Honeybush Mango

Today I decided to take a walk on the wild side and roll the die of fortune, results were a 6 (no more tea at this level). Second roll, a 4. Honeybush Mango by Adagio teas was the winning selection today.

This tea didn’t brew quite as dark as I was expecting after an 8 minute steep. Quite a light amber/copper color. The flavor is a bit more floral than fruity, but I still get mango out of it. It is very naturally sweet. Their is something in the aftertaste that doesn’t quite work to me. Makes me curious to try other adagio Mango’s (maybe a green mango) to see if it is the honeybush leaving the off taste on my tongue.

This is the first in my Adagio honeybush sampler. [Looks around for Rabs…]

I am somewhat bewildered by my decision to buy the honeybush sampler, but at least I had the foresight not to buy more rooibos. I have been gradually consuming my rooibos stash to bring it down to reasonable levels. What is reasonable has changed since I bought the oversupply of rooibos. Now I think a couple or three really good ones is reasonable for me since I’m not loving it these days.

The only honeybush I’ve had until now has been in bags, the Numi and the Tazo. I still have some of each of those, though I’ve used up a fair bit of the Tazo sweetening too-tart fruit blends.

I’m sniffing this in the tin and thinking it smells a bit woodier than I remember honeybush being; kind of disappointingly rooibos-like. That’s the main smell I get, with mango behind it. Which sort of worries me.

Fortunately, the addition of water works a sort of transformation, whereby the mango aroma becomes pretty much the main event. Wow! There’s just a little bit of a honey fragrance as well, but the wood has vamoosed. The liquor is a reddish color with a bit of orange and brown as well.

The flavor seems to be right in between the dry smell and the steeped smell. Mango, but some reedy flavor as well. I just read Rabs’ note about steeping longer and I will try that next time. Losing the reedy flavor would make this much nicer. As it is, it’s a little like sucking on mango-flavored bamboo. Which, surprisingly, isn’t as bad as it sounds, but I’d prefer to be able to focus on the mango flavor to the exclusion of the earthy cellulose.

Wow. I discovered the best blend EVERRRR but first lets talk about the stand alone Honeybush.

I ordered a sample of this stuff in addition to my Gunpowder order from Adagio. It had high ratings on the site so I figured I would give it a try. I popped the lid and the mango scent hit me immediately; it smells like candy. I knew this stuff was going to be good. I put in about 2 heaping tea spoons in the infuser, poured my water and let it steep for 6 minutes.

Impressions:
-Mango taste consistent throughout, not too strong (I could make it stronger if I wanted) but also it didn’t need any sweetener in my opinion. The taste was on the surface level, not too complex. After taste was a light and sweet. My mouth tasted of the mango afterwards.
-Cup tended to taste better as I drank it more. I would say that the steep of 6-7 minutes will work great but perhaps bring the temp. down a bit. I could definitely see this tasting great at a cooler temperature or even iced with some sweetener. Actually, not a bad idea :)
-Aroma is deliciousss. This is really one of those teas that tastes like it smells. I love when that happens.

MY PERSONAL BLEND:
So for my second steep I decided to add the overabundance of Gunpowder I have, as I figured it would sweeten up my vegetative cup with a little mango. I tossed in a tea spoon of green tea and let it sit for about 6 minutes. OH boy. this was good. It’s so much more complex this way.. at first I thought I put in too much Gunpowder, as my first couple sips didn’t have much mango flavor. But then, as the cup cooled, the gunpowder and mango blended so well.. an initial taste of green tea and then an after taste of mango and green tea. It’s so gooood. In general with this mix, cooler temp=better. End of the cup was a lot better than the start. I could see this blending with a lot of teas very well. And sure, you can try my own recipe for yourself :)

This is a medium brown brew, with a lightly fruity and characteristically honeyed fragrance. I added honey, which didn’t seem to make much of a difference (this is fairly sweet on its own) but was tasty. If I seem underwhelmed, I am. Teavana’s Vanilla Honeybush is the quintessential honeybush to me; maybe I shouldn’t have tried this one so soon after having enjoyed the vanilla one. Or maybe I just don’t appreciate mangoes as much as I’d like to (to be fair, I don’t think I’ve ever had mango, so it could just be that I have no reference point for the taste).

