Pina Colada Honeybush

Inspired by MeghannM, I’m steeping the last pot of this from the 12 teas of Christmas sampler at 5 minutes. It’ll likely be my last pot of the night…school has already been called off for tomorrow, and there’s a merlot in the fridge with my name on it.

At 5 minutes, I do taste a bit more of the rum and coconut flavors. I’m undecided as to which steep I like better, but I think this one might just be winning out. Yum!!

Oh, and just so you know, I’m about to post today’s tea of the day. So, in case you’ve not looked in your little pack o’ tea yet…well, I’m about to spoil the surprise!

ETA: yup, I like this better at 5 minutes!!

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.

This was given to me by Wombatgirl a good while ago and I did not like it. Not one bit. I gave it 24 points and felt like I was actually being quite generous based on the fact that I could tell that it was doing what it was supposed to do, it just wasn’t something that I liked. Then the rest of the pouch has been standing around not doing anything since. I didn’t know what to do with it. I couldn’t just throw it out, so I kept it in case I would get a chance to give it away.

Then this summer I’ve been doing some coldbrew experiments and discovering how fruity teas turn out entirely different when made that way. So I’ve made a small pitcher of this cold brewed over night.

My biggest objection to this when brewed hot was the alcoholic note. That was just unacceptable to me, so I was interested to see how it would turn up in a cold brew. And the answer is, it doesn’t. Not at all.

What I’m getting mostly is the honeybush which is sweeter when brewed cold and somewhat less wooden, and the coconut which also seems to work better for me on it’s own when cold brewed. Not sure about the pineapple though. I can’t really find large amounts of it this way.

I am so relieved! In a cold brew I can definitely drink this. I’ll even give it considerably more points. It’s still not, however, something I would say was deeply awesome or suitable for me, but it’s acceptable and nice for something refreshing. As a hot drink, however, I would stick to the previously awarded 24 points.

Now, I’ll definitely manage to finish off the pouch without having to resort to giving it away.

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!!!!!

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!

Sipdown (162)!

Thank you VariaTEA for this sample! I was very excited to try it seeing as I am a huge lover of both pineapple (favourite fruit) and coconut. Sadly, this is my first and last time trying it because I used up all the leaf in the sample for a timolino full of this.

So, just a little over 2 tsp. of leaf, boiling water in my 12 oz. timolino for five minutes. I actually made this in the morning in case I wanted something to drink on the long bus ride back from The Vintage Tea Room, but I’ve held off on trying it until now with supper (vegetable stir fry, noodles, and kiwi – it’s super nice not having to cook for myself while on my ‘vacation’).

Dry, this smelled very intensely of sweet, rummy pina colada; very heavy on the coconut. Steeped, this was much the same way; very sweet with an especially strong coconut smell, and a very rummy quality. There was also something that made me think of floral perfume which seemed like a rather odd smell to pick up from this blend.

Taste wise, this has is more coconut than pineapple like I expected after the smell – however, the pineapple is a little stronger in the tail of the sip and lingering into the aftertaste. The rum taste is also pretty strong, and it adds greatly to the tea. There’s also a woody, and distinct honeybush taste which is nice because I thought the base would be totally masked based on how powerful the smell is. Nothing floral or perfumey in taste, but I do still get that from the smell.

I’m sad this is gone; I would definitely buy it again. DAVIDsTEA’s Tropicalia is another favourite of mine which is also a Pina Colada tea – though these two blends are distinct enough I would want both around.

Also – my new white timolino is definitely not retaining heat as well as my black one. I made two teas steeped the same way this morning; one in each, at the same time and this has cooled much more than the black one has. Huh – I wonder why that is…

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).

Backlogging

I got a big, beautiful tin of this during the Memorial Day Blowout on Steepster Select a while back and I was super-excited to try it because of my love of all things coconut and the fact that it was blended with honeybush which I’ve come to enjoy rather more then rooibos.

The dry tea smelled AMAZING. Like “wow!”, “yum!”, and “can I eat it?” all at once. There were giant chunks of pineapple (a wee bit shocking at first) and nice big flakes of coconut. The scent was sweet with that rich creamy note I associate with coconut.

The coconut in particular was a let down, I’d really hoped for the rich, almost oily mouthfeel I’ve gotten from other coconut teas, and the chunks of coconut in this one should have provided that…

Overall it was an alright tea that tasted okay, so I’m not really sure whether I’m actually disappointed or my expectations were just too high. Based on this I’m going to score it generously in hopes that my next attempts are more satisfying. Next time I’m going to forgo the honey and try a bit of milk/cream and see if that gives this tea more of the decadent heft I was hoping for.

This tea came as part of the bestsellers sampler pack so I thought I would give it a try. It tastes exactly like Pina Colada. The only problem is I am not a fan of Pina Coladas. I am going to avoid rating this one because I definitely won’t be drinking it again but anyone looking for a Pina Colada tea should definitely invest in this one. Into the swap box this goes.