Honey Bee

A wonderful start to a wonderful birthday!

Oh, wow. Dry, this smells much like Lush’s “Honey, I Washed the Kids” soap which I bought to replace my peppermint blue soap. Strong honey smell, followed by a tinge of something unusual. I’ve never had or smelled mate, so I find myself thinking it might be that. The steeped liquor is a rich amber, and the smell is magnified.

First tastes are delicious. I got a strong honey flavour, but then there is a strange after-taste/texture which I, once again, assume to be the mate. I realized after a few sips that it reminds me a lot of Joy’s Teaspoon’s Lemon Zest, only without the lemon. I think the sharp taste at the end is what echoes that lemon taste for me, but the honey sweetness is so creamy and delicious. The beau also mentioned that it reminds him of Lemon Cream Pie, but I don’t actually remember that being very creamy.

I will enjoy the rest of my sample package for now, but this might be a re-buy. However, I do have lots of the Lemon Zest, so if this is similar to it as I remember it to be, I don’t really need it. Except to learn about mate. We’ll see.

Goodbye, sample!
Today I woke up early to see my bf and his Dad off as they drive across the country with our stuff. My job is to take care of the child and the cat but I just can’t wake up.

This tea was tasty, but didn’t give me the zip I was hoping for!

Down down down the drain she goes… @
(because the “at” symbol kinda looks like a swirl, get it? yes I am a dork)
So… there was a day when I lurrrved this tea. Liquid bees, it didn’t sound all that appealing… but somehow it fit right into my cupboard.
And now? well whatever flavourings they used here are apparently don’t work for me. This is something I so did not expect!! :6
Half the cup went unfinished. Gosh that was painful to throw out!
Maybe one day I’ll be able to handle flavoured tea again. For now, it seems I must resign to either straight tea, or those with the simplest and most natural additions possible. Well, I suppose I should have known better than to even try. It’s such a shame, since I now have atleast 20g of it left in my cupboard! :/
(first come first serve to anyone who wants it! Lookin at you TO people!)

Cold Brew! Total of nine hours, and so close to a sipdown! Woot!

I drank this while I was at work today, and it was a very lovely, sweet drink that was refreshing. When I think of this one the word “Ambrosia”, as in the nectar of the Gods, comes to mind. I enjoyed it right until the end of the shift!

My shift was great today, by the way. I was completely surprised because all the other keyholders/supervisors bought me a cake to celebrate which was so cool and so unexpected, especially since I’ve only been there for four days, and that’s not even going to be my permanent location; I only have a week longer there…

So, it was a great birthday shift!

Yesterday when I was driving up to my parents’ house, I passed a pick-up truck with a trailer. There was a sign on the back of the trailer that said “You’d be REAL STUPID to tailgate me! HONEYBEES” and I could not stop laughing for a good half mile.

I need something like mate this morning. My parents were leaving for a shuttle to the airport in Atlanta at 4am (they live 2 hours north of me, so it just seems funny I came up here and now they’re going down there) and it woke me up, and some bug was in my room and as I was trying to fall back asleep it like flew right at my ear.

And I have to take care of the dog and I’m sure he wants to go outside before a time I normally want to wake up, so now I’ve just stayed up.

This smells a lot like honey but it kind of weirds me out that there’s not actually any in here? Once it’s steeped it just seems very apparent that it’s just flavoring because it just doesn’t have the real complexities of honey. I didn’t like it while it was still pretty hot, as it’s cooled it’s gotten better.

I want to add honey but I feel that might make it taste too sweet for me. There’s just something slightly weird about how it tastes, but I’ll probably finish what I have and just consider it something I tried.

Thanks, Heather, this one is pretty good! I live err, love honey, so it’s not surprising that I like this tea.

It is really honey scented, and flavored. There’s a depth behind the honey that has to be the rooibos and mate, but the flavour definitely isn’t rooibos or medicinal.

Hmm. As it has mate in it, it’s more of a morning/lunch tea for me. Unfortunately this makes it’s application limited, as I really prefer a black tea in the morning.

So this is a tea I’ll probably have around occasionally, but I won’t need to keep stocked in my cupboard.

(I’m drinking this tea while kitten-sitting. They’ve been going 100% since I got here and gave them food, and kitten-mama is trying to hide from them and get pets. So adorable, all of them.)

YES! A sipdown! From last year’s advent calendar, no less! I told my roomie that we should try and finish off all of our advent calendar teas before Christmas, as they’re getting a bit old… Luckily, I didn’t start buying a lot of tea until Jan/Feb (and even then, it was mostly DT, and not really a “lot” in comparison to a month or so later…)

Like any rooibos blend, this one really requires a fine filter. Unfortunately, I’m at work, and the only options here are a teaball with large-ish holes, a fine mesh teaball that would be great except for the fact that it has gaps between the two halves, and paper filters. I wasn’t thinking, and used option B instead of C, so am left with a cup full of tea bits. Oh well.

I like this one today better than I recall liking it last time. For whatever reason, it’s a little bitter (mate??), but definitely honey-sweet in aroma, and with a sweet-ish flavour that makes me think pollen. Also, there’s a hint of lemony citrus flavour, but just a hint. I don’t think I’ve ever tried pollen, so why I’m compelled to say it tastes like pollen, I have no idea. The honey/pollen flavour also remains after swallowing as a rather pleasant aftertaste. So, this blend is tasty enough, and I could see maybe dosing other blends with some of it, but I doubt I’d pick any more up (and no longer have any left).

I’d start an ‘advent calendar tea sipdown’ countdown, but I don’t know how many we’ve already finished! Hmmm, I should find that out. We’re probably done aproximately 1/3 of the tins, but some, like David’s Organic Breakfast, and the Japanese Sencha, are still very full, as we only drank them once…. More things to do with all that time I don’t have!

ETA: Second infusion was pretty unremarkable. Not bad, but not a great deal of flavour. Worth it if there’s no other tea around, but that’s probably it.

I got this in my swap with Amanda—it’s one of those blends I’ve wanted to try for a while, but the rooibos scared me off from getting a whole bag. In the bag this smells amazing, like pure honey. Of course there’s no crystallized honey or anything IN there, so it’s just flavoring, but it smells very authentic and I was worried it would be too sweet.

Steeped, though, it’s pretty mellow. The honey comes in at the end of the sip and fills your mouth with wonderful honey notes that linger. It tastes very much like real honey, perhaps a bit less complex but not flat-tasting. The rooibos actually works for me here, it’s the first blend that hasn’t had that icky medicinal taste for me. Probably because there’s so little of it. The mate, green rooibos and rooibos meld perfectly together for an earthy but light blend that really gives you a burst of energy. And it adds an almost honeycomb taste: woody and sweet. Definitely going to restock this one!

First, back off vegan police! There’s is no honey in Honeybee, so you can put your judgement down and back away. Bunch of judgy McJudgersons…

Second, I don’t know if I dig this tea. I have an entire tin of it because the 50g bag wasn’t available when I placed my uber DAVIDs order. Maybe I’ll give it a go iced and see if I like the flavor more that way. I’ll reserve my numerical rating until I give it one more chance. Also, Honeybee didn’t give me the jolt of energy I’ve come to expect from DAVID’s matés. Tea problems, man!