Honey Bee Beautiful

I’m not usually a big drinker of Rooibos but have been looking for more bedtime teas as all that has been in my cupboard recently is chamomile based teas (I love chamomile, but a boy needs a bit of variety!)

I was also intrigued to try out some teas from new British company Bluebird Tea Co and, having gotten home late – the Rooibos was the only bedtime offer in my selection – so Honey Bee Beautiful got chosen.

The smell of this tea was very fragrant and the honey smell instantly hits – at first making me worry this tea was going to be too sweet for me. I did not let this stop me from making the first cup!

Brew Method – Breville Tea Kettle
Temp – 100C
Water – 750ml
Tea – 2.5 tsp
Time – 4 mins

The colour of the tea is a beautiful red Rooibos and when bringing the cup to the mouth again it is the honey that comes through. However, when tasting the tea the Rooibos isn’t lost – so it’s a beautifully balanced Rooibos hit before the honey kicks in. I found it to be more of a Manuka honey taste and much less sweet than I expected from the smell. The minor herbal notes of nettle and chamomile come through subtley – but they do come through after the honey has passed. The lingering taste was certainly of a sweet honey.

I enjoyed it immensely – partly as it’s like nothing else in my tea collection, but also because I seemed to hit on the exact steep settings first go!

I might have turned up my nose at Rooibos before, but I will be giving some more a shot after this!

where do i start with this tea, well it was a horrible experiance for me speacialy for a Rooibos tea, i mean i do like honey and i think everything is better with honey (sorry lili xD) so i kinda expected this tea to be amazing and relaxing, you get the point. so to make it easy my disappointment is immeasurable and my day was ruined. i donk wanna tell people to not try it ofc some would like it, but for me it’s a big no.

Another sample packet that Lex surprised me with! This is the second time I’ve had this and try as I might, I cannot taste honey. To me this tastes like chamomile and rooibos. Not overwhelming rooibos, which is a bonus. There is maybe a bit of honey in the aftertaste if I stretch my imagination.

What’s more is that Lex tells me all she can taste is honey!

Continuing working through my old B&B packets. This looks to have no flavoring added, so I think the honey part is meant to come from the chamomile. I do enjoy chamomile, luckily.

I really should have used a disposable tea bag for this… Chamomile is the only thing that gets stuck in my Finum brew basket, and it’s such a pain to clean out. Oh well, lessons learned.

This is fine and pleasant enough, but nothing special. I mostly taste the chamomile, then a little bit of honeybush and rooibos. Really, I would prefer to just drink plain chamomile as I don’t feel the base adds much here. As far as the nettle, I have no idea what that tastes like so can’t comment on its effect.

Pleasant, but definitely not something I need.

Just finished up a 20g bag of this, and I liked it the first couple times I drank it more than the last couple. I’ve had it for about a year, so not sure if the flavors dissipated, but the sweet, honey flavor that previously covered up the rooibos is no more. It’s pretty much a straight rooibos, with barely a hint of the honey bush or flavoring.

My morning tea, chosen to go with my replacement adagio teapot which I didn’t think I would miss but ended up being devastated by it’s destruction.

The raw blend smells thickly of honey but it’s so sweet and thick it also reminds me of manure. Not the nicest smell I’ve had in my kitchen…

Once steeped the blend is a lot less like manure and more like pure honey, though also the rooibos is thickly behind it. In fact the rooibos may be the manure type smell.

Flavour is fairly mild with some sweetness though it doesn’t taste as much like honey as it smells. It does however, taste of rooibos rather strongly. The rooibos dies down to leave the honey flavour on the tongue in the after taste, though over time it becomes dry.

Overall I don’t think this tea is balanced particularly well, the rooibos dominates the honey in flavour and the honey that does remain becomes dry and unpleasant. This from a woman that adores honey and dislikes rooibos. At least I can drink it which says something.

Smells so much honey. Tastes like rooibos with honey in it, which is nice.

This was my last cup of the evening yesterday. It’s one of the few unopened Bluebird samples I currently have sitting around, so I thought I’d give it a chance to shine. The dry leaf smells so much like a freshly opened pot of runny honey, I actually had a hard time believing it was tea. As scents go, it’s just spot on. I was expecting the rooibos to take over the the flavour, but fortunately it didn’t. The same headily sweet, delicious honey note carries through, with subtle hints of chamomile. Chamomile often tastes a little honey-like to me, so I’m not surprised it seems to enhance the flavour here.

While it’s a genuinely lovely caffiene free cup, it probably lends itself best to drinking in small doses. It’s quite sweet and rich, almost like eating honey straight out of the jar. For that reason, it becomes slightly overpowering and really a bit much by the end of the cup. It’s a very enjoyable treat, though, and one of the best honey teas I’ve had the pleasure of trying.