Custard-Filled Maple Long John Honeybush

As it is now after midnight, I decided to have something without caffeine. I don’t know that the caffeine in tea really affects me all that much with sleeping when I’m tired … but, I don’t like to push it too much. And besides, I have enough caffeine-free tisanes in my stash to keep me busy.

I’ve been eager to try this. YUM! When it’s piping hot, I find that the flavors are a little disjointed, like a deconstructed custard-filled maple long john rather than a very obvious taste. It’s not like “Oh, this is a maple donut” – it’s more like “I taste maple and cream and pastry and honeybush.” But after it cools for about five minutes, the flavors really come together and it becomes the custard-filled maple long john I’ve been craving since Frank announced this blend. Once it’s cold (In other words, the stuff that had cooled in my breville teapot as I was sipping on the hot cup), it tastes quite good too … the flavors actually seem to taste better once its cold BUT I prefer it hot because there’s just something very comforting about a hot cup of Custard-filled Maple Long John.

As I have been typing this as well as my full-length review for the SororiTea Sisters blog, I find myself wondering if Frank called it Custard-Filled Maple Long John because it’s a lot of characters to type.

Paper writing and exam studying has been suspended until Amanda reforms after melting into a puddle after having only 4 ounces of this tea.

When I opened the package, it really truly smelled like a donut. I don’t really like donuts but my boyfriend is obsessed with them, so if I have to eat one, I like maple glazed ones. But I have never had a maple one that’s filled. Now I don’t really want one because I don’t even have to eat one to get the idea.

This really tastes like it says. I was expecting it to really lack a donut taste, but it’s there. It’s just very subtle, but that’s kind of not surprising considering it’s so sweet, and the maple and custard flavors are pretty prominent.

It’s almost too sweet for me. But that isn’t going to stop me from drinking it all up.

Tasty! Yes…not overly maple or creamy or anything but just tasty. It’s sweet – mostly from the Rooibos and a pinch of smoothness but not milky or creamy, per say. I do think I can tasty more of the ‘creaminess’ when cold brewed tho!

This is nice. Its not as sweet as I had anticipated but I think I kind of like that. I get the custard flavor for sure, the maple is understated but again, I like that. Its a brighter tea than I had expected. I guess I was expecting something heavy, syrupy, but this is really quite a surprise and well balanced.
I have not tried adding sugar to it but I am drinking it while eating sugar cookies to which I highly recommend :)
Its yummy!

So I’ve decided I’m a bit iffy on honeybush/rooibos blends, as I don’t always seem to enjoy them. However, when they’re infused with super sweet flavours like maple or caramel to make decadent dessert blends, they tend to be quite nice!

This is a surprise/not-really-surprise-because-I-spoiled-it sample from Azzrian! Yes, tonight is indeed yet another samplealltheteas sort of night! Kind of as a reward for being well on the road to meeting some project deadlines (sure, I have some stuff left to do tomorrow, but it’s the easy part. Just 102 HPLC vials to filter into. Couple solid hours. Yay!)

This tea smells unimaginably delicious dry! I’m getting sweet cream cheese icing though, not custard-filled maple long john. But hey, I’m not usually terribly fussy on how true to the name a tea is if it smells good and I like it. I can smell the honeybush a bit though, and that makes me wary.

Steeped, it smells like sweet honeybush. Eek. Where’d the delicious flavours go??? Please come back!

Oh man, ok. There they are! This is definitely not mapley-sweet like DavidsTea’s Oh Canada, but the maple is definitely there. Oh yes, definitely. At a perfect level. In the aftertaste I am getting flavours reminiscent of donut. Not really tasting custard though. And wondering where the cream cheese aroma went and why it couldn’t just go hop into the Blueberry Cream Cheese Danish bag… Or show up in the flavour of this one. Either or!

Another tea that’s pretty good, but I wouldn’t purchase. I’m finding all honeybush/rooibos dessert blends to be quite similar, and this one doesn’t strike me as anything particularly special.

