Pina Colada Honeybush

I purchased this tea at the same time I purchased the strawberry matcha, but I haven’t tried it until today – so many teas, not enough time (nor does my bladder possess the wherewithal to drink as much tea as I’d like to!)

So I made some of this to enjoy with lunch.

It’s got a really nice, strong flavor. The honeybush seems well suited for flavoring, and I prefer it over rooibos, I’m glad that 52 Teas seems to have embraced honeybush as well. I like how the natural sweetness of the honeybush works so cohesively with the pineapple and coconut flavor. And as much as I enjoyed it as it was hot, I am finding it even more enjoyable now that it has cooled significantly… this will be a great tea for the summer – iced!

YUM!

After tasting two teas by 52teas I have to admit I was pretty disappointed. Steepster(ites) rave about their amazing tea; Frank & Chelesa participate on the forum listening to our opinions so that we could have the best possible tea experience. After all this how could I still be unsatisfied with their tea? Beats me!

Well, 52teas, my opinion about you has changed! This tea is amazing! I’ve actually never had honeybush before, which is strange seeing as I have a tin from Lupicia sitting in my cupboard.

Pina Colada Recipe Checklist

Large flakes of coconut ✓

Rum Smell ✓ I caught a whiff from the dry tea leaves, but when I shook the package I lost it

Pineapple ✓

I don’t really even drink alcohol, but this was amazing. The only thing that was lacking was the color. It wasn’t quite yellow. 52teas I guess that’s your next challenge and include an umbrella =P

I really hope the little checks showed up next to the recipe checklist

I just spent $150 that I REALLY don’t have to enter this tea into the North American Tea Championships. I could only (not) afford to enter one tea. I hope I picked the right one and that my partner doesn’t kill me for doing it. (I would have stewed about it all year if I hadn’t done it.)

Indigobloom thank you again for another sample! (I may never get to all of them lol)
This one is MEH to me. Now I am thinking MAYBE this is an older batch? The ONLY reason I think this is due to the label. I think the labels are different now. Either way I don’t get ANY flavor out of it I mean really NONE.
Hummm it smelled REALLY good across the room when steeping – then I went over to the cup and lifted the lid and sniffed – NO SMELL? what the ???
LOL
This tea has be totally bewildered.
Not rating.
Something is amiss.
I think my tea was hit by the whammy fairy.
It totally zeroed out any and all flavor.
It wasn’t me I am sure (yeah right)
SIGH…. oh well closer to a different tea now WOOT!

Backlogging.

For the first tea of Christmas, Frank gave to us Pina Colada Honeybush.

So my thought was to cut open each sample pack and, being careful not to look, smell the tea and see what I thought it smelled like. Even with my nose a bit stuffed up and even if I had not known that 52 Teas has an award-winning Pina Colada Honeybush, I’d have thought this tea smelled exactly like a pina colada. I could actually smell the rum as well as coconut and pineapple. And everyone is right when they mention the huge chunks of pineapple and shavings of coconut.

I tried to convince myself to have a nice caffeinated black tea to wake me up and save this to drink later in the day. But I could not.

Steeped up, the tisane smells distinctly like rum and coconut. It’s a nice medium brown with a bit of amber. It tastes of coconut and rum. I do not get any pineapple specifically. But it’s exactly pina colada overall so it must just be blended in very well. And the coconut — it’s very creamy. I don’t know how Frank does it, but it is.

I should say that I’m not a big fan of pina coladas. If one of my sisters were to mix some up as a summer drink, I would drink them. But they are not high on my list of frosty drinks of choice. I’d be a margarita girl, I think. And no, I do not think margaritas in any way would make a good tea. But I’ve digressed. This is not a tisane I would have likely ordered. But I loved it. I did. So much so that I had barely finished the second paragraph of this tasting note when my mug was empty. Of course, I got up and put the kettle on to try a second steep right away.

And yes, I did eat the chunk of pineapple and the shavings of coconut. They tasted like Pina Colada Honeybush. _grins This mug smelled only faintly of pina colada and the tea was an opaque amber brown. It tasted like the essence of Pina Colada Honeybush. But, this tisane is that good that it is worth steeping a second time even for that. It makes me want to try 52 Teas’ Coconut Cream Pie.

Frank, you rock my sox. I cannot wait to try the rest of my samples.

I gave this tisane an 88 rating, which is on the high end of my great range (80-90).

2nd steep: 12 min.

I’ve been wanting to try this tisane since it was released, and I finally treated myself to a pouch over the holidays. Yay!

I will post this caveat before my review – I brewed it between crying for an hour over the PBS show Nature about the real story of Elsa the Lion from Born Free, and Downton Abbey, so my usual care in brewing was absent! I was stingy with the tea, and the time! I splashed too much half and half in it in my haste to hear the introduction to Downton, but…

OH this tisane is delicious!!!! It tasted creamy, rum not like in a drink but in a baked good, flaky coconut, a sweet pineappley flavor – but all swirled in creaminess – if that makes sense? The thing I liked best about it was that it was good to the last drop – I know a real Pina Colada is “too much” for me and by the middle I’m like UGH because of all the frothy creamy. I also love the honeybush base. Sweet and no wood/cigar (which would not work in a pina colada!).

I can’t wait to make it again under careful conditions! Because I use a little half and half I’m going to use 3 tsp of tisane for 16 oz water and let it brew for 6 minutes. I think that will be perfection.

I can see why this one won an award, 100%!!!!

:/ Not sure I should continue tasting the other two pina colada teas tonight, as I have a small fear that I’m going to be sick later. (And Azzrian, don’t worry, I tried the Adagio one of my own volition knowing it was bad, but a tea should never be this horrible.)

