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My 52teas groundhog day special order arrived today! I managed to wait a whole 2 hrs before tearing it open. Two thumbs up for a tea that can taste tropical and refreshing even while it’s hot. Everyone else said it and they’re right – it smells/tastes like pina colada. I think I’m getting a bit of rum flavor too, but it may just be the sweetness of the honeybush. I don’t care. I love it. I only suspect I will like it better iced. Love the big slivers of coconut. Didn’t realize until re-reading ingredients that that’s real pineapple mixed in with the honeybush! Cool!
Directions say to steep 7-10 min. The two good reviews w time info on here were based on a 5 min steep. I set my timer for 7 min but got impatient and stopped at 5:30. Next time I will steep longer & stronger and try it iced. I bet it would also be good in a smoothie…
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Okay, I have to say that there is something going on here which just leaves me utterly perplexed. I’m not picking on you, Ricky, but I think you are about the 15th review of our teas that I’ve read that started something like, “I really don’t like X, but I decided to try 52teas X flavored tea.”
I guess I should be happy that our powers of salesmanship are so great that people still buy our teas whether they think they will like them or not. “I HATE liver and onions, but LOOK, 52teas has a liver and onion flavored tea! I have to have it!” :)
Sorry. I bit my tongue on a lot of other reviews like this and I just finally had to say something. I feel better now, thanks.
Woaps! I’ll edit my post and state that I received this from the traveling tea box. Don’t worry, I wouldn’t have bought this if I didn’t like it in the first place =P
It’s okay, really. I probably still shouldn’t have said anything except I just keep running across the same types of reviews and every time it just makes me scratch my head.
Anyway, it totally makes more sense knowing you got it from the traveling tea box. Hope there was something in there from us that you DO like. Have a great day!
I don’t think it’s a bad thing to get something that your’re not sure you’ll like. I generally think that everybody ought now and then to try something that they previously didn’t like, because sometimes your tastes have changed or something is an acquired flavour that will grow on you. This has been my experience with this particular one.
Furthermore, it might also be that someone will find that the stuff they don’t like on its own works in tea. I mean we’ve all seen examples of the opposite thing. Something we like a lot otherwise, but can’t stand as flavour in tea. For me that’s peaches for example. There is no reason why the phenomenon shouldn’t work the other way around.
But I agree that it’s weird that people will buy something that they’re honestly doubtful that they’ll like. I think it has to do with being adventurous in the areas of one’s interest.
You know, from what I’ve been reading recently, it seems pumpkin pie/spice flavored teas are usually hit or miss, with a lot of misses. Personally, I hate it when my tea tastes “squash”-like or sweet-potato-y, so I probably wouldn’t like pumpkin pie tea. But yeah, sometimes you can be surprised by what you like in a tea and don’t like in real life. For example, I don’t like coconut things usually, but I don’t mind it in tea.
No need to apologize, Ricky. You reviewed the tea according to your taste, and that’s all that matters! This is your personal tea log, not anyone else’s, and you clearly stated in your review that you’re unfamiliar with pumpkin pie. Pumpkin pie lovers will understand that. That doesn’t mean, however, that your review is invalid just because you dislike pumpkin pie.
No one’s reviews are invalid on Steepster!
Unfortunately there were only two teas from 52teas in there upon my arrival. On the bright side, your pina colada is so delicious that I’m almost out of it! Having plain honeybush right now and I miss your pina colada already.
Ohh Angrboda… I took a sampler of the Gunpowder Blend, well now Black Powder Explosion Blend, and I’m scared! Lapsang round two? Haha. I don’t know if I’m ready to kill myself yet. Will it be similar to your peach experience? =P
Yeah, I feel that tea can taste different from it’s food equivalent when blended with the right things. I guess that’s why I try strange teas. I didn’t like Earl Grey or chai at first, but I’m slowly getting accustomed to it. It’s like if your stranded on an island with nothing to eat except umm the one food you hate the most… rhetorically speaking of course… you’ll grow to love it =]
But poor pumpkin pie was doomed from the beginning. It didn’t stand a chance!
