Honeybush Hazelnut

This is quite the interesting experience. There’s an awesomely powerful nose on the loose leaf itself, dominating any other possible notes, and on the brewed tea as well. Both reek (in a good way) of the sweet and nutty hazelnut flavor.

The loose leaf is pretty small, lots of little pieces with great brownish and red colors. It yields a light golden liquor that is quite nice. I’ve never actually had honeybush before, just it’s cousin rooibos, but this had none of the bitterness or crushing earthiness of the rooibos. I’m not sure if it’s because of the honeybush or if the hazelnut is masking those tastes.

When it comes down to it, the flavor of the tea is so-so. I’d place it generously on the bland, flavorless side. However, that doesn’t fully dampen my feelings as I still enjoy the punch offered by the aroma. Since I’m not a fan of coffee but have always enjoyed the idea, the smell kinda reminds me of the fancy coffee treats they serve at Starbucks. So I feel all mature like I’m drinking a coffee drink. Is that a legit reason to enjoy a tea?

The Final Sipdown: Day 4.2

Y’all, we are in the middle of a RAIN. STORM. I can hear it coming down in sheets on the other side of my window shade and, oh yes, right on cue – thunder. Rain like this makes me wish I had a screened in porch to enjoy it from, but as I don’t I’ll settle for making some more tea and finding a blanket.

The wet…leaves?…smell of a strange melange of butter and cedar sawdust and [unsurprisingly] hazelnut. The tea is OUCH. Too hot to drink.

Sniffing the hot liquid, I get a whiff of butter + hazelnut again with an added note of popcorn, and that makes me excited to retry this tea. I’m catching up on last week’s episode of Castle, so I’ll wait patiently for this to cool so I can try again it. I’ll just sit here and smell it while the rain pounds down. Waiting patiently. Waiting…patiently. Watching a commercial about Djibouti. Djibouti is fun to say. So is

Argh, impatient. Going to try this again.

Hmm. Bother. I’m remembering why I rated this so low. It tastes like cardboard. Specifically…tongue depressors. Like the taste of a popsicle stick once the popsicle was gone. That’s what this tea tastes like. Except it doesn’t even seize that completely as it’s watery.

Blast. That was a disappointment. I’m going to grab tea number three. In the meantime, however, I’m going to continue to smell this. Mmm…

Teas Downed: 11

Just finished reading Sense & Sensibility this weekend. In celebration, I am enjoying a good cuppa and watching the delightful film adaptation with Emma Thompson & Hugh Grant.

thanks Liberteas!

Creamy, Nutty, Sweet, Honey-like, hint of sweet potato, yeah…this is nice! The contrast of sweet and hazelnut is winning, here! Neat!

Thank you to Sare for this sample!
This was a very old swap, but it still retained lots of its flavour. The hazelnut was apparent and the honeybush was sweet. A decent night time treat with a tiny splash of vanilla creamer.
I think I would have steeped it longer maybe, try to get some more flavour out of it. Oh well, if I ever come across it again I guess!

Opened my sample bag of this last night. I was so tired, all I can really remember is that the dry leaf smelt gorgeous, and reminded me of Adagio’s Chestnut from the Holiday Cheer sampler. I drank it black, since that’s what I seem to do with honeybush generally, and found it on the sweet side for my tastes. Pleasant, though, and with a clearly defined hazlenut flavour. I’ll add a more detailed tasting note when I actually managed to drink it AND think about it!

On a related note, my Adagio fandom samplers arrived this morning. The European site has just started stocking them — only Sherlock and Doctor Who for now (I suppose because they’re inspired by BBC programmes?). I don’t place many orders with Adagio now, but I couldn’t resist these! I’m really looking forward to trying them, but my first complaint is that the tins are leaky. I had some tidying up to do when they arrived, as some of them had managed to find their way out of the hinges, which have gaps in. Not great, but fortunately not too much lost. I was pretty intrigued on the whole, though, and had a quick look on the US site to see what else might be coming this way in the future. Then I saw the Game of Thrones and My Little Pony samplers. Oh my, MAJOR WANT! Hopefully if the first two sell well in the UK, the rest will be stocked eventually…I imagine I’m in for quite a wait, though, given how far the European site seems to lag behind the US one — you guys have got loads of cool things on there that I just can’t access. I almost wish I hadn’t looked now, because I’ve made myself impatient. Perhaps I can persuade someone to buy them for me and ship them over…It’s so unfair sigh

I used to think that I was a huge fan of honeybush. Now, I’m not so sure. I find that a lot of the ones I’m trying these days are a lot darker and more earthy than the ones that inspired my initial love, and this tea is not an exception. I had to add sugar to be able to remove the harshness of the roasted bush, and be able to enjoy the hazelnut flavour that is there and pleasant.

Overall not a great cup, and one I’m not planning on buying again.

ETA: Halfway through and the artificial flavouring is making my stomach queasy. Definitely not one for me.

This is really good. The hazelnut is sweet, creamy and nutty, and the natural nutty flavor of the honeybush is a perfect match. Sweet, honey-esque, and very autumnal. It’s time to curl up with a good book and a sweet cuppa!

This was another adagio honeybush flavored tea that I really didn’t like the scent of in the package – I think it’s just way to strong for me. When I took a whiff from a distance it was fine.
The brewed tea actually smells a lot like hazelnut coffee, or coffee with hazelnut creamer. I love the scent of hazelnut, so this is definitely a good thing.
I like the flavor of this way more than the vanilla honeybush. Where that tasted artificial, this tastes nutty and nice. The hazelnut and the honeybush really play well together.

This is my second cup of honeybush tea tonight – 10:40 and I’m trying to go to sleep. As opposed to last night when I must have been way too caffeinated. I lay in bed drowsing unable to fall asleep until 7am at which point I thought in foggy horror “oh my god, what if I’ve become one of those people who are unable to sleep and then they just die?”
After thinking that, however, I was able to fall asleep and grab a few hours of sleep. Incredibly, I was fine today after staggering into the kitchen and grabbing a cup of tea.
My point here is, hopefully the honeybush will save me from a caffeine induced all-nighter. (And where was whatever kept me up last night hiding when I was in college and actually wanted to pull all nighters?)

I was excited to find a hazelnut flavored tea. Back in the days when I used to consume coffee, I would always go for anything hazelnut – be it flavored coffee itself or the flavored creamer. And so, I just had to grab a sample of this one seeing as love both hazelnut and honeybush.

It’s not a bad one by any means, but it’s definitely lacking. Unlike in the coffee I used to drink, the flavor of the hazelnut doesn’t carry over into the tea. As to be expected, I really like the smell of it, but that’s where it ends. I’m fooled in to thinking I’ll be enjoying hazelnut only to discover I’m just drinking honeybush. The flavor would probably be brought out more by adding sweetener, but I think the sweetness would just be overwhelming for me.