Root Beer Float Honeybush

Time to get started on the overwhelming amount of tea that arrived today. I may just be up all night sipping away at tea after tea. But two upsides: 1. I have more tea, and 2. Now I can mail out some swaps that were waiting on the orders that came in today.

This one came my way from Stephanie. She’s pretty awesome.

I’m getting both the honeybush and root beer scents here. The honeybush is slightly stronger, but not by much. In the taste I’m getting is much more honeybush than root beer. I have a feeling this one may be better cold.

Yay! I’m so excited. I feel so privileged to get to try this. Unless I’m just sleepy and was stupid with the search, this tea is neither on Steepster’s database, nor is it available to purchase yet.

Anyway, I got a sample of this with my Butiki order. Stacy asked if I was interested, and I immediately responded with a resounding YES even though I detest all kinds of soda, and I’ve never had honeybush ever. It just sounded so fascinating, I had to try it.

I held out the dry leaf to everybody and asked what they thought it smelled like without telling them what it was. They all said rootbeer! You know when something smells authentic when you can tell that story. :) Anyway, this smells and tastes so much like rootbeer that it’s mind blowing. Even though I’m drinking it hot, it feels so much like I have a glass of rootbeer, that I can almost swear there’s even fizz in this, haha.

Now, I don’t really taste “float” (AKA ice cream) but I’m drinking this without sugar, so it’s entirely possible that you’ll get more of an ice creamy flavor with sugar. This tastes so much like rootbeer, that it’s actually unbelievable. I honestly didn’t think this was possible.

For anyone who even mildly likes rootbeer, definitely pick some of this up when it’s available! :)

Hmmm. The dry leaf smells exactly like root beer, with a touch of sweetness and creaminess. Brewed, this is exactly like root beer. Down to the fizziness (how do you get something to taste fizzy without actually being fizzy anyway?). A touch of sugar brings out the vanilla creaminess more.

This tea lives up to the name. However, I just learned that drinking hot soda is not enjoyable for me. High marks for high quality, but low marks because I just don’t like tea a la soda. Thanks to Stacy at Butiki Teas for the sample!

Yay! Another honeybush!
Hot, this tastes a little weird. Cold though, it is delicious. Root beer without the fizziness, and with some creaminess like ice cream. I will add sweetener next time to make it a real treat.
I will be drinking lots of this in the summer!

This tea smells like the perfect, smooth combination of honeybush and root beer.. pretty incredible! I didn’t think it was possible to recreate something so unique as root beer in something like tea, but the scent of this tea has changed my belief!

Sipping… I’m getting almost a carbonated bite from the root beer flavor. The root beer fades into a honeybush finish. I’m actually glad that the honeybush isn’t too prominent and that it’s mostly covered up by the root beer. I’m also pleased that the root beer isn’t too spicy. Still not too much ice cream flavor here.. my favorite part of a root beer float, but I’m still so happy that this tea can be so spot on as far as a root beer soda flavor is concerned. Wish that there was more creamy vanilla ice cream flavor, but this made a very enjoyable cup this evening.

I thought it would be fun to do a side-by-side, haven’t done one of those in a long time (and I had my alphabetized “control group-standard” tea cups out anyway). And I’m wired from all the pu erh (Yowza! Definitely a “one serving resteeped all morning’ll do ya” thing) so no-cafs are the only option. Aaaaand once again this is a generous sample from Stacy. (I feel a little bad because I mentioned the top 3 picks for samples in the “note to seller” box meaning any 1 would be great, and I got all 3. Super nice!) So here we go. This versus Utopia Rooibos Root Beer. It’s not entirely a fair comparison in that this is honeybush (a less distracting base than rooibos, I find) and Utopia’s is rooibos, and this is meant to be a float and Utopia’s is simply labeled root beer. But! I will just try to keep those factors in mind.

Dry, Utopia has a much stronger root beer, barky/rooty-soda (think birch beer, sarsaparilla, sassafras)-type smell. Steeping, it’s spicier smelling upfront too, though that dwindles the longer it steeps. Even though it doesn’t aim to be like a float, it has a lot of vanilla, as root beer tends to anyway. Butiki’s steeping aroma, while more subdued, has a specific black pepper-y note I dig though.

Onto the taste! Since I’m guessing Butiki’s is going to be subtler, I’ll start with that one. It tastes good and smells even better. It is surprisingly a bit thick on the tongue for a no-caf, which I like. After a couple sips I added a little sugar as recommended (I just about always find the precise recommendations for Butiki’s teas dead-on helpful, so I always follow them). That brings out the soda quality more, somehow making it taste a little fizzy. The creamy float quality comes in at the end of the sip; it’s subtle, but the vanilla is a delicious one. As it cools, it gets much creamier and is really yummy.

Utopia’s is a lot stronger and spicier, still surprisingly thick and a tad creamy, and sweeter in a chemical-y way. It has a hard to describe aftertaste, first chemical-y and a little unwelcome but eventually seguing into licorice root sweetness. I have to say I’m really impressed with how little I taste the rooibos (I don’t mind rooibos really, but I’ve noticed it can be hard to tamp down enough to keep from distracting from intended flavorings…it’s a very distinct thing that, once you notice is hard to ignore). The spiciness and strength of Utopia’s evokes the aforementioned more unusual rooty beers, stuff like sassafras and sarsaparilla.

I’m not terribly surprised at the results here—Butiki’s being softer, subtler, but delicious; Utopia’s being sharper, very bold and kind of spicy if a little chemical—but am pleased to learn I like both and would drink either or both again happily. Good to know as it saves me some sugar, as I’m unwilling to drink diet root beer. (:

Second tea bought from Butiki. First of all, the smell. When you smell the leaves it smells so nice. Then when you steep it, the room fills with that smell and you just can’t wait for the tea to steep before you can take a sip. The taste is decent, not overpowering and definitely root beery. The flavors goes away in about 30 seconds and leaves no aftertaste. A very decent brew, thanks Stacy.

This was (obviously) shared with me quite a while ago and I have never written a note.  It’s from Greenteafairy!  Thank you!  I think it was Not New by the time I tried it, so I was never really inspired to write a note… the flavor isn’t as spectacular as I’d expect a Butiki flavor to be, even older.  But I would definitely guess this was root beer in a blind taste test. Now that I’m trying it again, there is more flavor than I remember, even the second steep. It’s distinctly root beer. I wish there was more of an ice cream quality to it though.  And the honeybush is an interesting base for Butiki – I don’t think it was used very often.  So I guess it’s impressive that this has any flavor left at all.  It’s almost gone!
Steep #1 // 1 1/2 teaspoons // 30 minutes after boiling // 2 minute steep
Steep #2 // just boiled // 3 min

Sipdown! 206/399

I finished the last of this off as a cold brew, and that was definitely the right decision! Root beer has never been a favourite of mine, but in hot tea form I found it completely bizarre. Not bad at all, just really really weird and it kind of put me off. Cold though, this is much closer to an actual root beer, and much less jarring for my brain to compute. There’s also a chocolatey note coming through at the end of the sip which was a total surprise, but I kind of like it. All in all a good send-off for this tea. Upping my rating from 75.

Had tummy problems again tonight and decided to go with this one. The flavor might have faded from when I first bought it, but it still tastes nice, somewhat surprisingly even when hot! No rating since I didn’t try it when it was fresh.