HoneyBush from Numi. . . . .

by Hillary

I haven’t had honey since going vegan over eight years ago. I used to love honey in my tea. When I took my first sip of this tea, I felt like I was a kid drinking herbal tea with lots of honey in it. It has a beautiful aftertaste of honey. It’s perfectly outbalanced. It’s sweet without being too sweet, just like I remember honey.

Apparently honeybush is related to the rooibos plant. I can tell they’re related. Honeybush tea has a similar earthy taste just with a very pleasant sweet finish.

This tea is caffeine free so it is a delicious anytime tea. It would be an amazing dessert tea. I enjoyed this tea two ways. I had it both warm and iced and I loved it both ways. This is one of my favorite herbal teas and I’m just so glad I discovered it!

Just like rooibos tea, honeybush tea is full of antioxidants. I love drinking something that not only tastes so lovely, but is also so good for me as well.

If you haven’t tried honeybush tea yet, you need to do yourself the biggest favor and try it!

Here’s the scoop!

Leaf Type:  Honeybush
Where to Buy:  Numi
Description

From South Africa, our organic Honeybush is a flowering shrub that yields a rich earthy brew with sweet honey overtones. This secret healer is rich in antioxidants.

Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!

Hillary

Book reading, cat loving, tea sipping vegan.

This post was posted in Honeybush, Numi Organic Tea

Blueberry Muffin Honeybush from 52Teas. . . .

by VariaTEA

I love 52 Teas. They have a great selection of unique and exciting flavored teas thanks to their business model of releasing a new small batch custom blended hand-crafted tea each week. The only downfall? The flavors go fast so if you fall in love, you have to act quickly to make sure you get your hands on that particular tea before it is sold out. That, or you hope and beg and pray for the 52 Teas gods to bless you with a reblend of your beloved flavor. I mention this because this particularly tea, Blueberry Muffin Honeybush, is not currently available on 52 Teas website but it may return in the future.

The blueberry flavor of this tea is perfect. It is juicy and just a little sweeter than the fruit itself but that is because it is more reminiscent of the blueberries found in muffins which are more syrupy sweet than fresh blueberries. The honeybush, though a little woody, also contributes a honeyed baked goods flavor that helps sell the idea of blueberry muffins. On top of all that, this tea is a touch buttery which is like the cherry on top.

This tea is a great evening treat. Being based on honeybush means it is naturally caffeine free and that means even the caffeine-sensitive won’t be kept up at night after enjoying a cup.

Here’s the scoop!

Leaf Type:  Honeybush
Where to Buy: 52Teas
Description

This blend is not currently available but click below for blends that are.

Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!

VariaTEA

Hey there! My name is Rachel. I’m a twenty-something from Toronto, Ontario, Canada who loves dogs and has a bit of an obsession with tea. As a child I hated the stuff since all I ever knew was Red Rose (no offense to Red Rose). However, a few years ago that all changed. I was on a diet and desperate for new flavors without adding calories and that’s when I turned to tea. I started off by going to DAVIDsTEA and Teavana for all their dessert-inspired flavors, and since I didn’t know any better, I bought 100 grams each of about twenty-something different teas. This was okay for the teas I liked but for those I didn’t I needed to find some way of getting rid of them. Enter Steepster.com. This is where I met some incredible tea friends, discovered tea swaps, and learned of so many amazing tea companies. My desire to try all the teas grew and since joining three years ago I have tried over a thousand different teas. I have learned what ingredients I love and I have learned what flavors I don’t like. I determined my go-to brewing method is Western-style with no added milk or sweeteners, though I also enjoy cold brewing, iced teas, teapops, lattes, and smoothies. I have yet to brew gong-fu style but I hope to do so just as soon as I get the proper teaware to do it. About a year ago, I actually stopped drinking tea but as my stash of over 200 teas started aging I decided I needed to respark my interest. I chose to take a 365 days of tea challenge on Instagram in which I post a new tea picture every day. So far it has been rather successful as I find myself drinking (and buying) more and more tea each day. Plus it enabled CuppaGeek to find me and invite me here to SororiTea Sisters.

This post was posted in 52Teas, Honeybush

Pina Colada Honeybush from 52Teas. . . .

by Sophia

When I was a kid I had an obsession with pina coladas. As an adult, I still do. I actually have a funny story about them. I was at a restaurant with my parents and I was probably 6 years old. I ordered a pina colada. My parents used to always try it first, just in case the bartender put alcohol in it by accident. Well, that one particular time they didn’t taste it because we actually knew the owner of the restaurant and I guess they trusted that his bartenders were competent. Well, I was drinking my pina colada and I told my parents that it tasted yucky. Low and behold, there was alcohol in it! Go figure. As a 6 year old I was very freaked out and upset. Anyways, I got a new pina colada and all was forgiven!

