Empress Tea House

GCTTB
This one is honey rooibos. I feel like there is something weird in here – like just a hint of mint in the back. (Could be cross contamination). If that weird wasn’t there I think I would like this. The rooibos is nice and smooth, it’s sweet – nice.

Another offering from the Traveling Teabox. This one actually reminds me quite a bit of honeybush, despite having a purely rooibos base. Indeed I’m not getting any of the usual woody flavour which I can’t say I miss. The sweetness is smooth and subtle and quite natural-tasting.

Sipdown! This was a pleasant rooibos blend, with a very accurate, runny honey flavour. Bluebird’s Honey Bee Beautiful is similar, and easier for me to get hold of, so I’ll probably stick to that in future. It was nice to compare with another honey rooibos blend, though, and this was lovely while it lasted. Thanks again to ashleyelizabeth for sharing this with me!

I forgot about this one while it was steeping last night, and left it for around 7/8 minutes. When I got back to the kitchen, the whole room smelled of mead. Rich honey with a floral edge. The taste was stronger than previous cups have been, so obviously a good long brew is the key if a deeper taste is required. I’ve found this to be the case with various rooibos blends, although sometimes it just makes the rooibos more prominent. Not here; if anything, the rooibos fades into the background underneath the strength of the honey.

I can see myself drinking this either way depending on my mood. Last night I needed comforting as I’d got myself completely stressed about work, and the soothing taste of honey was just the thing to ensure I calmed down a bit and at least got a reasonable night’s sleep. I also like the lightness of flavour that can be found when this is brewed for maybe 4/5 minutes rather than 7/8.

This is a very versatile tea, excellent for those who like honey. Winnie the Pooh would be proud!

A sample from ashleyelizabeth! She was kind enough to send me three or so Empress Tea House offerings, and I’ve found them all to be quite light, delicate teas. This one is no exception. I gave 1 tsp of leaf 4.5 minutes in boiling water, and added a splash of milk. The liquor is a warm honey-gold, which obviously softens once the milk is added.

The main flavour is rooibos, and it’s a slightly woody, slightly sweet flavour. It actually provides a pretty good base for the honey flavouring. The honey flavouring itself is rich and almost thick tasting. It comes across very naturally, almost as if a teaspoon of honey had been added to a cup of plain rooibos. This one reminds me strongly of Bluebird’s Honey Bee Beautiful, which had a similarly accurate flavour. The Empress version isn’t as strong, but as I said right at the beginning of this note, light flavours are what I’ve come to expect from these teas.

It doesn’t knock my socks off, but it’s a pleasant caffeine-free cup with light notes of honey. No sweetener required!

A sample from ashleyelizabeth. I’ve had a couple of cups of this one over the last couple of days, primarily because I’m back at work and have reverted to rooibos or caffeine free blends in the evening again. I also wanted to compare with David’s Amaretto, as these are both almond/marzipan teas.

This one is mild in flavour. Even with plenty of leaf and a long brew time, it’s a very subtle nutty, almond-y flavour. There’s also a hint of apple, which is actually really nice. The almond is so delicate that it doesn’t overpower it, and it adds a nice additional element to the overall cup. It’s not fresh, crisp, sharp apple — more mushy baked apple like in a crumble.

This isn’t the tea to choose when you’re looking for a punch of flavour, but it’s a good choice for a light swirl of flavour. Like a snowflake on the tongue, maybe. If snowflakes tasted of almond and apple.

Sipdown! For some reason, raspberry rooibos blends are always a slight disappointment, in that I can never get much raspberry flavour from them at all. This one was no exception, really. There’s a hint of tart, juicy raspberry at times, but it’s so fleeting and mild that I fear I may just imagine it sometimes. Back to the drawing board again with raspberry rooibos, I think!

A sample from ashleyelizabeth! I’ve said this before, but I’ve been looking for a replacement for 52 Teas Raspberry Cream for a long, long time. That probably goes some way to explaining why I pounce on raspberry flavoured blends whenever I get the chance! Many of the raspberry rooibos blends I’ve tried have been relatively disappointing — lots of woody rooibos, not so much raspberry. Still, I keep trying.

I gave 1.5 tsp of leaf 4 minutes in boiling water, and added a splash of milk. I can actually smell raspberry, which is encouraging! Fortunately, raspberry is also present in the taste. It’s quite tart, a little sour, a tiny bit juicy…I think this tea pretty much has raspberry nailed. The rooibos is okay — not too woodsy or metallic — but I definitely know it’s there. Even with milk, it pokes out a little too much for my liking. Not to the extent that it drowns out the raspberry, but enough that it takes the shine off it a little. Nonetheless, it’s a pleasant raspberry tea and a sample I’ll enjoy finishing up. Yay for raspberries!

I picked up quite a bit of this during BrewTEAlly Sweet‘s stash sale. I had high hopes, but it’s turned out to be pretty meh. The base is fine – just a nice woody rooibos. The flavoring is bad. It smells and tastes extremely artificial. I’ve had unflavored teas with more realistic honey notes.

This tea is drinkable, but it’s not actively enjoyable. I used it mostly as a bedtime tea because I tend to fall asleep before finishing my cup and I never felt wasteful letting this one go cold. It doesn’t actually taste any better cold, fyi.

Oh well. Sipdown.

Great Canadian TTB

I got really excited when I saw this because I had an amazing honey rooibos tea a little while back. This does not compare to that though. It is nice but it has a much stronger rooibos flavor and though it is sweet, I am not sure if I would immediately recognize it as “honey”. Nonetheless, I am glad I got to try it so thank you AshleyElizabeth for including it in the box.

I had enough of this left last night from my large teapot to make a flask of iced tea, so It had cooled down and been put into the fridge until nice and cold. I prepared myself and took a sip but all I could really taste was the Rooibos. I tried to like the flavour of Rooibos by itself but it’s just too chemical like and odd for my pallet. The honey is more like a thick treacle that is less sweet and very subtle compared to the pure thickness of the Rooibos. So iced this tea just isn’t working for me, but looking back I don’t recall being a major fan of any iced Rooibos teas. Maybe I just don’t like them iced period.

Thank you ashleyelizabeth for this tea.

This Rooibos smells very thick and treacle rather than honey but it still has that nice sweetness I was expecting. Putting that aside it at least smells natural and sweet enough that it may tone down the Rooibos.

A long 8-9 minute steep later and it smells much sweeter and honeyed, purer than the raw scent. It’s a little softer too so it is honey rather than treacle now.

Flavour is light, sweet and wonderfully honeyed. It tastes as pure as it smells and covers the Rooibos very nicely, so there are no chemical or strange flavours from the Rooibos at all (as there sometimes can be). It’s not overly sweet but at a nice level for myself and it leaves a lovely honey after taste.

Very happy I got to try this one, it’s very nice and I’m lucky to have enough to last me a while. :) I imagine it would be nice iced too, will have to try that.

Great Canadian Travelling Tea Box

This one is pretty nice. As the name suggests, this has a nice light honey flavor and aroma. I don’t find the rooibos overpowering but I happen to like the taste of it. It’s not something I would keep around, but it was fun to try! I added a touch of sweetener to my mug to help bring out the flavor.