ETA: Second infusion just tastes like a flavoured rooibos/honeybush. Nothing special.

Might try a second infusion a bit later, but I can feel my stomach getting fullllll of tea.

ETA: This is better cold/cooled. Getting much more maple and deliciousness.

Alright, another awesome honeybush from Frank! I LOVE maple glazed donuts – so much it is almost pitiful. However, I really try not to eat them often. This is the perfect substitute for some hot donuts. I’m not noticing much of the custard flavor, but it is maple and pastry all the way. I’ve cold-brewed this and it is decent, but it shines hot with a bit of milk and sugar. Frank totally rocks the honeybush blends!

I didn’t really taste anything but the honeybush in here. This wasn’t bad by any stretch but for some reason I just didn’t taste any of the other flavors. I used a heaping teaspoon, but I’m thinking two would have been better.

This is a backlog from days/weeks ago. I have mainly been doing one of two things recently: Either drinking my bagged teas, all of which so far I have reviewed, or, unfortunately, drinking no tea at all. I just always forget, or don’t feel in the mood for tea, or any beverage. Or even food. I’m just lazy. :P

But I DID drink this tea! I am just winging it on the steeping time. I don’t remember what I put it as. Sorry.

Taste: Simple and quick. It was a bit too sweet/mapley for me, but I could drink it occasionally, and I’ll be able to finish what I have. Personally though, it was just…not my thing. My reviews are sucking now. Great. I need to drink more of my tea.

I’ve been wanting to try this forever and thanks to a swap with momo I am lucky enough to be able to! Thank you so much for this!

Okay, I love love LOVE doughnuts, but I’d never heard of a long john before – maybe it’s more of a Northern/MidWestern thing? Anyway, custard filled doughnuts are my favorite, and I like maple flavoring, so I figured there was no way this wouldn’t be awesome.

Steep notes: 3 tsp. leaf, 500 ml. water in the Breville, below parameters.

The dry leaf reminds me of a combination of DAVIDsTEA’s Oh Canada! and Frank’s Coconut cheesecake honeybush. So more honeybush/maple notes than doughnut so far. The first sip is ALL maple. Definitely Oh Canada! – right down to the cloying sweetness-without-being-sweet on your tongue. It almost seems to leave a residue behind on your tongue, too…not too fond of that. The steeped smell is predominately honeybush…so again, almost saccharine sweet.

Maybe it’s the fact that this is an older blend of Frank’s, or that its too hot to pick out anything but the strongest flavors, but I’m not getting much pastry from this. I’ll wait til it cools and see if that helps….

Nope. Still no doughnuts. Guess I’ll try adding milk and see if that helps.

Weird – the milk actually kind of made it seem thinner in texture, but I think I might get a tiny hint of pastry now? Something cakey just barely peeking through the maple. Yep, there it is!

Okay, that’s phase one for this blend – I think I’ll give this a shot latte style, though without sugar because it would definitely be waaay too sweet that way. I think it would improve texture to steep some of the leaf in the milk rather than adding it later. Then after that I’ll give it a shot iced.

I’m also thinking more doughnut teas would be awesome. Maybe like a chocolate eclair? OMG someone should totally try that!

This is good. I’d forgotten what I’d taken in my thermos today and drank it, I tasted maple and pudding strongly :) easy to guess what tea it was.

Mmmmm the leaves look and smell delicious! Even though it’s not my first time trying this, I could barely wait for this stuff to finish steeping. I love the color it turns out too. Beautiful.

I really love the way this tea tastes. It’s sweet and satisfying. I like how all the different flavors come together. A unique tea indeed. Definitely a great way to round out a relaxing evening. I’ll be sad when this one is gone.

Trying to backlog some today….This one I love love love. Maple is so delicious in tea. I love having this one in the evening when I am craving a sweet treat. (I have to say tea has definitely saved me some calories these days) Anyway I love Frank’s honeybush blends and this one is no exception. It is exactly what I have come to expect from him. If you let it cool just a little bit you really get the full maple longjohn flavor. Yum!