Honeybush Mango

Sipdown!! (218)

I have finally done it MissB! I have finally finished off the massive amount of this tea you sent me (I may have cheated though because I sent away a fair bit).

This tea was pleasant enough but nothing particularly special. It was nice to try but it will not be missed. It was simply too subtle and too plain for my tastes. Thank you MissB for sharing this with me.

Since the wonderful Morgana called me out of hiding this morning I felt it imperative that I follow through with my statement that I should have some of this tea tonight. And to also log it. I have no clue how long I let this bad boy steep — I’m thinking that it was less than five minutes. It started off just as I remembered (mango lotion), but then got really weak and more reminiscent of rooibos gone stale and sort of ick. I really need to watch the time. I still find it a pretty decent decaf option. NE

On a personal note: I’ve been on survival mode as I transition from one library to another (which equals 6 day workweeks with long commutes), and getting ready for the GRE (which is now officially scheduled for the first week of September). I’ve been on an emotional/mental rollercoaster and I’m really hoping that things calm down soon. Oh, but at the new library there is a core group of tea-drinkers! Huzzah!

I got this tea from the lovely Missb who sent me a very generous sample! Thank you so much :) You are awesome!!

As the tea cools down, I’m starting to be able to taste the mango more. It’s very fruity and er…mangoy, obviously. Which is awesome, because mango is amazing! Makes me crave a real one, actually. :P I do wish there was a little bit more of a stronger mango taste, but next time I brew I’ll add more leaf and see if it makes a difference.

Lovely!

This is the first in my Adagio honeybush sampler. [Looks around for Rabs…]

I am somewhat bewildered by my decision to buy the honeybush sampler, but at least I had the foresight not to buy more rooibos. I have been gradually consuming my rooibos stash to bring it down to reasonable levels. What is reasonable has changed since I bought the oversupply of rooibos. Now I think a couple or three really good ones is reasonable for me since I’m not loving it these days.

The only honeybush I’ve had until now has been in bags, the Numi and the Tazo. I still have some of each of those, though I’ve used up a fair bit of the Tazo sweetening too-tart fruit blends.

I’m sniffing this in the tin and thinking it smells a bit woodier than I remember honeybush being; kind of disappointingly rooibos-like. That’s the main smell I get, with mango behind it. Which sort of worries me.

Fortunately, the addition of water works a sort of transformation, whereby the mango aroma becomes pretty much the main event. Wow! There’s just a little bit of a honey fragrance as well, but the wood has vamoosed. The liquor is a reddish color with a bit of orange and brown as well.

The flavor seems to be right in between the dry smell and the steeped smell. Mango, but some reedy flavor as well. I just read Rabs’ note about steeping longer and I will try that next time. Losing the reedy flavor would make this much nicer. As it is, it’s a little like sucking on mango-flavored bamboo. Which, surprisingly, isn’t as bad as it sounds, but I’d prefer to be able to focus on the mango flavor to the exclusion of the earthy cellulose.

Today I decided to take a walk on the wild side and roll the die of fortune, results were a 6 (no more tea at this level). Second roll, a 4. Honeybush Mango by Adagio teas was the winning selection today.

This tea didn’t brew quite as dark as I was expecting after an 8 minute steep. Quite a light amber/copper color. The flavor is a bit more floral than fruity, but I still get mango out of it. It is very naturally sweet. Their is something in the aftertaste that doesn’t quite work to me. Makes me curious to try other adagio Mango’s (maybe a green mango) to see if it is the honeybush leaving the off taste on my tongue.

Wow. I discovered the best blend EVERRRR but first lets talk about the stand alone Honeybush.

I ordered a sample of this stuff in addition to my Gunpowder order from Adagio. It had high ratings on the site so I figured I would give it a try. I popped the lid and the mango scent hit me immediately; it smells like candy. I knew this stuff was going to be good. I put in about 2 heaping tea spoons in the infuser, poured my water and let it steep for 6 minutes.

Impressions:
-Mango taste consistent throughout, not too strong (I could make it stronger if I wanted) but also it didn’t need any sweetener in my opinion. The taste was on the surface level, not too complex. After taste was a light and sweet. My mouth tasted of the mango afterwards.
-Cup tended to taste better as I drank it more. I would say that the steep of 6-7 minutes will work great but perhaps bring the temp. down a bit. I could definitely see this tasting great at a cooler temperature or even iced with some sweetener. Actually, not a bad idea :)
-Aroma is deliciousss. This is really one of those teas that tastes like it smells. I love when that happens.

MY PERSONAL BLEND:
So for my second steep I decided to add the overabundance of Gunpowder I have, as I figured it would sweeten up my vegetative cup with a little mango. I tossed in a tea spoon of green tea and let it sit for about 6 minutes. OH boy. this was good. It’s so much more complex this way.. at first I thought I put in too much Gunpowder, as my first couple sips didn’t have much mango flavor. But then, as the cup cooled, the gunpowder and mango blended so well.. an initial taste of green tea and then an after taste of mango and green tea. It’s so gooood. In general with this mix, cooler temp=better. End of the cup was a lot better than the start. I could see this blending with a lot of teas very well. And sure, you can try my own recipe for yourself :)

I got this in a swap with Short Sorceress – thank you for the sample!

I tried this as a hot brew, and I found that the mango flavour was quite light, and didn’t come through very much. I got more of the ‘woody’ taste from the honeybush – which isn’t a problem for me – I like both rooibos and honeybush.

I think I’ll reserve rating this one for now, until I try a cold brew

This is a medium brown brew, with a lightly fruity and characteristically honeyed fragrance. I added honey, which didn’t seem to make much of a difference (this is fairly sweet on its own) but was tasty. If I seem underwhelmed, I am. Teavana’s Vanilla Honeybush is the quintessential honeybush to me; maybe I shouldn’t have tried this one so soon after having enjoyed the vanilla one. Or maybe I just don’t appreciate mangoes as much as I’d like to (to be fair, I don’t think I’ve ever had mango, so it could just be that I have no reference point for the taste).

That having been said, this was the kind of inoffensive, moderately tasty tisane I like to keep around for late nights (which was when I drank it this time) or times when I don’t know what I’m in the mood for. So I think I’ll keep this, but probably not re-order it.

It’s been a while since I pulled this out of the cabinet. I’ve been gradually realizing that while rooibos is not a favorite of mine, honeybush is much better. This tea has a nice mango flavor and tastes summery to me.

They say that rooibos is calming, I’m hoping that the honeybush has a similar effect. I could use some calm energy today.

I drank this with some vanilla stevia. I think it compliments rooibos and honeybush well.

Yet another sample from Lariel

Gives off a sweet smell but I can’t exactly place it.

Hmmm…I can not taste ANY mango. Did I do something wrong here? Hair under 2 tsp for 8oz. steeped for 6 min. There’s understated, and then there’s nothing. This is nothing….