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.
Root Beer Rooibos from Trail Lodge Tea
Tisane Information:
Leaf Type: Rooibos & Honeybush
Where to Buy: Trail Lodge Tea
Tisane Description:
This tea was made by using some ingredients that were used in old fashioned home made root beer. We added honeybush to the rooibos to give it a natural sweetness. This way you can have an all natural, chemical free alternative to soda. If you do want the extra sweetness found in root beer, just add some sugar or natural sweetner and you will still have a natural treat. Caffeine free. Ingredients: Fair Trade CertifiedTMorganic rooibos, and honeybush, Fair Trade CertifiedTM Organic Whole Cloves, and Organic Cinnamon, Organic Ginger, Organic Star Anise, Orange Peel, and Organic Natural Flavoring.
Learn more about this flavored rooibos here.
Taster’s Review:
This Root Beer Rooibos from Trail Lodge Tea is quite tasty! It’s actually a whole lot better than I anticipated it to be. I like that they chose to use a base of organic rooibos and honeybush, I think that the slightly woody/nutty flavors of these two herbs seem to heighten the overall root beer taste, and the natural honey-esque sweetness makes this a very pleasant beverage.
A quick review of the ingredient list, and one might think that they’re about to drink a chai blend, but, this doesn’t taste like the typical chai, despite the ingredients. It definitely tastes more like root beer than it does a masala chai. The spices used here really do create a very “root beer-ish” kind of taste, and they are skillfully blended to keep the drink from tasting “spicy” – rather, it tastes like … well, like I said, it tastes like root beer! All that’s missing is the bubbly carbonation.
I do think that this root beer taste could be elevated even more if just a touch of spearmint was added to the blend. Not enough to make it minty … just enough to give it that zesty note of root beer. As it is though, it’s really quite tasty. It’s good served hot (even though it does seem a little weird to be drinking a hot cup of root beer) but it’s even tastier iced. If you decide to go ahead and ice this, I recommend adding some sugar (go with turbinado sugar!) to bring out the flavors in the chilled tisane.
If you’re a fan of root beer (and really, who DOESN’T like root beer?), you really should try this. I’m wondering how this would taste if I added a scoop of vanilla ice cream to make a float … I’ll bet it’s amazing!
Mango Watermelon Honeybush Tisane from 52Teas
Tisane Information:
Leaf Type: Honeybush
Where to Buy: 52Teas
Tisane Description:
On to the tea: it’s one of our awesome caffeine-free honeybush blends, a sweet refreshing blend of organic watermelon and mango flavors with real freeze-dried mango. This is pure, sweet nectar. I’m sure it’s good hot too, but as an iced tea it is a thing of true beauty, just pure refreshment.
Learn more about this tisane here.
Taster’s Review:
Yummy! This Mango Watermelon Honeybush Tisane from 52Teas is so yummy! I was pretty sure I’d like it, I mean, I love mango, I love watermelon … and I like honeybush … so I had every confidence that I’d enjoy this tisane.
The mango and the watermelon are really quite nicely suited for one another. I can taste both of these fruits, and they are sweet. The watermelon flavor here reminds me of the taste of watermelon candy, and the mango reminds me of the mango nectar that you can buy in the cans in the fruit juice aisle. It is juicy and refreshing!
And even though honeybush tends to be sweet (hence the name) it does seem to cut through some of the sweeter “candy-like” notes here, adding some earthiness and a nutty flavor to the cup, and creating a nice, round taste.
Overall, this is a winner – one that will be great iced and one that kids as well as adults can enjoy (and it’s naturally caffeine-free so you don’t have to worry about overstimulating the kids!)
Pineberry Honeybush from 52Teas
Tisane Information:
Leaf Type: Honeybush
Where to Buy: 52Teas
Tisane Description:
There really IS such a thing as a pineberry. Supposedly it’s a strawberry that tastes like a pineapple and looks like the image on our label, which to me looks kind of like what marshmallows would look like if marshmallows were a fruit.
So, of course OUR take on the Pineberry is probably nothing like what a real Pineberry tastes like, which I imagine not very many people would know anyway, but rather what I imagine a Pineberry SHOULD taste like.
I think it should taste like sweet, golden honeybush with accents of pineapple, strawberry and marshmallow–so I created this blend with real freeze-dried pineapple and strawberry bits and marshmallow root. It’s a little different, but then, so is 52teas.
