Honeybush Pumpkin Chai

This was the first tea in the Adagio advent. It was nice and subtle spiced with a hint of sweetness. I just don’t gravitate towards honeybush enough to grab more.

Day 1 of Advent Calendar. Good for a chai but nothing in the flavors that screams pumpkin anything

Adventaggedon Day One – Tea 3/5

It’s honestly kind of weird that this is the first year I’ve done the Adagio advent calendar. Other than DT, I feel like they’re the tea company that has been releasing one the longest. Only other company that comes to mind that could maybe give that a run for its money is Bird & Blend – but I’m not awake enough right now to try and fact check myself on that right now. Anyway, I’m finally doing it now!

I actually ended up with two advents today that featured pumpkin teas, which I thought was weird. Though, if you’re going to include a pumpkin blend I suppose I prefer you do it early and get it out of the way before that festive mood really sets in. This was intriguing to me too because I love Adagio’s honeybush base, but generally don’t particularly love pumpkin spices. The first thing that I noticed about this blend, though, was that it was pretty clove forward. Clove is one of those spices that most people seem to think they dislike but, when mixed with other spices, actually enjoy more than they expect to. In North America, anyway. I feel like I’m one of the outliers in the fact that I actually enjoy that taste of clove on its own a lot. So, a Pumpkin Chai that’s heavy on the clove? Perfection!

The honeybush was also really nice and, though the next most prominent spice was ginger (not a favourite), it ended up being a pretty nice cup of tea overall. I think I’d actually probably much rather have this over the more traditional black tea based Pumpkin Chai.

Today’s Advent Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/ClpC3C9OZ7i/

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4E8DPn6oww

Flavorful with cinnamon dominating. You can taste the other ingredients like ginger and cardamom, but it tips strongly toward cinnamon. The saffron was a nice addition to add richness to the flavor, rounding it out as well as adding an auburn color. This has a wonderful aroma in the bag and in the cup!

Steep:
212°F
7 min
metal strainer

Tasting Notes:
Dry Leaf Smell: ginger, cinnamon
Steeped Tea Smell: cinnamon
Flavor: woody, ginger, pepper/cardamom
Body: Light
Aftertaste: warm
Liquor: translucent brown red

Resteep:
weak, not worth drinking

Rating: 3/4 leaves

Leaf system:
1=Bleh! not again if it were free
2=Acceptable, if it were free or there were limited other tea options
3=I might purchase this tea from time to time, or select it while out
4=A staple in our cupboard from now on, I will purchase and keep purchasing

YouTube Review – https://youtu.be/F-dBKYnTULk

TikTok Review – https://www.tiktok.com/@circuitswan/video/7147922594396687658

Twitter – https://twitter.com/CircuitSwan/status/1574628561268670465

Blog Post – https://amazonv.blogspot.com/2022/09/adagio-teas-loose-leaf-herbal-tea.html

Statement of Sponsorship or Advertisement:
I received this product for free in return for writing a review.

Disclaimer:
All my reviews are as unbiased as possible, whether I buy or receive free product. I accept no other compensation other than free product.

Another sipdown from my decaf cupboard

I’ve already reviewed this tea I believe, but since I left this cup too long and it cooled down I’m doing to write another one for drinking it cold. I get lots of standard chai spice (peppercorn, ginger, cardamom, cinnamon) and the honeybush is lovely. The honeybush is less sweet than usual, and I don’t get as much piumpkin spice flavour at the bottom of the bag. This is possibly because the bottom of my pouch had a lot of the heavier spices and less honeybush.

It is a solid chai, especially for a herbal tisane base. I will buy it again when I order from adagio, but it doesn’t stand out as much as the banana nut (my favourite adagio tea so far) or the vanilla rooibos chai.

Surprisingly fruity. The spices are definitely more muted than I’d expect. It’s not bad, it’s just not at all what I was looking for.

324/365

I also picked this one up with my last Adagio order, because I was feeling the pumpkin. Pumpkin everything. It sounds promising enough; cinnamon, cardamon, ginger, cocoa nibs, and…“natural pumpkin spice flavour”. I’m hoping it’s not the same natural pumpkin spice flavouring that was in their Pumpkin Spice blend, because that tastes to me rather more like cola than anything else.

Unfortunately, it is. I get mostly cola, drinking this. The honeybush is nice – sweet, smooth, not too woody. There’s also lots of cinnamon, but the other spices are hard to discern individually. I think I can just about make out the cocoa nibs, but to be honest I can’t get past the fact that it tastes like cola. WHERE IS THE PUMPKIN?

I don’t mind cola flavoured teas; in actual fact, I really rather like them. Cold. In the summer. The problem here is that I wanted, and was expecting, pumpkin…and that’s not what I got. It’s nice, but it’s not pumpkin chai.

I brewed this strong, using extra tea and extra time, as I know honeybush teas tend to be on the light side. This tea smells spicy in the bag, cinnamon and ginger, and brews up with similar pie-like flavors. The honeybush is nuttier and a bit more caramel-like compared to the rooibos. If you can’t bring yourself to drink rooibos vanilla chai, this will probably be a nice decaf chai alternative. That said, it has additional pumpkin flavoring, which is sort of starchy and gently vegetal with lots of cinnamon and spice. The flavoring is the same as the pumpkin chai tea, so you should know that going in. If you like all things pumpkin spice, this will also be a winner.

Happy Fourth of July! Today I went to a local art festival. Most fun, until the rain happened. When I got home, I decided to have some tea. But that was put off until the evening. The brew smells strongly like spices, I get mostly clove and ginger. There is a nice spice flavour, will have to try it with vanilla. Not the right season, but still good.

Instead of having a certain alien invasion movie or a historical drama, I decided to watch my favourite TV shows. The US Air Force is in it, so that counts.