Honeybush

Had this tonight after not having it for awhile – it tasted kind of like wood to me, and it wasn’t especially appetizing. But today I was sort of craving a bland wood-y taste, so I made a cup of this.

It tastes totally differently from what I remember.

There’s still that sweetwood taste… but it’s somehow foregrounded by something I can’t name. It was a bit sour somehow and kind of vinegary, but there was a weird juiciness to it that almost reminded me of cucumber.

WEIRD.

so i open my sample tin and all i can think is “tiny wood chips” lol. my sleep schedual is all crazy because of my sprained ankle and me laying on the couch bumming it all day (seance saturday the 2nd) i wanted something non caffinated because im wired from Ricky’s pu-erh tuo cha he sent me. holy strong lol but earthy.

on to the honeybush well the dry leaves? chips? gah what do i call it? they smelt woody and sweet with a somewhat fruity back note but almost non existent so poured some of it into a paper filter tossed it in one of the mugs i hate (there boring and not fun like all my others) poured the hot water in and watched the water turn burgundy! the tea itself smells the same as the chippies (thats what ive decided to call them) but it tastes much sweeter than i expected with such a woody smell. the first flavor i get is the woody then as it sits on my tounge i get sweet almost a creamy/sugary/honey sweetness and after i swallow it leaves a fruity taste :) i only added 1/2 a teaspoon of sugar to bring that middle flavor out a bit and it helped to amplify the sweetness and the fruityness but still keeping that woody flavor…i think i like the woody taste :)

the steep time asked for 7mins but 1- i couldn’t wait that long. and 2- i thought i used too much in the paper filter so i was afraid it would be bitter.

Hmmm. I thought I’d written a note on this one, but maybe not. Anyway, I’m drinking the last of the tiny tin sampler tonight because… I don’t have a good reason. Turning over a new health leaf perhaps? (How many times have I said that?) I did work out today and had some tilapia and couscous for dinner, and there’s no Diet Coke within reach so it seem like the right thing to do.

In any case, as is probably obvious from some of my more recent tasting notes, I have become an unfan of untea. I’m drinking this one only because some of the fruity flavor samples were better as honeybush goes, and there wasn’t much left in the tin so I could wave goodbye to another tiny bit of house clutter.

Honeybush is somewhat more tolerable to me than rooibos because of the (duh) honey aspect, but it still has that woody thing going on that makes me feel like I’m inhaling the cedar chips from the bottom of a hamster cage. It’s best and highest use, as far as I am concerned, is to temper the sour and bitter in blends that have a high citrus or hibiscus quotient.

Tonight, however, it is serving another purpose. It’s making me feel virtuous, which can only be a good thing. It’s not a bad honeybush if you like honeybush, but as I don’t, for me it was just part of a misplaced buying frenzy a while back and I’m not sorry to see it go.

Blues Brothers + this tea = the saving graces of this crappy day.*

So this is what plain Honeybush tastes like! As I suspected this is that “lotioney” taste that’s been part of the flavored versions of this tea. That lotion taste isn’t bad…it’s just different. I’m also having trouble with this note since I drank 6 steeps of a Jade Oolong that I picked up today at a tea shop that shall remain nameless for now. I feel like that oolong actually steeped itself into my tongue – is that even possible? It seems that l’m still tasting the oolong while drinking this. So I plan on drinking this again in the near future when not under the oonfluence. NE

*Here’s the summary of my crap day: I drove an hour to my closest tea shop to go to a green tea tasting class with a friend. This was my first visit there. After being told by employees that the class was actually 2 hours later we went to Whole Foods (bought a couple of Rishi teas!), and then returned to the shop. Um, yeah, the class is actually next Sunday. ::facepalm:: That last part was my bad – I got my dates mixed up. My friend can’t make it next week and they said that they won’t do a class if it ends up just being me. ::sigh:: We shall see. The other saving grace is that my friend experienced her first loose leaf tea today (an oolong) and LOVED it. So, I picked up 2oz of the oolong and a sample of their Lapsang Souchon and came back home.

This is my first unflavored honeybush, and I think I like it! Bear with me as I do my best to describe this taste that I’ve never had before.

Piping hot, it isn’t overly sweet, and the sweetness that is there tastes more like raw honey than than the “Eww! Straight-up sugar water” taste of a recently-tried flavored honeybush.

As it cools a tiny bit (but certainly still hot), the flavor seems a bit more complex. I get that slight “woodiness” that others have written about, with a tiny touch of sweetness at the back of my throat. Post-sip, it leaves a sort of juicy flavor that I really can’t describe.