Well I love it (obviously) and I love LS too. :p I find the black powder blend is smoothed out a bit more on the smokyness due to the EBB base and the green tea in it, so it might be tolerable for you.
Or it might not be.
But if you like it enough to get through the first cup, I’ve found that there are generally two good steeps in it. Sometimes three if I’m really really careful with it and don’t mess it up by oversteeping.
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Phew! Dude, you scared me. I was just getting used to enjoying your reviews!
I can’t wait to try this, I got it a few weeks ago, but have to finish other stuff first…did you order peanut butter chai?
Haha, sorry! I won’t be disappearing, don’t worry!
Nope, didn’t order peanut butter chai. I just made my huge samovar order a few weeks ago and moneys quickly depleting. I have to finish up more tea before I make another order.
I know the feeling, I was hoping to get the peanut butter chai, but alas funds are down, oh well, maybe they’ll still have some later on.
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I have yet to try honeybush…
I wonder how it compares to rooibos. Green rooibos is definitely better than red rooibos. UMMM! Here’s a thought, how would green rooibos as a base instead of honeybush taste? I mean green rooibos gives more of a tropical feel.
Honeybush is a hundred time better than rooibos IMO, it’s sweeter and lacks that tart, woody quality red rooibos has.
Apparently this tea is supposed to be good iced aswell. I think that’s how I’ll try mine next. :)
This is one of my personal favorites. This was the first blend we created that I thought, I need to enter this into the World Tea Championships. It works beautifully with the honeybush. As Jillian said, the honeybush is similar to rooibos, but sweeter and it doesn’t have that piney/woody aftertaste at all.
I would totally encourage everyone to try this one iced. I think it actually gains a dimension. Same with the Cinnamon Fig Rooibos. I think both of those are just BETTER iced.
Ricky, I’m glad we hit on one that you enjoy. It’s always interesting to me to read the reviews. A lot of times I have to fight the urge to comment on them. I always want to shout, “GGRRRRR!! How can you NOT love that!” LOL. But I’ve realized that tastes really do vary and not everyone is going to love all of our teas (much to my chagrin, let me tell you). But I’m just going to keep working at it, keep churning out more quality blends because good reviews like this one make it all worthwhile.
Oh, and incidentally, I didn’t use green rooibos with this because I have found the green rooibos has such a strong citrus character to it, it is almost like a lemon flavored tea by itself. (Ditto the green honeybush which I think we still have some of; and if you like green rooibos, you should really try some green honeybush (we have it unblended on the site)). Anyway, we did (once upon a time) create a blend with green rooibos and strawberry and the citrus notes of the green rooibos contrasted beautifully with the sweet strawberries. One of these days we will do another, and I am still working on a blend with the green honeybush. We started doing a lemondrop green honeybush and I was not happy with it and threw it out. But we’re going to try again.
I’d love to see more blends with honeybush (of either variety) or green rooibos. Red rooibos is over-used IMO.
I agree with Jillian, honeybush is definitely better than rooibos! And I look forward to trying some of 52teas green rooibos blends. I’ve yet to find a green rooibos that I didn’t like. I’ve never tried it straight, but it is really good blended with fruit and such.
Ha! It’s funny, because it was so delicious that I took my time with this one. I kept sipping it so by the time I was actually done with it, it was basically cold as ice. Err, figuratively speaking…
I was actually wondering why you didn’t comment on people’s posts that go, argh this doesn’t taste good. I imagine you are probably bashing your head going, AHHH WHYYYYY! I mean if you were a chef and someone complained about your food, I’m sure you’d storm out and speak with the customer directly. But! I see your point! Everyone has a different preference when it comes to tea, can’t satisfy everyone. Ahhh, most unfortunate.
Green honeybush!?!? Never knew there was such a thing! Haha, first time I’ve heard of it. Well there’s an idea. Green Honeybush or rooibos blend! Wohooo, put us on the order list.
