Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Honeybush
Where to Buy: Zoomdweebies
Tea Description:
Our cotton candy iced teas have been a big hit, so I decided we really should have a caffeine-free, honeybush version.
Learn more about this tea here.
Learn about SBT’s subscriptions here.
Taster’s Review:
I love the cotton candy teas that Zoomdweebies creates. So I was confident that I’d enjoy this one too.
And I do.
I way, way oversteeped this – but because it’s a honeybush blend, I wasn’t worried. When I say “way, way oversteeped” what I mean is that I infused 1 quart of water with the sachet for over 30 minutes.
I forgot to set my timer and I stepped away and then I looked at the clock a half an hour later and remembered that I had this tea steeping! Yikes!
But again, no worries. And no bitterness. Honeybush just doesn’t get bitter. The same is true of rooibos. However, I’ve found that if you use too hot of water to steep either one, the leaves may impart a funky, sour wood kind of flavor that I don’t really enjoy. But since I heated the water to 195°F rather than boiling, I didn’t have to worry about that funky flavor either.
The sweet, sugary cotton candy flavor is strong and I like it with the honeybush base. The lightly sweet flavor of the honeybush highlights the sweet candy notes. I don’t taste a strong nutty or woodsy note from the honeybush. I taste some background flavors of the honeybush, but it doesn’t overpower the fluffy notes of cotton candy.
This flavor works really well with the honeybush, in fact, I think that I might prefer the honeybush base to either the black tea or the green tea versions of cotton candy iced teas from Southern Boy Teas!
Another yummy iced tea. Very refreshing!
Strawberry Lemonade Flavored Honeybush Iced Tea from Southern Boy Teas
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Honeybush
Where to Buy: Southern Boy Teas
Tea Description:
Premium organic caffeine-free honeybush with organic flavors.
Learn more about this iced tea here.
Learn how to subscribe to SBT’s tea of the week here.
Taster’s Review:
I could really smell the strawberry lemonade-ish-ness of this blend the moment that I tore open the pouch! It smelled like a pitcher of yummy strawberry lemonade!
When I first saw this blend on the website, though, I wasn’t as confident about it. Oh sure, I love strawberry lemonade. But I wasn’t really sure how I’d like these flavors combined with the natural nutty flavor of honeybush. It just didn’t seem like something that would work well.
Well, I was wrong. Please don’t tell my husband I admitted that. It’s much better that he operate under the notion that I’m always right.
This is really tasty. The strawberry and lemonade notes are strong and forward, while the nutty, sweet notes of the honeybush are a little off to the background and don’t really obstruct the flavors of the sweet-tart lemonade and strawberry.
The lemonade is the prominent flavor. It’s tart, but not pucker-y tart. There is some sweetness to it thanks to the strawberry. The tartness comes through strongest at the finish, when I taste both the sour notes of the lemon as well as the tingly berry tart. There is some sweetness from the honeyed notes of the honeybush base.
Something else that I found interesting: as I neared the bottom of the glass, I started to pick up on this creamy taste. I don’t usually get a strong “creaminess” from honeybush. Occasionally the nutty flavors translate into a slight creaminess but this time, the creaminess was strong enough that I really took notice of it. Nice! “Cream” is not a flavor that I would normally associate with Strawberry Lemonade but I like it here.
It’s a really tasty and refreshing iced tea. I’d recommend keeping a couple of packages of this on hand for when you’re having guests over – this is the kind of tisane that everyone will enjoy. It’s a funky twist on the Arnold Palmer!
Maple Vanilla Honeybush from 52Teas
Tisane Information:
Leaf Type: Honeybush
Where to Buy: 52Teas
Tisane Description:
This week’s tea is a new blend of caffeine-free honeybush, vanilla bean pieces, marigold petals and organic vanilla and maple flavors. This is an awesome relaxing night-time blend.
Learn more about this tisane here.
Learn more about 52Teas’ subscriptions here.
Taster’s Review:
I’m not generally all that excited about the honeybush blends from 52Teas. I mean, I usually like them alright and some of them I enjoy quite a bit. But when I read the announced flavor of the week and it happens to be a honeybush flavor, I can’t say that I’m all giddy about it. But this one … this one I was excited about. I love maple. I love vanilla. And the idea of maple and vanilla together with the naturally nut and honey notes of honeybush? Yeah, that sounds pretty darned tasty!
And it is. This is the perfect late-night snack when you want something yummy to satisfy that sweet tooth craving. Sweet, creamy vanilla. Nutty flavors from the honeybush. The maple … mmm! And there is a light honey-like note in the background that sort of melds with all these flavors. This is deliciously, decadently sweet!