Back to tea- I have never had a pina colada tea blend and was excited to try this one. I’ve said it before, but I really enjoy honeybush much more than rooibos. It is definitely a tea I gravitate towards when I am looking for caffeine free. Upon smelling the steeped liquid I could detect the honeybush and pineapple. I couldn’t really smell the coconut. Upon tasting this cup I could sort of detect pina colada flavor, but it was really light. I’m not sure if I would have screamed “pina colada” if you didn’t tell me the name of this tea. But when I think about it and try to detect it, I can.

Unfortunately, I did not get something that screamed creamy pina coladas from this blend. It was very light and I could mostly taste the honeybush. That said, it was still enjoyable. I think if someone is new to flavored teas and wants something light but yummy, this would be the tea for them!

Here’s the scoop!

Leaf Type:  Honeybush
Where to Buy:  52Teas
Description

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

Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!

Sophia

Hi, my name is Sophia. I am a first time mother to a beautiful little girl who will be 1 in July 2017. I spend my days at home with her and when I get a minute to myself, I usually spend that time making, drinking, or researching tea! My love for loose leaf tea is relatively new. When I was pregnant with my daughter, my mother (a tea addict herself) brought me to DAVIDsTEA. I enjoyed a cup of their Coconut Cream Pie Oolong and was instantly hooked! Since then, my addiction has grown to fill entire cabinets, and shows no sign of stopping. I am the creator of the Facebook group CommuniTEA where we have one big tea discussion. It is a great group for those new to the tea-world. I feel strongly about spreading the joy of loose leaf tea. I like making instructional videos and helping those that are new to the art of tea-making so that they, too, can share in the happiness that tea brings. I am excited to see where this hobby takes me and I will continue to spread the joy!

This post was posted in 52Teas, Honeybush

Molasses Spice Cookie Honeybush fromm 52Teas. . .

by SuperStarling

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!

SuperStarling

"Hey, everybody! I'm Leah, a graphic designer from Pennsylvania, United States. I live with my husband and rescue mutt in a house with colorful walls. I love fonts, colors, animals, flowers, novels, illustration, geeking out, and -- obviously! -- tea. I've only been heavily into tea for about a year, but I've found I tend to prefer loose blended black dessert teas. I normally drink them hot western style without anything added; if I add in some vanilla almond milk or honey, I promise I'll mention it! When I'm not blogging here, I'm blogging at leahlucci.com/starling or posting to Instagram (super_starling), so come say hi!"

This post was posted in 52Teas, Honeybush

Sweet Dreams from BlendBee. . . .

by Mary

You know when you find a tea company that you just love SO MUCH that you want to order their entire tea catalog? I have a small but mighty list– and just added one more. Blend Bee, will you be my tea-bff?

I recently ordered a design-your-own blend from Blend Bee (more on that to come), and the awesome owner, Jamah, told me she thought I’d be a fan of her Sweet Dreams tea, a lemony, custardy honeybush. And she was so right!

One of the reasons I love Blend Bee so much (besides the awesome aforementioned customer service) is that each tea isn’t just a great, flavorful brew, but comes packed with beneficial herbs with great health-supporting properties. Besides the incredible flavor in this brew (light, pillowy vanilla and sweet lemon), I’m also getting anti-inflammatory immune system support, digestive encouragement and more. Have I totally flaunted my tea-crush enough yet? Because it’s real, you guys. Blend Bee, let’s be bff-4-eva.

Here’s the scoop!

Leaf Type:  Honeybush
Where to Buy:  BlendBee
Description

This comforting and delicious Honeybush blend is perfect to help you wind down and relax. Rich and creamy, this blend helps with late night sweet cravings. Also, designed to help you detox while you sleep. Sweet Dreams!

Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!

Mary

Hi there! I'm Mary, a 27-year-old mental health professional living with my fiancé and our quirky kitten in the Midwest! I've loved tea for as long as I can remember-- in fact, I have vivid memory of being four or five in a tea shop and being mesmerized by all the tea flavors and proclaiming that I "was going to be kind of adult who drank tea, not coffee." A stint living (and tea-drinking my way through) London and twenty-some years later, I'm still channeling that sassy four-year-old and loving my tea habit. When I'm not sipping a cuppa, you'll find me reading, doing yoga, traveling, exploring my own city, planning our wedding and experimenting with different healthful and healing foods in my kitchen.

This post was posted in BlendBee, Honeybush