Green Rooibos, Strawberry, Lemonade? I mean the green rooibos gives it that citrus kick that the lemon already gives. OHHH, raspberry instead of strawberry. Wait…. doesn’t Teavana have something like this? o.O
I’ll leave the blends up to you geniuses.
Ricky I’m so glad to read this. I just ordered this tea for the Groundhog Day special, but was trepidatious. Now I can’t wait for my order to arrive! It’s so neat to hear from them on here and see the thought process that went into a specific blend.
Incidentally, I just posted our new tea of the week, and it is another honeybush blend: Raspberry Cream Cheese Danish Honeybush! http://www.52teas.com
I have no idea why nobody has said “If you like pina coladas….” blah blah haha. Good review, but disappointing you thought the rum “disappeared”
It’s a great tea, hopefully you enjoy it too. Ohhh raspberry cream cheese danish…. now that sounds tasty! No more tea for me! My cupboard needs some emptying.
Well…. I don’t think the rum is a strong aspect of the tea. I mean it’s tea not alcohol after all. You could always just poor a bit of alcohol into the tea yourself =P
Ricky, No it’s isn’t alcohol and no it shouldn’t be strong, but it’s good that it is there. My biggest beef w/ tea is when it’s named after something and there’s something missing in the ingredient list. This happens a lot w/ mojito flavored teas. My local tea shop made their own mojito blend. I love that it has a green base, but there is no rum flavoring! Grrr…
You could always add your rum/vodka/alcohol of choice afterwards. ;)
Jillian- I do occasionally add it for the effect, but IMO I shouldn’t have to add it for the flavor. It should already be there. Southern Comfort added is actually the only way I can drink lapsang souchong:)
This is the third tea I’m trying (out of 4) from my 52 Teas order. I kind of put off trying this one because I figured it wasn’t going to work for me. I almost didn’t order it because I was pretty sure I wouldn’t like it, but I thought I’d take a chance. Unfortunately, I was right. I brewed it in a pretty big mug, so I might’ve miscalculated the proper brewing time, but it was pretty terrible. The smell reminded me of a sweet incense, which was a huge turnoff, and the taste was kind of similar. You know how you can “taste” a smell sometimes? That’s what happened here, and it wasn’t very appealing. There was a slightly medicinal aftertaste, which I assume was the cherry, but otherwise there wasn’t much in the way of vanilla cola as far as I could tell. I had to dump it out halfway through—I just couldn’t finish it.
I will definitely try this again, in a smaller cup with a shorter brewing time, but for now I have to say this was a big disappointment. Bummer.
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Ugh, I hope you feel better soon. When I’m sick mint helps me with the stomach cramps and ginger helps with the nausea I’ve found.
Thanks! After dying for tea days, I’m better, but I have to watch myself. On to raid the cupboard to see what I can dig up! If only I had some White Ginger from GM at the moment. Oh if only!
Sorry to hear the food monster gave you the bug. I hope you know what caused it… so as to avoid it in the future. I feel for you. :(
No. 2 of my tea of the week from @52teas. I love this tea. It’s sweet but not overpowering. The green tea is subtle and doesn’t overpower the delicate fruit flavours. A long steep is needed. Current and papaya seem to be a great combo.
It reminds me of the nice feeling you get when drinking hot black current with a sore throat.
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I like the taste of toffee, but not the hard crunch, so I was really excited to be able to try this tea thanks to Kitch3ntools!
Yummm… This smells so good! Have you ever smelled a tea that you wanted to eat the raw leaves w/ a spoon? This is one of those teas.
2.25g/6oz purified water. The liquor is a rather dark brown w/ a reddish tint to it and is topped w/ lots of essential oils from the ingredients. It looks like an oil slick, but it’s also a sign that there are lots of healthy things in this tea.