I had this one before and wrote a tasting note, but didn’t find it that great. Tonight, comparison-wise at least, it is fantastic. However, in terms of pina-colada flavour, I’m finding it a bit lacking. It’s a bit sweet, the honeybush base is definitely present, and I taste both pineapple and coconut, which is good, but something’s missing to make this into a low-cal replacement for a pina colada. Oh well.

YUUUUUUUM

I just iced this and added a spoonful of sweetened condensed milk.
Honestly I was a little afraid the milk flavour would take over the pina colada and it was scary, but I went for it.

Oh. My . Gosh. Youguys.
It tastes like a Pina Colada Honeybush CHEESECAKE. I get the coconut and the pineapple and the rum and : mmm it’s so refreshing and so delicious. This was the iced tea I went for when there was no hibiscus to be found.

Next step would be to blend it into a Smoothie. Sadly I don’t have a blender, but it would be the perfect amount of sweetness and creamyness with the crushed ice. mm.

Wow-o-wow-eeee-wow! Piña Colada Honeybush is FANTASTIC!!! Stop reading and go order some right now! I apologize for my excessive use of exclamation points, but I’m blown away by just how good this tea truly is. Yes, I know it’s an award winner but… I’ll stop gushing now. I think you get the point.

I cold steeped this tea overnight. At first sip, there’s a distinct very natual, sweet pineapple flavor. That moves to a nice kick of smooth, delicous rum. The finish is sweet, creamy coconut. I well on my way to drinking the entire pitcher in a few hours time. Yum!!!!!

Yay 100th Tasting Note and I thought I would continue with the tropical theme. This is the second time I am having this and both hot. I swear I will do this cold once. This time when I grabbed my heaping teaspoon I got the biggest chunk of pineapple, boy was I excited. Even the 2nd time around this is delicious although I do get more pineapple in it this time around for obvious reason. I really do enjoy this cuppa.

I’ve been wanting to try this, thank you so much Emilie for sending me enough to really experiment a bit with it before I commit to a pouch of my own.

I LOVED how it smelled the moment I opened my mailbox. It was a bit like tropical bubblegum through the envelope, and then I couldn’t resist it so I’m up late.
Again.

I always let honeybush teas steep as long as I can, so this probably went a good 10 minutes. Hot, I don’t like it. I was going to be sad because there are so many tasting notes raving about this tea, so I decided to let it cool a bit more then poured it into a glass with some coconut milk and a couple ice cubes.

Now this is muuuuuuch better! It’s mostly coconut to me over everything else, but the pineapple flavor adds a good fruity sweetness. I’m not really getting rum, but that’s okay with me because it’s good as it is.

Not my favorite though, but that’s more to do with how much other tea I have that I’d rather drink before I buy more at this point. Maybe someday!

::happy dance::

I cold brewed this puppy and finally tasted the fruits of my Frank’s labor tonight. Thus the dance of happiness.

I smiled when I was scooping the tea into my pitcher since I think that from any other company I would’ve freaked out at the sight of a ginourmous hunk-o-something amongst the chippies. But since it’s a 52teas blend I figured that it had to be pineapple (it was).

It’s been years since I’ve had a pina colada, but most of me says that this tea captures a non-alcoholic version. But then I start second-guessing myself. I think the solution is that I need to find a real pina colada in the near future to compare it to ;)

What I can say for sure is that this is one of the best honeybush blends that I’ve had so far. It’s also one of the best iced teas that I’ve had so far. TG

I have no idea WHY I rated this one so low…I originally rated it an 80…and YES…that’s LOW for this one in my honest opinion…so I am UPPING it significantly!

I really do enjoy this one and now it’s gone! That’s right!!! SIPDOWN #3 for today!

This is remarkably smooth. There is a good amount of pineapple/cherry-type flavors in it…much like a tropical fruit salad. I’m not usually overly fond of Pina Colada flavored things…I don’t hate them but I usually don’t love them either – there is certainly something special about this one! Sweet and fruity but smooth and tropical…and honestly, one of my fave flavored honeybushes to date!

I bought this one a few months ago. Then put it aside when I decided I did not like rooibos/honeybush. Made it yesterday and wow! This is naturally sweet and tastes like a smooth pina colada. A definite winner and makes it reconsider my honeybush ban (still the rooibos ban is in effect).

On the first day of Christmas Frank gave to me, Pina Colada Honeybush as the first tea.

I’m so excited about this sampler package! I opened my tea when I woke up at the ungodly hour of 3:30am to find out what kind it was. I was very happy to see this tea in the package. I haven’t had this in several months and am happy to be able to revisit it today, as my stash had run out.

This smells like a very fresh batch, as it smelled more strongly of rum than I remember, such a treat for the middle of December, especially when it is in the single digits in IL. I steeped this tea longer than recommended (10minutes) as I was doing too many household chores to remember my tea :( This tisane is still good at 10 minutes, but the woodsy rooibos flavors I don’t enjoy are much stronger when steeped at this amount of time. I’m glad I have a few more cups to enjoy.

I can’t wait to see what tea will be in tomorrow’s package!

You know, I think I went the entire summer without drinking this tea. And that’s just wrong because this is so much a tea to drink iced on hot days. Today, however, was cold and rainy and I spent a day out in the (wet) grasslands for one of my courses, so I needed something to warm me up.

I experimented with this to make it more like a genuine pina colada – I sweetened with some agave nectar and added some milk – all it needs is some rum, which sadly I am lacking. The milk turned the tea a rather nasty greyish colour, but ignoring that it was really tasty, very much like a hot pina colada – sweet, creamy, and fruity. Delicious!

cold brewed overnight in vanilla coconut milk for a cold, creamy treat. yum!