But my favorite thing about this cup is the way it smells. I didn’t notice much fragrance in the dry leaves, but now that it’s steeped, my mug smells sweet & sour and like just ever-so-lightly rained-on shaved wood bedding/chips… but in a very good way! It’s a pretty awesome and comforting scent.

As soon as this cup is empty, I’m going try mixing some with Dewy Cherry to see if I can get a sweet, tart, and mild woodsy brew. WIll post tasting notes on how it turns out!

Looking for a sweet cup…

I don’t think honeybush or rooibos teas are my thing. They all seem to taste like a mix of old tree bark and dirt.

This was really interesting. I love rooibos and that is what I was initially comparing it to. When I first smelled the loose leaves, I was kind of baffled – it smelled rather sweet, but also had some other scent I couldn’t really define that was strange (some kind of earthy scent?)
My first brew, I think I added slightly too much water for the amount of leaves. The first cup was different from what I was expecting from the scent. The initial flavours weren’t necessarily sweet but the aftertaste was. It does have kind of a fruity scent and the taste almost has overtones like an herbal fruit tea.
I found that as it cooled, it seemed to taste sweeter and to become less astringent (negligibly so). The scent really seemed to get much sweeter and open up.

ETA: I made a second infusion of this and it actually still tasted pretty good. I steeped it for around 10 minutes which I think really helped make the second cup taste close to the first. The scent was just as strong as the first cup. The flavour was more subtle but still there.
But wow this makes me tired. There is no way I am ever drinking this in the middle of the day. I don’t actually know if I like the way in which this made me sleepy. I feel like I’ve had the world’s longest day.

Earthy with a touch of sweetness. It’s a little astringent. Very woody. It’s really kind of one note. The aroma is slightly floral and might be nice to combine with other teas. I don’t hate it but I don’t really like it either. It is somewhat improved when iced.

Honeybush, to me, tastes like cedar chips and honey. Which probably sounds gross, but it’s actually a nice flavor. Adagio’s honeybush is a pretty good example of the tea. It’s sweeter than the other variety I’ve tried. It’s very nice. I like it.

First time I had honeybush I didn’t like it so much, but I think I appreciate it now. The flavors are not nearly as complex as other teas, but they’re simple, smooth, and sweet. It’s worth drinking from time to time for that reason alone- a simple, unique tea.

I expected this to be sweeter than rooibos, but instead I got the “woody” and “medicinal” flavors that I’ve always read about in rooibos, but never experienced myself. I’ll give it a few more tries, but I wasn’t thrilled.

This was my first time trying honeybush and I just don’t like it. It smells cloyingly medicinal and tastes like something we should not have decided to eat. Luckily, I bought only a sample and my girlfriend liked it, so it won’t go to waste. I tried it plain and sweetened but it just wasn’t right for me. I didn’t finish the cup, a rarity. I haven’t added a numeric rating because I don’t know if this is a ‘good’ honeybush.

This is fantastic. Really lovely, soft flavor.

This tea is what keeps me coming back to Adagio over and over again(with ample samples of others!). It has a very mild sweetness that doesn’t require extra sweetener, though I sometimes add a bit for an extra special treat. The smell is quite deceiving, as it tastes nothing like how you’d think from sniffing it. It smells like cheap spices and wood. I was very pleasantly surprised after taking my first sip. This is my favorite tea!

Personally I’m not sure what to think about the comment of Honeybush being very close to Rooibos as while I do not like Rooibos, must be the sweeter honey like notes in Honeybush that make it more enjoyable to me. While Honeybush is my caffeine-free tea of choice that I find enjoyable, quite honestly I would much rather be drinking a nice oolong or ripe puerh if at all possible depending upon the time of day.

I got a sample of this because even though I did enjoy Rooibos, I found the flavor a bit dull and uninspiring. Well, when I first opened the container, I thought this sort of smelled a bit like tobacco with a hint of…a sickly sweet, almost spoiled smell maybe? A proper description of the smell eludes me. When brewed however, it mellows out with a very pleasant and sweet aroma and taste that only gets better the longer it’s steeped. I usually let it steep for at least 10 minutes.

Like Rooibos, this plant has an insane amount of supposed health benefits (via antioxidants, nutrients and more) and lacks the tannins oxalates and caffeine of tea.

Both Honeybush and Rooibos are 100% great for insomnia, relaxation and reducing anxiety, especially when combined with Lemongrass. The combo will knock me out in 10-15 minutes after the first cup, especially if I’m already laying down.

I like this more than rooibos, it’s slightly sweeter. Mixed with Lemon Grass.