Molasses Spice Cookie Honeybush fromm 52Teas. . .

I used this tea as an experimental “guinea pig” in an attempt to figure out if this article was true.

For those of you who are busy today, the upshot of the article was that the “scientific” best way to make tea is to microwave it.

I made this tea a few weeks ago (traditionally), and forgot to review it. But I have a pretty good memory of how it was. So I decided to drop the tea into my gravity steeper and zap the whole shebang for a minute and a half.

The result: weak tea that wasn’t even hot.

I put the tea in there for another minute and a half. Then I left the tea in the steeper for anther 5 minutes. The result was the same basic tea that I’d made the old-fashioned way. But with more work.

Enough experimenting. Let’s get to the review.

This is a great chai slammed together with sweet honeybush. The creator of the tea was worried there wasn’t enough cinnamon, but I think that the lesser amount of cinnamon allows the other flavors a moment in the spotlight.

The honeybush is very sweet and creamy. It’s a great contrast against the chai. The result is kind of a gingerbread/snickerdoodle vibe. I see where the author was going with that. It’s not my favorite kind of cookie, so I don’t have a strong point of reference, but I have eaten chunks of gingerbread houses*, and I think it’s close.

* It’s a Christmas tradition. I start devouring scraps. Sometimes off people’s works-in-progress.

Happy sipping, Internet!


Here’s the scoop!

Leaf Type:  Honeybush
Where to Buy:  52Teas
Description

This tea is no longer available but click below for teas that are.

Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!

White Chocolate Samoa by The NecessiTeas

Yay, a white chocolate coconut tea! With caramel! And it’s caffeine free, so it’s great as a nightcap.

I approximated the steeping instructions for this tea, noticing as I did so that there’s plenty of coconut visible in the dry tea. It has a sweet creamy smell even when dry. Once the tea is steeped, it turns out to be about the color of apple cider, but a bit darker. It has a light, pleasant flavor and fragrance from the very first sip. I found it to have a creamy flavor and aftertaste (presumably from the coconut).

 As the description says, it’s more of a “spin” on the idea of a Samoa cookie than a total reproduction of the cookie flavor, since it does have honeybush, which is noticeable in the flavor profile (and not present in the original cookie). The honeybush does add a nice touch, though; it complements and melds with the sweetness and creaminess of the coconut, and the caramel flavor adds even more sweetness. I think it’s a great flavor combination overall. As usual, I can’t single out the white chocolate flavor here, but maybe it’s not supposed to stand out.
Both the aroma and the flavor of this tea are lovely. It’s very very sweet (like a cookie) meaning it’s great as a dessert tea. I also tried it with milk, although I decided it’s already sweet enough without sugar. The milk brings out the coconut creaminess and the honeybush tang (almost like acidity or astringency) but muffles the caramel.

Altogether I found this tea very enjoyable, although I don’t think it’ll end up in my rotation for daily drinking. It’s very heavy on the coconut (since it contains both actual coconut and coconut flavor) and on the sugar factor, so it’s a sure winner if coconut is your favorite flavor ever and you take lots of sugar in your tea!


Here’s the scoop!

Leaf Type: Honeybush/Herbal
Where to Buy: The NecessiTeas
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Growing up I was a Girl Scout and I was great at “selling” cookies. I would polish off a box of Samoas after school while working on my homework. Chock up another “sale” my parents had to chip in for. Gone are the days when it was okay to eat an entire sleeve of cookies. So here’s my guilt-free version of the classic Samoa. As always, I like to put a spin on things so I used white chocolate instead then added sweet caramel and toasted coconut to recreate an old favorite.

Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!

#FanaticFriday: Peach Cheesecake Honeybush from 52Teas

I’m a huge fan of 52Teas. Always have been. So I thought I would take over SororiTea Sisters today and chat about a few new offerings from 52Teas!

Today I was just craving a dessert tea and I have to say this one hit the spot perfectly for me!

52Teas creates an amazing line of dessert teas that satisfy any sweet tooth. With the leaves starting to fall and almost at the end of September, I was craving a tea that had a fall touch and a dessert feel.

Peach Cheesecake Honeybush has a lovely gathering of fall like spices with a honeybush background. The tea itself has even a fall look with the lovely large chunks of peach and pops of lighter yellows on a bed of brown honeyhbush. Doesn’t get more fall than that!

Brewed with fresh boiled water and allowed to steep for 5 minutes, this tea had a lovely spiced peach aroma that made my mouth water. I couldn’t wait for the tea to finish steeping.

Once I was all set and the tea cooled for a moment , I took my first sip. Pops of vibrant fresh peaches spiced to perfection with cinnamon and a hint of ginger with a lush silky creamy finish.

This blend is sweet with just the right amount of spice to give the tea the much needed contrast. I’m crazy about this tea right now and have almost tanked out my taster size that I received in my monthly subscription box. This is one I’m going to have to think about getting a larger size.

Peach Cheesecake Honeybush is one of those perfect teas that has that subtle fall feel with those pops of vibrancy that give you all the tea feels!


Here’s the scoop!

Leaf Type: Herbal/Honeybush
Where to Buy: 52Teas

52teas3_1430856114__73092Description

When I was determining the tea menu for this month, I knew I wanted to do one last peach tea as the summer wanes. I also wanted to do a cream cheese type of tea because it’s been a little while since our last cream cheese offering. So I decided to bring these two flavors together to create a Peach Cheesecake Honeybush!

I started with organic honeybush – I thought that the natural nutty-like flavors of the honeybush would make a nice base for the flavors of peach and cheesecake. Then I added freeze-dried peach chunks and cinnamon and natural flavors to create a sublime, dessert-y treat. This blend is all organic, gluten-free, allergen-free and naturally caffeine-free – not to mention delicious!

Taster size is approximately 15g.

organic ingredients: honeybush, freeze-dried peaches, cinnamon, ginger root, calendula petals and natural flavors.

Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!