Raspberry Almond Cookie Honeybush

Happy National Junk Food Day! Today the prompt is to drink a tea with flavor notes of a favorite junk food.

I actually had a bit of trouble with this one, because most of the things that immediately stood out in my head I’ve already written reviews of quite recently (I don’t like “duping” reviews, unless it has been a substantial amount of time between the notes). For example, Marron Chocolat (because I love Nutella) or something like Candied Yams or my Tangerine-stuff Pu’erh (because Orange Slices are my favorite candy!) Lately I’ve been putting on a lot of cookie pounds, though, and this was the only tea I found in my collection with “cookie” in the name, so I went with this (I have not been very particular about what sort of cookies I’ve been nomming lately… they are all fair game!)

A Raspberry Almond cookie makes me think of those little thumbprint cookies with the raspberry jam in the center. I really like those, and my coworker makes some amazing thumbprint cookies! The aroma from the dry leaf is very sweet raspberry forward, though the honeybush has a quite strong aroma of its own. I can actually smell that “peppery” note I taste in honeybush.

The steeped cup smells like sweet/candied raspberry, honeyed nuts, and pepper. That’s pretty much what I’m getting in the flavor, as well. A very sweet raspberry, with a strong honeybush base with notes of nuts, oats, honey, and pepper. It’s a fine cup, but not one that stands out to me. I’d prefer the raspberry to be a little stronger/tangier in flavor, having more of a jammy quality, and while most of the flavors from the honeybush are very complimentary to a cookie, here that peppery note from the honeybush it taking me out of the cookie feel a bit too much.

I used up the rest of the packet making a latte with vanilla almond milk, and liked it more that way. Had a nice raspberry cream vibe, and the sweet milk hid the peppery taste from the honeybush.

This was a pretty enjoyable cuppa! I would say that it comes off as more almond than raspberry, in that way that is a little marizpan-like or almost sweet and boozy. I think the added richness and nutty and honey flavours of the honeybush really lean into and amplify that quality as well. The raspberry is nice and jammy and has a sweetness to it that works with the almond very well. I remember that AQ2T had a rapsberry almond blend that tasted a lot like Tootsie Roll Pops to me, so in the back of my mind I thought that this might be like that – or, at the very least, that it would just be strange.

I don’t know why raspberry/almond seemed like such a strange pairing to me when I first saw this tea – but then I stopped at thought about it and I really couldn’t figure out why I had just assumed it would be strange. Nuts are paired with all kinds of fruits and they work very well together – I’ve even had almond butter with raspberries before and it was great! It’s a good tea! My brain was just being weird the day I steeped it up, I guess.

Received my 52Teas January box today, and I’m so excited to try all of the blends! There are a couple that have been on my wishlist. This one really tastes just as the name describes. Very distinctly raspberry, with some nuttiness, and a crumbly cookie flavor. Super tasty!

Tea-Infused Hot Chocolate Sipdown (224)

This only steeped for under 4 hours and it’s definitely not as flavorful as the last one I had. It’s still good though with a nice raspberry punch to cut through the chocolate. This just has less almond and less cookie than before.

Additional notes: Sipdown of this one. I kind of wanted to finish it just so I could forget it was INSTEAD of my beloved Peachy Keen blend in the vote or something, if I’m remembering correctly. This one doesn’t hold a candle, IMO. Nothing special about it while Peachy Keen is amazing stuff. I guess I talk about it too much!
Edited to add: And I’m noticing now I rated this blend 85. But NOPE. I guess I love PEACHY KEEN too much!
2020 Sipdowns: 22 (AprTea – Zhang Ping Shui Xian Oolong Tea Fragrant Orchid Grade One + TeaRevv – Golden Turmeric)

Here is a new special earworm that seems fitting for these times… I had given up on anything Weezer since the Green album, BUT this is The Avalanches with River and this song is lovely: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nsjQ3Gblzys

A bit late on the Christmas Teas Box (of 2018), hehehe.

Cracked this one open and steeped it up today. First sniff in the pouch of leaf gave me cough syrup. Waiting for things to cool. Let’s see.

Hope the kid next door stops wailing before I get to this.

edit—ok, the wailing stopped and now the kid’s brother is leaping up and down. Eh. These people suck. Seriously.

The tea, however, has gotten better. The honeybush has calmed down the flavouring to a gentle raspberry muffin pastry. Not detecting any almond, but to be fair, I am coming down with a cold or the flu and my tastebuds are not what they could/should be. I am hoping that this is going to pass quickly and easily.

Swap Sample Sipdown! (69)

This one came from Kawaii433! I actually have a taster pouch of this as well.

I’m following Anne’s advice for this one and steeping it at a lower temperature to try to reduce the pepperiness that honeybush sometimes has.

I will say, it came out pretty tasty! The raspberry is the dominant flavor here for me, and it’s a nice fresh and tart raspberry note. But there is something a little medicinal – I’m not sure if it’s the almond or the honeybush? It’s not terribly strong, and melds somewhat with the raspberry as well.

I do get a little bit of a cookie-esque flavor here. I will say that overall this tea is very mild, I could do with a little bit more of everything!

Daily sipper choice. Upfront… Unfortunately, this one is not for me. When I opened the thermos, it smelled perfumey, flowery and like cough syrup, medicinal. Those two aromas are bothersome to me. It was mainly the aroma though. The taste wasn’t quite as medicine-y. I got the sweet and tart raspberry notes, no cookie or almond notes though.

I have more so I will play around with the temperature and time to see if I can get a different result.

Yay my 52Teas order came last night!

I really like the honeybush and raspberry combination. Luckily, there wasn’t a strong almond flavour (because I’m not a fan of almond), but there was lots of raspberry. I would have liked more vanilla and cookie/cake notes, but I can’t really complain because it was still a great evening cup.

Special thanks for 52Teas for being so kind and understanding. I received replacement teas for the 12 days of tea box that got lost in the mail. I sincerely appreciate this act of kindness and continue to support the company for their amazing teas and the excellent customer service.

(52teas (Anne) 2022: already recorded)

Weeeeelllll, I opened up this packet (from 2016 lol) tonight and to my sadness – sunflower seeds. Not super rancid, but rancid enough. I took ‘em out and brewed it up, and it just has that kind of playdoughy, plasticky taste, plus staleness. Happens with raspberry flavouring in particular, I’ve noticed, for whatever reason. Anyhow, not good, but I won’t hold it against this tea.