Bushmen's Brew Honeybush

Tea type
Honeybush Tea
Ingredients
Honeybush
Flavors
Brown Sugar, Honey, Nectar, Nuts, Sugarcane, Sweet, Winter Honey, Wood
Sold in
Tea Bag
Caffeine
Decaffeinated
Certification
Organic
Edit tea info Last updated by nonygray
Average preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 6 min, 0 sec 17 oz / 500 ml

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20 Tasting Notes View all

  • “Sipdown! No. 10 for 2014. Four bags left, so the entire family engaged in the sipdown. The kids really like this one and I worry it will be a hard act to follow, but I’m not unhappy to see it go. ...” Read full tasting note
    59
  • “It’s a bagged tea and I love it. There, I said it. =) I also have to say that the dry leaves don’t have the most pleasant fragrance. I don’t know what it is, maybe a bit chemical in nature(?), but...” Read full tasting note
    73
  • “This tisane, which came as part of “Numi’s Collection,” tastes woodsy to me, and has a sweet but subtle pine-sap flavor and scent (not like pine-sol), rather than like honey. I added some acacia...” Read full tasting note
    67
  • “It’s cold; I want tea, but it’s late. So in ferreting through my uncaffeinated (now out of decaffeinated options) stash, I happened upon a couple bags of Numi Bushmen’s Brew Organic Honeybush. It’s...” Read full tasting note
    45

From Numi Organic Tea

For hundreds of years, the Khoi and San peoples of Southern Africa hand gathered this plant from the mountainous regions of their homelands. This honey scented flowering bush creates an enticing rich brew with sweet honey over-tones. Rich in anti-oxidants, phytoestrogens and essential minerals, this new, organic African herbal is both delicious and healthy. One sip and the secret touches your soul.

About Numi Organic Tea View company

Company description not available.

20 Tasting Notes

59
2036 tasting notes

Sipdown! No. 10 for 2014.

Four bags left, so the entire family engaged in the sipdown.

The kids really like this one and I worry it will be a hard act to follow, but I’m not unhappy to see it go. Plain honeybush is no longer my thing, if it ever was.

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73
244 tasting notes

It’s a bagged tea and I love it. There, I said it. =)

I also have to say that the dry leaves don’t have the most pleasant fragrance. I don’t know what it is, maybe a bit chemical in nature(?), but it’s pretty off-putting. Thankfully, the brew itself has the most lovely, warm, woodsy fragrance I associate with rooibos (I don’t really know the difference between honeybush and rooibos; I’ll have to look it up at some point). Reading Steepster reviews, it seems like that’s a fragrance people either love or hate, and I love it.

The brew is so good. It’s a totally unassuming, straight-up, woodsy tea. It’s honeybush, like it says on the packet. It’s exactly the kind of “comfort food” cuppa I needed on this lovely autumn day. There’s nothing complex or fancy about it, but it’s an accessible bagged tea that doesn’t disappoint, which is no small feat now that I’m used to loose tea blends.

Tea amount: 1 bag
Water amount: 8oz/~237mL
Additives: 1 rounded tsp Demerara sugar
Dry mouth factor: 0/10

There’s a thread floating around the discussion forums here about how many cups of tea people drink in a day1. It surprises me to read that some folks get through 10+ glorious cups a day, when I drink maybe 1-2. I have this travel mug2 that I use all the time. It keeps my tea hot for several hours, drinkably warm for over 12. I happily sip away throughout the day, but since I’m not in a rush to finish it before it goes cold, I don’t go through it very quickly. Well, my mug’s in the sink and I wanted tea now, so I used a regular teacup. Okay, so now I get it! By the time the steep timer rang, the tea was cool enough to sip. By the time I got to the couch from the kitchen, it was half gone. By the time I sat down and got comfortable, it was all gone. I had to get right up again to make another cup! I’d be hopping up and down like a jack-in-the-box if I had to keep this up all day, and get nothing else done. I’d better get that mug washed. =)

Oh, by the way, in case you were wondering… I tried getting a second steep out of the bag (only because I was feeling extra lazy) and that’s as much of a “silly rabbit, Trix are for kids” thing as you’d think it’d be: the second cup was basically sweetened hot water, with a bit of colour and a very light tea flavour to it. =)

1 http://steepster.com/discuss/3583-how-many-cups-of-tea-do-you-drink-a-day

2 http://amzn.com/B002PY7AYS

Preparation
Boiling 6 min, 0 sec
Claire

I think I tend to just drink a lot of liquid every day, period! At my library job drinks and food are not allowed inside our department due to the age of the materials. At least once an hour I have to sneak out and chug some water or tea or I feel so parched.

As for bagged teas, there are still some that I enjoy, just not as much as loose leaf!

Nik

I agree, Claire. I drink half to one gallon of water a day. I just can’t get through that much tea because my mug keeps it hot for so long. =)

As for bagged tea, I haven’t had the best of luck of late, but that doesn’t stop me from trying. I’ll try pretty much any tea at least once. =)

Terri HarpLady

Re Honeybush: I’m no expert. For awhile I thought Rooibos & honeybush were the same thing, but somewhere I read that they are related, & taste pretty much the same, except honeybush is a little sweeter. Having said all that, I’m still working on my relationship with both. At first I liked them, then I didn’t (really because their in EVERY herbal blend now), now I’m sort of yes & no, depending on the combo.