Well I definitely don’t have to worry about not tasting the camellia sinensis like I do w/ a lot of flavored, and especially black, teas. There’s no chocolate flavor and no toffee flavor. Don’t get me wrong, this is a sweet black tea, but that doesn’t mean it tastes flavored. There are lots of unflavored black teas that have sweet cocoa notes, and this tastes like one of them. I would have never guessed this was a chocolate flavored tea if I’d done a blind taste test. I’m not getting the toffee flavor either, although I think it may be contributing to the sweetness.
Conclusions: While it is a good black tea (and black teas aren’t even my personal preference), this does not live up to its name. Would be good served after a meal, but it is not a dessert tea so it could be served any other time as well.
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I had a similar problem with their butterscotch chai – smelled great but the butterscotch flavor just was not there. At all. :-(
BUTTERSCOTCH CHAI??? YUM!=D
yeah, that’s what I thought too.. Wish I’d kept it and experimented with the steeping a bit more to get it to taste right, but I gave it away out of frustration (this was in my pre-Steepster days)
Used to have the same problem with butterscotch flavoured coffee…
Cofftea: Oil slick on top of toffee and chocolate tea = healthy things
Shanti: Oil slick on top of toffee and chocolate tea = melted oils from toffee and chocolate, two foods primarily composed of sugar and butter fat.
Funny how people can react to the same things in completely different ways :)
agrees with Shantea. Doesn’t oil floating on top mean bad things? o.O
Lol Ricktea.I forgot, usually I see the oils if it’s a heavily flavored tea as well (flavoring oils).
nice review I was curious about this tea so disappointing that the chocolate and toffee arent there. Becuase I am a big fan of dessert teas but its hard to find good ones.
Shanti, It also can be from the essential oils and antioxidents. That oil slick is very common in true teas although being a chocolate and tofee tea it was thicker than normal. The leaves were also greasy when I tossed them… ew.
Silvermage2000, It is a very good tea for a sweet tea- but if you want a tea you could identify as a chocolate toffee tea in a bilnd taste test, this isn’t it. W/ most dessert teas you either taste all flavoring or all tea. :-/
Sorry, but 1) antioxidAnts themselves do not appear in the form of oil, although small amounts have been found in food oils…you seem to be incredibly mistaken about the relative size of an “antioxidant molecule” in relation to a uL of oil, or even to a single fatty acid chain, 2) what do you mean by “essential oils”? Do you mean reduced oils from certain plants, often used as natural flavorings, or do you mean oils that are essential to health? In the first case, they are not particularly healthy or unhealthy (I challenge you to find one replicated and peer-reviewed study that says otherwise); in the second case, the oils and fats used to make toffee and chocolate are NOT “essential oils” or even “good” oils that people don’t get enough of or are beneficial to health, 3) I’m assuming that by “true teas” you mean unflavored Camellia sinensis varietals, but in my experience (and from what I’ve read from other people’s reviews of flavored teas), flavored teas are known for having sometimes seeming oily due to the flavored oils applied to the leaf, 4) the majority of the oil found in tea and indeed in most plants is located in the seed, not the leaves, 5) I’m willing to be that the oil slick was from the melted chocolate and toffee, and perhaps partially from hydrophobic flavoring chemicals.
ps. sorry for the long comment, but there are few things I hate more than pseudoscience, especially when the purported science can be harmful.
This is my 2nd cup (2nd tea, that is) of the day! Juuuuuust finishing the infusion…After this one I only have 1 more cup’s-worth left. That seems to be the ‘thing’ with me lately…I’m just at the end of a bunch of my teas…eeek!
Anyhow…
This one is more smooth this time around and I can taste just hints of both the coconut as well as a creaminess accompanying the black tea taste.
+1 on the rating…because I seem to be going back to this one often…
Well. First I must say THANK YOU to Jillian for sending this to me. 2nd I must say I was super jazzed to try a tea from 52 Teas – as I am VERY new to them – AND this was on my list to get one day…so…52 Teas didn’t let me down…this was different and good…HOWEVER…even tho I am enjoying this cup right now…I was shocked at how much Coconut slivers were in there…thinking that it would be all about the coconut…but…I got more of a cream pie taste than the coconut. I could still taste the coconut – just not nearly as much as I assumed it would taste based on the amount of visible coconut in the blend. Then again…end result it blends well…and it’s tasty…so mission accomplished, eh!?