Learn more about this tisane here.
Taster’s Review:
Note: As I was writing this review, it seemed to come out more as a note to Frank (Chief Zoomdweebie at 52Teas) than it did a review … but it is still a review … so, since it does seem a bit like a note to Frank, I decided to craft it that way … I hope you enjoy my slightly different approach to a review today.
Dear Frank:
I’ve never tasted a pineberry. In fact, until I read the description of this tisane during the week of it’s release (April 8), I had never even heard of a pineberry. And since this Pineberry Honeybush from 52Teas is based upon what you think a Pineberry should taste like – I guess I will have to wait until a time when and if I should ever come across a pineberry in a market somewhere before I actually taste one.
However, I do like what your imaginary pineberry tastes like. Sweet with notes of strawberry, pineapple, and a lovely hint of marshmallow. YUM! And … I swear that I can taste an ever-so-subtle hint of pepper in this too, and I find that note to be so intriguing.
The honeybush is sweet and honey-esque, as I would expect it to be, with hints of a nutty background. I like that the honeybush is not a prominent flavor but that I can taste it, and it contributes to the overall cup in a very pleasant way. Perhaps the aforementioned hints of spice come from the honeybush, although I must admit that I don’t recall ever tasting spice notes from honeybush before (unless it was a spiced honeybush blend!)
I really like the way the sweet, nutty tones of the honeybush meld with the pineapple, and I think that you should explore the combination of pineapple and honeybush further. How about Pineapple Fondue Tisane: pineapple, chocolate, and honeybush, and put some marshmallow in there just for fun too … and while we’re exploring imaginary blends, I also really like the way the pineapple and the marshmallow work here, so a pineapple marshmallow green tea (or perhaps a white tea?) would be quite tasty too, I think.
And then there is the strawberry. The strawberry is sweet with just a whisper of tart. The strawberry notes taste authentic … no artificial strawberry flavors here! The strawberry with the marshmallow work nicely too. And since you’ve done Boo-Berry a few times, I think it’s time to work on FrankenBerry for Halloween this year: A strawberry marshmallow green tea.
Overall, I really enjoyed this Pineberry Honeybush a lot more than I thought I would. And I was pretty sure I’d like it, because your honeybush blends are usually tasty, and really, how do you go wrong with pineapple and strawberry and marshmallow? Answer: YOU don’t, and you didn’t.
Thank you for another delightful tisane.
Your Favorite Customer,
LiberTEAS
Organic Orange Chamomile Herbal Tisane from Fashionista Tea
Tisane Information:
Leaf Type: Herbal Tisane & Rooibos
Where to Buy: Fashionista Tea
Tisane Description:
Experience a sweet and velvety taste with an aroma of relaxation in this Orange Chamomile blend. This tisane is Zen but still has a complex finish with hints of lime, cinnamon and apple.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
This Organic Orange Chamomile Herbal Tisane from Fashionista Tea is an impressive tisane!
The first thing that impressed me is the appearance of the dry leaf – lots of large chamomile blossoms and not a lot of chamomile dust. I think that this is the one major factor that often turns me off when it comes to chamomile tisanes … that they are composed of crushed chamomile instead of the blossoms. The crushed chamomile produces a very off tasting tisane, in my opinion. I like that I can see the large, whole blossoms here.
And the flavor is very surprising! The combination of the green and red rooibos as well as the chamomile produces a pleasantly sweet taste that is slightly nutty with lovely apple-like notes. There is a touch of cinnamon to this as well … not a strong, dominate flavor, but enough to accentuate the apple-like taste in a really pleasant way.
The orange note is also surprising in that I had expected it to be a stronger flavor here, but, it is a soft orange taste … in keeping with the overall “softness” of the cup. This tisane doesn’t have a powerful flavor – it’s gentle. Flavorful – yes indeed. But it doesn’t bash me over the head with strong flavors. Another surprising thing about the orange in this cup is that it is more like a “citrus” taste … vaguely reminiscent of a citrus punch rather than a distinct orange-y taste. Like a combination of orange and lime. It’s quite enjoyable!
Yet another lovely surprise from the folks at Fashionista Tea! I have really enjoyed everything that I’ve tried from them!