This is the first in my Adagio honeybush sampler. [Looks around for Rabs…]
I am somewhat bewildered by my decision to buy the honeybush sampler, but at least I had the foresight not to buy more rooibos. I have been gradually consuming my rooibos stash to bring it down to reasonable levels. What is reasonable has changed since I bought the oversupply of rooibos. Now I think a couple or three really good ones is reasonable for me since I’m not loving it these days.
The only honeybush I’ve had until now has been in bags, the Numi and the Tazo. I still have some of each of those, though I’ve used up a fair bit of the Tazo sweetening too-tart fruit blends.
I’m sniffing this in the tin and thinking it smells a bit woodier than I remember honeybush being; kind of disappointingly rooibos-like. That’s the main smell I get, with mango behind it. Which sort of worries me.
Fortunately, the addition of water works a sort of transformation, whereby the mango aroma becomes pretty much the main event. Wow! There’s just a little bit of a honey fragrance as well, but the wood has vamoosed. The liquor is a reddish color with a bit of orange and brown as well.
The flavor seems to be right in between the dry smell and the steeped smell. Mango, but some reedy flavor as well. I just read Rabs’ note about steeping longer and I will try that next time. Losing the reedy flavor would make this much nicer. As it is, it’s a little like sucking on mango-flavored bamboo. Which, surprisingly, isn’t as bad as it sounds, but I’d prefer to be able to focus on the mango flavor to the exclusion of the earthy cellulose.
::waves hands around:: Here I am!!!!! I’m glad that you didn’t hate this one ;) Every single time I have this I think of lotion. But maybe mango-flavored bamboo would be more apt. I really should steep me some of this tonight.