Strawberry Pie Honeybush

Best. night. evar. No really. tonight i think wins the prize for the best evening out here in beijing. One of the women who is also in to the city for the work we’re doing here, had a friend come pick us up so that we could go out. Tonight is the last night of Chinese New Year, so we went out to some pedestrian areas by the water. There was laughing, good food, fire crackers and fire works…music. lots of fun!

I’m having a cup of this before bed, though I’m not sure how much sleep i’ll get given that the fireworks are non stop tonight because it’s the last day. Hard to believe the weekend is over and it’s back to work in a few hours. ugh. At least the tea is helping me to relax and de-stress before bed.

Bleh. I am so self-destructive. I think I may have just ruined Valentine’s Day for myself/the boy because of my own insecurities. :/ It has not been a great week, and the trend looks to continue for at least another one. Apologies for potentially miserable future tasting notes.

Anyways. Haven’t had this in a while, so took some in a Timolino to the boy’s place today. Tasted pretty good. Tomorrow I will discover whether or not it leaves residual flavour in the silicone bits (although if I’m clever, I’ll throw a fruity tea in that mug so even if it is noticeable, it won’t ruin the tea).

I did it. I finally placed my 52 Teas order. I ended up with 19 different items and it came out to about $65. Not bad.

I am having a cup of this tasty tea to celebrate. When I first had this I loved it so much. It was the perfect tea. Now, though I still like it, I find myself longing for that first cup. The strawberry is a little lackluster today and I might even detect the pepper that others have mentioned. The cinnamon is also a tad flat today. With all that said, I swear it is still a good cup, just not great when compared to the explosion of strawberry pie flavor I remember.

SIPDOWN! Good thing too, because that Banana Pudding black tea really could not be passed up and I’m trying to hold strong with my “75 teas or less” rule. Although who am I kidding? I’m never going to be too far below 75… :)

This has always lended itself well to a latte and tonight is no exception. The strawberry is still reminiscent of pie filling, and though I’ve lost the pastry flavor over time, this is still pretty flavorful.

I liked this one while I had it, but I’m not sweating the fact it’s not in stock…. Frank has more than enough yummy tea in his inventory to keep my tastebuds occupied!

Oh my! I’ve had far too much caffeine today; I seriously need to shut’er down. Can anyone else hear my heart beat?!

Clearly I need something sans caffeine – Honeybush to the rescue!!!! That name doesn’t sound heroic enough, it should be something like Super-Honeybush! Or Honeybushman! Or Captain Honeybush I know… Cap’n honeybush! You know, like Cap’n crunch. I don’t think I’ve ever tried that cereal before, but ever since I was a kid that name has always made me laugh. What is going on? Why am I talking about a kid’s cereal? FOCUS!!! Yeesh!

Oh! Speaking of kids…. Time for another episode of strange childhood confessions! This tea kind of reminds me of the strawberry shortcake doll I had as a child. I’m probably remembering this all wrong because I’m hopped-up on caffeine, but I’m pretty sure I tried tasting my strawberry shortcake doll because it smelled so darn good. That was probably sometime last week… just kidding! Even though that was many many many years ago, I can guarantee that this tea tastes better than that old strawberry shortcake doll.

This attempt at tealogging is falling apart, Have I actually said anything useful? Hmmm…to recap: this tea tastes better than my childhood doll….yeah real useful Nadia! Hmmm …o.k., so to keep it in terms that I can use without distracting myself:
Tea? Good!
Reorder? Heck yes!

Whew! that required a lot of focus!

Wow! There are a lot of exclamation points in this tealog!

Darn you Caffeine!

Off to try and focus on my to do list!….

SQUIRREL!

The husband recently discovered that he enjoys honeybush teas so I ordered a pouch of this for us. When it came in the mail today, he smelled the tea and asked to try it. He was on his way to run some errands so he told me that he would likely just try a sip and let me have the rest of the mug because he wasn’t really in the mood for hot tea. However, he took one sip and finished the mug within 3 minutes. Then he asked me if this was a permanent or limited edition from 52teas. Apparently he really likes this!

Since I didn’t get a chance to drink this earlier, I made myself a pot tonight. It is delightfully flavorful and even has a hint of buttery pie crust. I’ve had this before but I don’t remember it being this good!

I was down to one teaspoon of this fabulous tea and then the mail man came and brought me not two ounces but FOUR ounces of this delightful tea. I am set, let the snow begin…have I mentioned that it was like 60 degrees here today…where is the snow? I told hubby that we lived in the wrong place!!!

Oh my. So juicy and sweet. It’s all strawberry with a smooth vanilla undercurrent and spicy cinnamon. Very tasty! I don’t know why I thought it would be dull compared to the Neopolitan Honeybush. I don’t know that this tea makes me think of pie, but cinnamon and strawberry are surprisingly excellent together.

This is my first attempt at cold brewing a honeybush. I think I should have probably used more leaf. The funky flavors that I tolerate for the sake of a caffeine free drink is also not present in the cold brew. The liquid is a nice transparent reddish brown instead of the usual dark murky liquor.

Another fabulous honeybush from Frank. Thank you , Kittenna for sharing some of this with me!

Another sipdown. This is usually a nighttime tea for me, but I felt dehydrated this morning so I decided to have a non-caffeinated tea to start off the day. This tea was a tasty one, but not my favorite of the honeybush teas from the Bestseller box. The flavor is indeed strawberry with a hint of cinnamon and brown sugar, but it never seemed to get flavorful enough for me, even after 10 minutes of steeping. Still a pretty tasty little tea, and I’m happy I had a chance to try it in the sampler! See previous notes :)

ETA – seems like I loves this tea in my previous review lol, maybe I just didn’t have enough leaf left in this cup? Haha ah well, maybe we shall mee again one day, Strawberry Pie :)

From last night but I was too lazy to post.

Ok so the first time I’d ordered this for myself, I was not really a fan because it tasted mostly like cinnamon. But I got some again now from KeenTeaThyme and I think the problem was not using enough tea. BECAUSE THIS IS SO GOOD.

It’s really sweet, which I think I’d expect with strawberry pie (also honeybush). The strawberry flavor I can actually get this time, almost like a strawberry jam flavor. It’s creamy and the spices are more under control. I need to remind myself to use 2 tsp for honeybush.