That having been said, this was the kind of inoffensive, moderately tasty tisane I like to keep around for late nights (which was when I drank it this time) or times when I don’t know what I’m in the mood for. So I think I’ll keep this, but probably not re-order it.

It’s been a while since I pulled this out of the cabinet. I’ve been gradually realizing that while rooibos is not a favorite of mine, honeybush is much better. This tea has a nice mango flavor and tastes summery to me.

They say that rooibos is calming, I’m hoping that the honeybush has a similar effect. I could use some calm energy today.

I drank this with some vanilla stevia. I think it compliments rooibos and honeybush well.

Yet another sample from Lariel

Gives off a sweet smell but I can’t exactly place it.

Hmmm…I can not taste ANY mango. Did I do something wrong here? Hair under 2 tsp for 8oz. steeped for 6 min. There’s understated, and then there’s nothing. This is nothing….

When I opened the package it immediately smelled like: Hello! I’m Mango! It wasn’t too artificial smelling and I really like the way the sweetness of the honeybush complimented the mango sweetness.
After brewing it, I still liked the scent and it still smelled really balanced. I like how it’s not a sharp mango scent but the really nice rounded smell of really nice ripe mango.
This is an excellent tea to just drink. It’s relatively uncomplex tasting, but that’s okay. It’s not hiding any secrets, it doesn’t really have the flavors unfold, but it is very smooth and has an awesome mouth feel – it’s very thick. As I let it cool (I really hate drinking super hot things) it seemed like it good sweeter and even more mellow. I should really try it iced.
All in all, it’s not anything surprising, except that I like it a surprising amount :)

Not enough Mango for me… I do love mango though.

For some reason I thought this was a rooibos. But then realized it was a honeybush tea. That would explain why there isn’t as much flavor here. (I think honeybush teas have less flavor than rooibos teas.) I like the “honey” flavor of honeybush, but I like the woodier stronger flavor of rooibos better, most of the time. There isn’t much mango flavor here either. I bought a new infuser with a mesh/screenlike material to hold in my rooibos/honeybush teas. I can’t say it worked better.. the “leaves” are so tiny they fit through the screen! I’d like to try more Adagio teas, because this one is probably one of the weaker teas from them I could try. But I won’t give up on them yet. I wish I had the money to buy all the custom blends I created! (They are listed in my Steepster shopping list if you want to take a look.)

I’d never had honeybush before and I’m really curious to try it as a standalone. This tea’s nice and sweet and mangoey. At first I steeped it about 5 minutes. It was kinda bizarre: it tasted like what I’d imagine a mango-scented lotion would taste like. Well, one evening I was so busy that I didn’t hear the timer go off so it steeped probably close to 10 minutes and it really mellowed the flavor in a pleasant way. This one’s growing on me. NE but with potential for more…

with a little agave.

Did I just get a bad batch? I found this awful, it tasted like floral perfume! I ended up giving the rest of mine away. Not a fan at all – not sure if it’s the honeybush or the mango flavoring that ruined it for me.

This tea is so smooth, and overall, it’s really tasty. It’s naturally sweet and very pleasant. The mango, however, is kind of barely there. It’s present in the aroma but only faintly there in the actual taste. In fact, am I really even tasting it, or am I imagining the taste because I know it should be there? I feel like my mind’s playing games with me.

This is decent, although it’s pretty much woody honeybush with the merest hint of a mango half-remembered. I can’t decide if it’s better hot or iced, but maybe hot because cold and woody is kind of a weird flavor. A little bit of honey takes the edge off of the woodiness, and if I made it again I might steep it for less time. I’m also tempted to try tossing in a few chunks of actual dried mango.

Like the other fruit flavored honeybush teas I find that the mango taste is fairly light and blends into the honeybush fairly well. Best described as honeybush with light mango flavor notes in the background.

Simple, and delicious. My favorite honeybush so far- could easily be blended with a different tea to give it new life.

Double cup, 4 raw sugar