Tisane Information:
Leaf Type: Honeybush
Where to Buy: 52Teas
Tisane Description:
So every year at about this time, I start to get upset that I didn’t get more eggnog while it was in the stores. Please tell me: why on earth do they only carry eggnog just before Christmas? I would really like to know. It’s too delicious not to be able to get it at other times.
So, this is not the same at all, but it’s a pretty darn good substitution if you ask me. I’ve blended our caffeine-free honeybush with cinnamon chips and some amazing organic eggnog flavors, even a bit of bourbon and brandy flavors tossed in for good measure.
Learn more about this tisane here.
Taster’s Review:
When this Eggnog Honeybush Blend was announced as the “Tea of the Week” for January 13, I found myself thinking that honeybush would be the perfect base for eggnog flavors. The sweet, nutty notes of honeybush would marry nicely with the creamy, custard-y notes of eggnog.
And this is pretty good! Freshly poured and piping hot, the flavors are kind of muddled, but, after a few minutes of cooling time, I found the flavors really popped. I can now taste creamy vanilla notes, and an egg-y, custard-y sort of flavor that is really yummy.
The honeybush is indeed the right pairing for the eggnog flavors. The natural flavors and sweetness of the honeybush work well with the flavors of eggnog as well as the bourbon and brandy notes. The flavor of the “spirits” here aren’t too strong, tasting as though just a drizzle of booze was added to my glass of eggnog (or perhaps I should say my cup of warm eggnog!)
I am glad that the cinnamon notes here are subtle. Too much cinnamon and this would have lost it’s “eggnog-y” taste, I think. However, as I read the above description, I couldn’t help but think that it would be even better with nutmeg. Nutmeg is my favorite spice, and I add it to almost everything. And on the very rare occasion that I do have a glass of eggnog (very rare – we’re talking less than once a year – probably closer to once every three years) I always take out a nutmeg nut and grind some fresh nutmeg on top of my eggnog.
So, just to satisfy my own palate because I think it might have been missing the nutmeg, I poured myself a second cup of this Eggnog Honeybush and shaved a little bit of fresh nutmeg over my cup and stirred it and then added a splash of almond milk to the cup. YUM! This is the way to serve this tisane. It’s so good!
Rumchata Honeybush from 52Teas
Tisane Information:
Leaf Type: Honeybush
Where to Buy: 52Teas
Tisane Description:
My helper Kelley has been hounding me about making a Rumchata blend for a while, so I decided to finally give in. She also thinks we should do a Hobbit tribute tea called “Second Breakfast” but when I tell her that second breakfast should include bacon she shrieks at me that I’m a sick man. (You should know that whenever we blend the bacon teas, she whines about it for at least an hour after we’ve finished. In her defense, the bacon flavoring is VERY pungent when we first blend those and admittedly it’s not my favorite scent either.) In any event, I think she’s got a real winner here. This is a sort of spiced, creamy rum with elements of horchata, almonds, cinnamon and other spices and a sweet creamy finish. Honeybush seems a natural compliment to it. I think you guys are going to like it a lot.
Learn more about this tisane here.
Taster’s Review:
When I learned that 52Teas’ tea of the week for the week of December 9th was to be a Rumchata Honeybush blend, I was excited to try it! I haven’t tried Rumchata and I didn’t even know it was a real thing until the other day when I saw a bottle of it in the liquor section of my local grocery store. But, I LOVE horchata and the idea of horchata mixed with rum sounds pretty darned yummy to even this tea-totaler.
And it is yummy! When I first opened the package, the smell of rum is pretty strong, so I worried a little that this would taste all of rum and not so much horchata. But, there is a nice distribution of the flavoring here, I taste rum, but I also taste horchata … and actually, I might taste more horchata than I do rum.
The cinnamon notes are nice and warm, and the almond notes add a touch of sweetness as well as warmth. This blend doesn’t go overboard with the cinnamon. It’s a light touch of cinnamon. And there is a creamy, vanilla-y, rice-like note that I taste that mimics the horchata flavor.
The honeybush base is a nice choice for this blend, although I can’t help but think that a genmaicha blend would have worked even better. (The toasted rice flavor would have been just the thing to elevate the horchata flavor.) But I do like the nutty, sweet flavor of the honeybush here. It adds a nice backdrop for the flavors.
Overall, a really tasty honeybush blend. I drank my first cup of this straight up with no sweetener or other additions and it was delightful. I like it better, though, when I brew it strong (I add just a little extra leaf) and then add a light sprinkling of turbinado sugar (about a pinch worth of sugar) to accentuate the spices and just a splash of almond milk. The almond milk really does wonders for this blend. Rice milk might work well with this too!
Very Big Hill Dew Honeybush Tisane from 52Teas
Tisane Information:
Leaf Type: Honeybush
Where to Buy: 52Teas
Tisane Description:
Several people from our Southern Boy Teas Kickstarter campaign requested that we make a Mountain Dew inspired iced tea. I was thinking about how I would do it, and I kept thinking how good this would be as a honeybush blend. So here we have caffeine-free African honeybush with lemon balm, lemon verbena, lemon myrtle and organic flavors. This is YUMMY. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.