Re bagged tea: I always carry a few bags with me, so there are a few things I stock. Right now I have Numi’s Emperor Puerh & a few other things.

Re H2O: I always start the day by drinking a quart of water, not all in one gulp, of course, but over the course of 1/2 hour or so. After that, “let the daily tea drinking extravaganza begin!” :D

Nik

A little sweeter, eh? I’ll have to try a couple of unsweetened samples and see if I can tell the difference. Thanks, Terri! Numi makes puerh bags? That might be a simple way for me to try some more puerh. I’ve only tried one (and one puerh chai) from the Golden Moon sampler box and I think I’d like to try some more.

Terri HarpLady

Yeah, Nik, I’ve tried the Emperor’s Blend, Magnolia Puerh, & chocolate Puerh. But there are others:
http://shop.numitea.com/Puerh-Tea/c/NumiTeaStore@Teabag@Puerh

Nik

Thanks for the link, Terri. I’ll have a look when I’m allowed to buy tea again. =)

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67
141 tasting notes

This tisane, which came as part of “Numi’s Collection,” tastes woodsy to me, and has a sweet but subtle pine-sap flavor and scent (not like pine-sol), rather than like honey. I added some acacia honey to it and it began to taste like honey, but probably because of the added honey. I thought rooibos actually had a more natural honey taste to it than this tisane. It’s not bad for an evening herbal tisane, but I probably wouldn’t buy it.

Preparation
Boiling 6 min, 30 sec

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45
1737 tasting notes

It’s cold; I want tea, but it’s late. So in ferreting through my uncaffeinated (now out of decaffeinated options) stash, I happened upon a couple bags of Numi Bushmen’s Brew Organic Honeybush. It’s really just honeybush, no more and no less.

What to say about honeybush? I guess that it reminds me of carob and chicory in that it’s not really what it purports to replace. It doesn’t really seem like tea. Nor does it seem like a flavorful herb or flower. But it’s none of those things; it’s honeybush. Probably an acquired tasted. I just don’t like it very much. It’s potable, so I’m drinking it right now, but I won’t buy this again.

This must be the sort of offering which keeps companies such as Numi solvent. All they have to do is take one ingredient, honeybush, from God knows where (I guess it’s South Africa), and put it into a little bag for a 30000% mark up. Maybe if I weren’t a tea lover, I’d see the virtues in this. But I am, and I don’t. Something about the flavor reminds me of dirty water.

Preparation
Boiling 7 min, 30 sec

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77
652 tasting notes

1 bag for 250mL water, bare.

(Backlogging)

I like honeybush. This is a bag of honeybush. Therefore it was quite good. What makes it good is that it’s honeybush. It’s like chamomile and peppermint that way, pretty standard across the brands, provided the leaves are treated nicely.

Preparation
Boiling 7 min, 45 sec

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96
262 tasting notes

I wonder if it is possible to become a te-a-holic. If so, I am rapidly becoming one. This evening, I once again couldn’t resist reaching for another (caffeine-free) tea to accompany my dessert. I was very fortunate to flip a coin in favor of the Bushmen’s Brew Honeybush selection. I couldn’t have picked a more appropriate time to take this delicious number for a spin. It is easy to see how Honeybush got its name. This tea has a wonderful natural sweetness that happily walked hand-in-hand with my butterscotch pudding. The sweet Honeybush is delightful, with a light and easy flavor. There was no bitterness, even after six minutes of steeping. As of now, this scrumptious tea is the leading candidate for my night cup.

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75
10 tasting notes

It is OK. I steeped for 4 minutes and added raw sugar and a little milk. I was expecting more of a chai, even though it doesn’t say that.

Jillian

Er yeah, chai tea this ain’t. But I drink this stuff instead of rooibos when I feel like something decaffinated. Adding even a tiny bit of honey will really bring out the honey flavour.

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81
2964 tasting notes

This tea is how I first fell in love with honeybush. It is very sweet, flavourful (it re-brewed three times quite well), and smells like nectar. The dark orange brew is also a bit on the woody side, but in a really good way. It has none of the unpleasant quality that tea can have (astringency, tannic, bitter, leafy/grassy/vegetal), it is incapable of being any of those things, no matter how you brew it. A friend of mine keeps herbals around for when company comes over (she only drinks coffee), and I think I’ve almost consumed the entire box now.

If you enjoy rooibos and caramelized sugar, you will enjoy this herbal tisane very much. It is a top notch honeybush, but a bit plain when you are used to flavoured blends/variety like I am.

Flavors: Brown Sugar, Honey, Nectar, Nuts, Sugarcane, Sweet, Winter Honey, Wood

Preparation
185 °F / 85 °C 5 min, 0 sec 17 OZ / 500 ML
LuckyMe

Looks like I need to try this herbal. I’ve only had red rooibos so far but this sounds delicious

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3294 tasting notes

Trying to keep the caffeine down, so I won’t stay up all night, although I have so many things to catch up on.

While I was visiting my folks, I came across some random tea bags, like the blueberry one I reviewed earlier, & so I brought a few home with me, this Honeybush included.
I much prefer Honeybush over Rooibos, it’s mildly sweet & kind of woody & soothing.
That’s all I’ve got.
:)

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85
17 tasting notes

A smooth, sweet tea. I drank it with sugar but probably could have done without it. Doesn’t overbrew or get bitter. Very tasty, but there’s nothing unique about the flavor.

Flavors: Honey

Preparation
190 °F / 87 °C 8 min or more

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