To brew this, I put 3 bamboo scoops of the tisane in the basket of my Breville One-Touch tea maker, and then added 500ml of freshly filtered water to the kettle. The reason I added 1 extra scoop of tisane is that I generally do add a little extra leaf to honeybush and rooibos blends. They tend to have a slightly thinner body and I feel that the little extra leaf really helps enhance the flavor. I set the parameters for 10 minutes steep time at 195°F.
And like I said – yumminess! This would make the ideal dessert substitute for someone who is looking to cut the calories and fat without losing out on the flavor of a delicious dessert. This really does taste like an indulgent dessert. Like vanilla bean ice cream that’s been topped with real maple syrup and a sprinkling of chopped nuts.
Because it has that decadent flavor, I think that this is best hot. Sure, it still tastes good as it cools, but there’s something remarkably cozy about it when it’s served hot. It’s like comfort food. It’s like that big chunk of cake that you eat to coddle the broken heart after a break up, but it won’t keep you from fitting in that little black dress next weekend!
Pina Colada Flavored Honeybush Iced Tea from Southern Boy Teas
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Honeybush
Where to Buy: Zoomdweebies
Tea Description:
Premium organic caffeine-free honeybush with organic flavors.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
I’m not big on alcoholic drinks. In fact, I can’t tell you when the last time was that I last had a drink but if I were to guess, I’d say it’s been several months and that would have been one drink and I probably didn’t even finish it. I’m just not big on alcohol, I much prefer tea. I’m drunk on tea.
But I do like this Pina Colada Flavored Honeybush Iced Tea from SBT! It’s really tasty. The honeybush base is ideal because it adds a pleasant honeyed sweetness and the nutty notes of the herb add a nice dimension of flavor to the tea.
The pineapple is sweet and balanced with the flavor of coconut. I like that these two flavor profiles are so well matched. They aren’t competing with one another and one doesn’t overpower the other. They are content partners in this tropical tea-tail. I’m picking up on light notes of rum too. A light touch of rum that allows the tropical flavors to shine through.
And I love how easy it is to brew these teas from Southern Boy Teas. I hot brewed this pitcher of tea, bringing 1 quart of water to 195°F and steeping the large sachet of tea for 9 minutes. Then I poured the hot tea into my favorite glass iced tea pitcher and brought a second quart of water to 195°F and resteeped the pouch for 11 minutes. Because honeybush is a tisane with low tannins, you can steep it for longer periods of time without bitterness. This is the best way to get a full flavor from the tisane.
This is a really refreshing tisane. I almost wish I had tried it a couple of months ago when we were in the middle of one of the hottest summers I can remember. It would have made a great summertime “escape” for the taste buds. Then again, it’s kind of a nice getaway for the taste buds now that we’re experiencing a rather wet autumn. Hey, I still need some cold refreshment on days like this, don’t you?
Caramel Peanut Iced Honeybush Tea from Southern Boy Teas
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Honeybush
Where to Buy: Zoomdweebies
Tea Description:
Premium organic caffeine-free honeybush with organic flavors.
Learn more about this tea here.
Learn about SBT’s subscriptions here.
Taster’s Review:
OK, I have to admit that I was just a little bit weirded out by this flavor before I tried it. It’s been a difficult road to get me to embrace the idea of peanut and peanut butter flavored teas. I don’t know why it sounds so weird to me given all the weird flavors that I’ve tried up to this point but something about tea and peanut butter just didn’t sound all that appealing to me. And while I have come around from that way of thinking and I have enjoyed quite a few peanut and peanut butter flavored teas, the idea of a caramel peanut flavored ICED tea sounded weird. The peanut … worked OK as a hot tea but I was less convinced of an iced tea actually tasting good.
But this is really good. The caramel and peanut flavors work very well together, both accentuating each other in a really pleasant way, and the honeybush seems to elevate these flavors in a very tasty way. The natural nutty tones of the honeybush lend some depth to the peanut flavor while the sweet honey notes highlight the caramel notes.
To brew this, I used the “hot brew” method, bringing 1 quart of freshly filtered water to 195°F and steeping the sachet for 9 minutes. Then I repeated the process for the second quart, resteeping the sachet for 12 minutes. Then I chilled it overnight and now I have a pitcher full of ice-cold, naturally caffeine-free honeybush tea!
I’ve tried a few of the honeybush iced teas from SBT at this point and I think that this one is my favorite so far, which really surprises me because as I said in the first paragraph, I wasn’t expecting a whole lot from this blend. But this one definitely gets two enthusiastic thumbs up from me.