Honeybush Chocolate

So my parents were visiting me this weekend and as usual we ended up at Adagio to pick my mother up some more tea and to get me a new tea pot (my old one was breaking and after look around and getting suggestions I decided to go with the VarieTEA.). Since I am a regular at the store, which it still weirds me out that all the employees know me by name and things about me from my facebook, they gave us several samples sizes to take home for free.

Now, that is how I aquired this and I am kind of glad that I didn’t have to pay for it. I have never had Honeybush before, only Rooibus which causes me to have weird nightmares and other things so I was kind of excited to try Honeybush and see if it would be different. Happily it was different and didn’t cause me any problems. I really like the under taste to the honeybush more then Rooibus, though I did not like the Chocolate taste. The Chocolate tasted way too fake and phoned in, which really kind of ruined the tea for me. I will probably try another Honeybush, since I seem to like it somewhat its just that this “chocolate” part is not doing anything for me.

I have had hardly any tea in over… wow, how many months has it been now? So what made me reach for this? Well, it’s evening, so I wanted something sans caffeine and its chilly out, so I wanted something warm, and I finally got a new Brita pitcher which was what originally put a crimp in my tea drinking. So I have filtered water in my life again.

I didn’t expect much from this honeybush and so I wasn’t disappointed. It’s not horrible, it just isn’t something I’ll drink after it’s gone. The honeybush flavor is prevalent, woody, reedy, not very sweet. Kind of like sucking on a rattan basket. The chocolate is tastable, but nondescript. I’m not sure I’d even identify it as chocolate if I did a blind tasting. My five year old thought it was “okay.”

Oh, and if anyone I used to know here is still around, hi!

I was unsure whether I would like this tea as I’d never had any honeybush teas and I’m not overly fond of chocolate teas, but I was pleasantly surprised with this. It’s naturally sweet, smooth with a slightly dry woody finish. I’m detecting some honey notes as well (I’d hope so with the name HONEYbush haha) and the chocolate flavor was perfectly balanced. Even my husband who has just recently opened himself up to trying hot tea loved this and said he’d drink a cup any time I make this :)

Ok it smelled icky. Which was weird. I like honeybush and I like chocolate so that was not a good sign. But you can see by my rating that the initial weird herbally aroma was misleading. It has a pleasant chocolaty taste, it’s not the rich chocolate liquor of my favorite Valentines tea but it’s a nice caffeine free way to meet my sweet tooth.

I love chocolate, like just about everyone else in the world, but for some reason hot chocolate (unless its the home made from scratch stuff) tends me make me queasy. This stuff might become my replacement for that, which pleases me greatly (Its always a little depressing when the boyfriend has a “Hey you want some hot choc-aw, crap” moment).

I can’t really describe the taste, its more cocoa than chocolate, totally lacks that frequent synthetic taste that fake hot chocolate has, and just…wow. I love this stuff, and I love the richness of it, and I especially love that said richness doesn’t leave me feeling like I’ve got a really bad flu or something.

It’s good at times not at others. Strange?

I’m not sure what that sent is supposed to be. It tastes like weak hot cocoa. Tastes better with the honeybush vanilla, so maybe better for blending.

I don’t like this tea. The chocolate flavoring makes the honeybush flavor seem far harsher than Adagio’s plain honeybush. And it’s not even that chocolately. Definite thumbs down.

Not an overly flavorful tea, but okay for in the evenings. Smooth tasting, with a slight cocoa flavor. Prepared with stevia.

Honeybush Chocolate turned out to be one of the stronger tasting honeybush flavored teas I’ve had yet. Unlike a lot of other chocolate teas that I’ve had come off seeming a bit empty and in need of sugar added to give it more flavor, but the natural sweet flavor of honeybush takes care of that nicely.

Single cup, honey

It probably did not help that I ate this with a Ghirardelli chocolate chip cookie, thus messing up my taste buds, but I found the flavoring…. Hmm. It wasn’t too sweet, and that wasn’t… enough. Like it wasn’t all that chocolaty. Was okay, though.

Too sweet, the chocolate tastes artificial and unnatural. Not one I would recommend.