Strawberry Pie Honeybush

First of all, a thank you to Daisy Chubb for letting me try some of this tea, which I’ve been eyeballing for quite awhile. The tea smells sweet and fruity but at the same time a bit spicy – when I taste the tea it’s clear the spice is cinnamon, not a lot, but it’s a nice touch. It’s mildly sweet but I do wish the strawberry was easier to pick out – perhaps I just need to steep it longer.

I bought this without realizing it has the dreaded red rooibos. But I tried it anyway – I live on the edge! :P This is basically just strawberries in a cup. Strawberries are my #1 fruit (we had a strawberry patch in CA and I ate them almost everyday). Finding a tea that doesn’t have that horrid artificial strawberry flavor is always a tough quest, but it ends here. I love that this is caffeine free too, so I can enjoy before bed. So far, no headache. (YAY!) Absolutely delish!

EDIT: there is a twinge of spice to the cup as well. I didn’t notice it because I was too busy gulping the cup! I noticed on the last sip. Must. Brew. More. :)

Thank you so much Kristen for sending me a sample of this tea! I’ve been curious to try it, as I have enjoyed other strawberry teas that have come from 52teas.

This smells amazing! I’m smelling cinnamon and vanilla pie crust, bright juicy strawberries, maybe even some sweet strawberry jam.

Tasting it I was a little dissapointed, as the bright strawberry scent and sweet vanilla with a dash of cinnamon didn’t quite carry over to the flavor. They were all there, just muted. The aroma made me believe they would be in my face, but I got more woodsy soft strawberry with a pie crust (not storebought, this tastes like true homemade piecrust with cinnamon and sugar sprinkled on top).

Not that this isn’t delicious as it is, but I was almost shocked at how different this tea is from what I imagined based on the scent.

Now if only I knew how Frank made this tea actually taste like a pie…

This is one delicious cup, and I hope to order some in the very near future!

thank you so much cavocorax for this sample…. it was my first tasting from 52teas! (very exciting)

when i’m reviewing a tea i make a point of not reading other reviews until after the fact. i am relaying MY tea experience and my interpretation and i would prefer to communicate my strongest thoughts first before i reinterpret with ‘actually, that’s a good point.’ so i have read none of the reviews for this tea but i have seen the rated number… with which i must disagree but will explain why.

the dry leaf has the lovely woody undertone that honeybush alone carries. bits of cinnamon, bits of vanilla, both play a part in the scent profile. the strongest note, however is the strawberries.

strawberries are excellent. they are low in sugar even when they taste crazy sweet, they wear their seeds on the outside (how cool is that?), they are members of the rose family rosaceae, you can dip them in chocolate, whipped cream or put them in tea! strawberries should be at the top of the human edibles food list! (unless you’re allergic and then we could swap it out with melon or i don’t know… mustard.)

even before the waterworks these strawberries were not right to my nose. they smelled very much like the extra ripe strawberries you buy and intend to eat the day of, but then you forget and eat them two days later and you find them over sweet with a turned, almost fermented taste. i was concerned for my cup of tea.

i continued to brew and by the time i got to sipping my opinion had improved somewhat. the strawberries don’t taste right, but neither are they as off as they smelled. if i had to guess i would lean towards the freeze drying as the source of the problem or, perhaps, the harvest time of the strawberries. the berry note is very strongly sweet, but carries with it (to my palate) the distinct twang of ‘damn, i forgot to eat these the other day’. this is not a thing i like.

caveat: as per my post yesterday on cinnamon swirl bread, i was speaking to government ministries all day, so possibly that soured my palate, or perhaps the BRILLIANT cinnamon swirl bread tea made other things seem less than. option 3: steeper error? i will continue to investigate, possibly an iced tea? if my opinion improves i will return and make a note of it.

sorry folks, i have to knock that number down a bit =0(

Definitely still getting pepper out of most of the 52 teas honeybush blends.

This one dry smells like strawberry ice cream. Not like Breyers, but like the cheap house brand, which is still good :)

It tastes like the peppery honeybush I just can’t seem to escape. I am definitely getting strawberry, there is pastry, slight cinnamon. I would describe this one as more strawberry rhubarb, however it is not tart.

Definitely better as it starts cooling.

My tealog might not indicate it as I did a lot of re-steeping, but I drank a lot of tea today! I even managed to sneak this one in as a sipdown too. (157)

I have so much honeybush though. I feel like I need to get other bedtime options besides 20-30 honeybush and/or rooibos blends. :P

Crap. I should have logged this while it was fresh in my mind.

Got this from Cavocorax (thanks!!!) and I’m pleased to say I actually enjoyed it! I guess honeybush is less offensive to me than rooibos. Also it’s one of the first 52Teas blends that I’ve had decent luck with. (Pumpkin Caramel Cheesecake was decent even if not really cheesecakey, and i liked Butterbeer!!) I will try it again later.

I recall it being sufficiently strawberryriffic but not fake tasting. Maybe not pie tasting either but that’s no surprise, given my vast and unwavering love of all things pie. I can’t imagine I’d ever consider a tea as being a truly good pie replication. Buttery flakey awesomeness is hard to clone.

Anyway, I digress.

I’m a bit on the sickly side today, or yesterday, my sleep schedule is all off. My husband took the day off, so we spent the day sick together, napping, watching movies, and drinking tea. Of course, now we’re both wide awake.

One of the teas we drank today was Strawberry Pie Honeybush. This is a truly outstanding tea! The dry tea smells incredible. At first sip, there’s the naturally sweet flavor of ripe strawberries. That moves into a rich, creamy, vanilla body. And the finish… the finish tastes exactly like a cinnamon graham cracker crust! I kid you not, this honeybush blend is utterly delicamazing.

Okay, this plus vanilla soymilk = excellent tea latte. What an amazing beverage. I need to upgrade my rating of this, as I now never want to go without it.

This is pretty yummy! Per Sil’s recommendation I let it steep a long time, almost 10 minutes. It smells really good steeping, just like its namesake—you get jammy strawberry as well as buttery cinnamon-y vanilla-y pie crust. I was nervous it’d be fruit-astringent and border on bitter (strawberry flavored black teas and I usually don’t get along), but the fact it’s honeybush means that’s not a problem! Really nice stuff, possibly my favorite 52teas so far (for sheer “how on earth did he do that?!” impressive evocation Pancake Breakfast gets my vote ‘cause it actually makes your mouth feel like you’ve eaten fluffy pancakes, with that starchy film on your teeth and everything, but that’s not something I crave as much as strawberry jam and pie crust notes :b).

EDIT: Yeah, I just offered to make my husband a cup for the strictly selfish purpose of having an excuse to make a second one for myself. I think this is the first 52teas I’ve tried that I love with no reservations.

EDIT the second: Thennnn that second cup was so good—and we were talking about how good it was—I automatically decanted the rest of my brand new pouch into one of my prized chalkboard painted mason jars (where my favorite teas get to live). I think having this around is going to make the cold front this week more bearable. What is it with me and strawberry when it’s with any other tea/tisane besides black (I’m a huge fan of Butiki With Open Eyes and American Tea Room Nirvana, and now this) vs. black (even a company as reliable as Zen Tea couldn’t sway me)? Nuts.