CHEERS to another great tea day!!!!
Are you going to cave into their sale?
I know I’m certainly tempted to… But they’re all out of their chai blends! :(
I can’t right now…funds are tight…
Meg, they still have this one http://www.52teas.com/2009/03/29/032909-sundae1888s-mayan-chocolate-chai/
TeaEqualsBliss, yeah I know what you mean- but I can’t afford not to get 2-4oz free either.
You’re killing me!!!!!!!! LOL
It’s just NOT FAIR! jk
like to pick…teahee
Glad you are enjoying the Coconut Cream Pie.
Just had to mention. In addition to the Mayan Chocolate Chai, we also have our traditional Masala Chai and our Chocolate Chai in stock:
http://www.52teas.com/2009/09/14/09-14-09-masala-chai/
http://www.52teas.com/2009/10/12/10-12-09-chai-with-chocolate/
I’m not a Heath Bar guy but recall it as mostly toffee wrapped in chocolate. I didn’t get a sense of the chocolate in this — toffee came through though. Honestly, without the description/name I would have suspected the active flavor to be caramel, not chocolate or toffee. Perhaps it’s my palette…I did notice hints of the “protein bar” smell you’d find in your typical chocolate flavored tea, but it was subtle (much to my preference).
Anyway, I enjoyed the tea, my first from 52teas (received in the TTB: http://steepster.com/discuss/212-travelling-teabox-on-the-way ). It was very smooth, not too sweet (something I was worried about). Overall, a very nice flavored black. Excited to try more from these guys!
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I like the taste of toffee, just not the hard crunch, so I’m excited about this! Although I’ve personally never gotten a “protein bar” smell from chocolate tea before…
That’s EXACTLY it! “Protein bar!” That’s what’s in most of my chocolate teas! Hahaha, thanks for pointing that out! It was driving me crazy!
I also get a lot of the “Easter bunny plastic chocolate” taste from a lot of chocolate teas as well.
Mike, I know exactly what you mean by “protein bar” chocolate flavor! I liked Simple Leaf’s Dawn if you’re looking for chocolate tea…tasted more like real chocolate, which is strange because it’s not even flavored…
The only unflavored tea I’ve had that tastes flavored is Adagio’s Dancong Aria oolong. I have yet to find a chocolate unflavored tea.:(
I’m finding that I prefer unflavored teas that taste flavored to actually flavored teas. I mentioned Dawn above as being one that tastes like chocolate…I also liked Simple Leaf’s Maharani, which tastes spicy, and “Shanti” was very smoky, but those are two unflavored teas. I haven’t tried enough unflavored yet to give any other recommendations yet, though. :)
This is exactly the same first tea I had from 52teas & TTB! =] What a coincidence!
Shanti, I agree when it comes to Adagio (the only company I’ve experienced that has an unflavored tea that tastes flavored). Dancong Aria tastes much more peachy than their white peach or oolong peach.
Interesting! I really like their white peach and Gemini blend (white monkey, white peony, white peach), but I thought they were already very strong, so I might not like the Dancong Aria (I always want to type Dancing Aria, lol). I prefer delicate flavors, which is probably why I like unflavored teas too.
Cofftea have you tried Adagio’s Black Dragon Pearls? They have a distinctly cocoa taste to them I find.
Yes I have. While I find it a smooth taste, I don’t find them very chocolatey.
I had to try this tea because I’m a Rooibos fan and I’ve heard honeybush is very similar. Have I heard wrong?
Plus.. I love Pina Coladas!
I enjoyed this tea. I wish I could taste the coconut flavor a little more and I really didn’t taste the ‘rum’ flavor at all, but I can always add that, right! Maybe I should add some rum to this and see if I like it more.
Right? Isn’t it great?