school. I feel like the only motivator for my terribly boring semester is going to be taking tea with me in my tumbler. (Intro to landforms, can I introduce you to a cliff?)

Backlog. 9 days ago – Tuesday night.

So I’m still finding that I tend to have a hard time finishing cups of this, even though I definitely like it. I think it’s something about the change in temperature changing the way it tastes.

2nd steep: 12 mins.

This makes a fabulous iced tea. It is very sweet with no sugar added. The dry leaf smells like a box of runts, but the flavor of the steeped tea is actually quite natural, juicy, and refreshing.