Learn more about this tisane here.
Taster’s Review:
OK … I cracked up laughing when I read the name of this honeybush tisane from 52Teas: Very Big Hill Dew. Maybe I have a twisted, whacked sense of humor. Because when I shared the name of the tisane with my husband, he didn’t think it was funny at all. Maybe his sense of humor is whacked.
Regardless, this is a really tasty tisane. I don’t drink a lot of soda, in fact, I can’t tell you when the last time was that I had a Mountain … err … soda by which this tisane was inspired. It’s been a long time. So, it would be difficult for me to say with confidence that this tastes like that soda. I do know that when I opened the package, it smelled like the soda, and that I know because my husband does drink it (well, the diet version of it), so I’m familiar with the aroma.
And this does have a soda-like taste. I can taste that bubbly, effervescent sort of taste. It’s light and refreshing. And there is a lot of lemon-y, lime-ish like flavors dancing on my palate. It’s very tasty.
The honeybush adds a sort of sweet, honeyed flavor to the cup, as well as a slight earthiness. Not exactly “nutty” the way I usually taste from a honeybush tisane. It’s just more of a slight earthy flavor that complements the lemon-lime notes in a really pleasing way.
It is sweet, a little bit tart and tangy, and very enjoyable. I drank a cup of it hot, and then I chilled the rest that I brewed and drank it iced. It’s better iced (it is a soda-inspired tea, after all), but, it’s still tasty served hot too. I found it to be a calming, relaxing cuppa – nice for the end of a busy day.
Champagne Cider Honeybush Blend from Butiki Teas
Tisane Information:
Leaf Type: Honeybush
Tisane Description:
A champagne cider cocktail for the day after the holiday party. Apple is the undercurrent of this fantastic flavour combination that really does taste like champagne. Add in spiced apples, hints of orange and a touch of natural sweetness and you get this incredibly unique tea.
Learn more about subscribing to Amoda’s Monthly Tea Tasting Box here.
Taster’s Review:
This Champagne Cider Honeybush Blend from Butiki Teas is really delicious. Of course, I certainly didn’t doubt that it would be, given the success that I’ve had with Butiki Teas’ blends. Stacy at Butiki Teas knows what she’s doing – she’s brilliant!
I don’t know that I’m tasting a lot of champagne here, but I can definitely smell the champagne in both the dry leaf and the brewed tisane. The flavor of the champagne is a little more difficult to discern, but I do pick up on the champagne-like taste when I slurp to aerate the liquid as I take a sip.
But I do taste the fruit! The orange, which can sometimes be an overly-prominent flavor in a tea or tisane, is instead a subtle note here. The apple is sweet and equally matched with the level of orange flavor. These fruit notes are softer flavors to mimic a “mulled” champagne cider.
And then we have the spices. The spices are also on the subtle side. I taste the notes of cinnamon and clove, but neither is overpowering the cup. Everything stays nicely balanced, even the cinnamon which can often be a selfish spice and take over. It doesn’t do that here, it stays gently warm … softly spiced.
I’m not typically all that excited about tisanes. That is to say, I’d rather drink a camellia sinensis tea than an herbal tisane like this honeybush blend. But, I do like this quite a bit. Butiki Teas really knocked this one out of the park!
Apple Cider Honeybush Tea from Zhi Tea
Tisane Information:
Leaf Type: Honeybush
Where to Buy: Zhi Tea
Tisane Description:
Apple cider tea. A new twist on an old favorite. Created by one of our ambitious and talented employees here at Zhi, this honeybush based herbal tea has a nice, soothing mellow flavor profile. Chock full of organic apple bits and cinnamon, the aroma is at once familiar and comforting. A zero caffeine beverage for any time of day or year, but especially great during the fall and winter as the days a darker, the air is cooler, and you just want to sit with a calming, flavorful cup of a gorgeous herbal tea.
Learn more about this tisane here.
Taster’s Review:
Yum! I’ve tried several teas that have attempted to capture the essence of apple cider, but I think that this Apple Cider Honeybush Tea from Zhi Tea has nailed it. I had my doubts as I was brewing it, of course, because there’s coconut in the blend (really, coconut!) and I couldn’t help but wonder what the shreds of coconut were doing in this tea.
But, it all melds together in a really delicious way. I noticed the coconut prominently in the first two sips, but after that, the coconut seemed to move off into the background and married with the other flavors, becoming more of a unified creamy and sweet note than a distinct coconut flavor.
Now I taste apple cider. The apple notes are sweet, and there are notes of spice from the cinnamon and cloves. The honeybush is not a strong, distinguished flavor, but it adds an interesting accent to the earthiness of the spices. The vanilla tones balance everything out, offering a flavor that is not so much vanilla, but more like the aforementioned coconut, it becomes seamless with the other flavors in the cup, bringing out the sweetness of the drink.
This is a delicious, autumnal honeybush blend. It’s something that I can see myself drinking on a regular basis!