Neapolitan Honeybush

Tea type
Honeybush Tea
Ingredients
Cocoa Bean Shells, Cocoa Nibs, Freeze Dried Strawberries, Honeybush, Natural Flavours, Vanilla Bean
Flavors
Cocoa, Dark Chocolate, Fruity, Nutty, Strawberry, Sweet, Honey, Molasses
Sold in
Loose Leaf
Caffeine
Caffeine Free
Certification
Organic
Edit tea info Last updated by Mastress Alita
Average preparation
200 °F / 93 °C 6 min, 30 sec 12 oz / 350 ml

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102 Tasting Notes View all

  • “Another foray into honeybush courtesy of Mercuryhime! Steeped, this smells a bit like that characteristic 52teas smell. With maybe a hint of cream and/or strawberry. Oh wow though, the flavour!!! I...” Read full tasting note
    87
  • “Thanks to Amanda and tattooed_tea for the samples. I combined what I had left of my samples for a cold brew. This is really good cold brewed as well. I am getting chocolate most of all, then...” Read full tasting note
    95
  • “We just had a very bizarre power outage – I came home to no electricity! – but thankfully everything is now fixed thanks to some long hours from the power company – at 8 pm we shouted “Let there be...” Read full tasting note
    82
  • “I drank this last night. A friend and I have started reading the horrible published fanfiction that is 50 Shades of Grey and just laughing ourselves silly over how horrible it is. Oh man. I think I...” Read full tasting note

From 52teas

Frank’s original description of this tea went like this:

It’s starting to warm up, so I hope you will forgive me if I got sidetracked thinking about ice cream, but wow, is this GOOD!

Our caffeine-free African Honeybush (If you are still not familiar with honeybush, it is very similar to Rooibos, but a bit sweeter and without the woody aftertaste that rooibos frequently has) blended with organic vanilla beans, organic cacao nibs, freeze-dried strawberry pieces and all natural flavors. This is a real treat hot or iced!

I stayed pretty true to the recipe except that in addition to organic cacao nibs, I also added organic cacao shells because I love the chocolate-y flavor they impart!

And it is indeed a real treat!

organic ingredients: honeybush, freeze-dried strawberries, cacao shells, cacao nibs, vanilla beans & natural flavors

Yummy!

I have been looking forward to taste testing this tea ever since I blended it – maybe even before! I really enjoyed the original blend of this tea from Frank’s era – if you want to read my review of it, you can check it out here. Oh – and for the record, since I stated in the above description that I didn’t remember if I had tried this one iced – when I was searching for that review, I noticed that I did, in fact, try (and review!) this blend iced – or at least the Southern Boy Teas version of it iced!

Anyway, I’m really enjoying my reblend of this tea too. My first couple of sips were just a little disappointing but I must admit that I broke my own rule and started sipping without waiting the 10 minute cool time. I couldn’t help it, it’s been a while since I’ve done a chocolate tea of any sort and I do enjoy a nice chocolate note in my tea!

Those first couple of sips weren’t horrible or anything – but the flavor seemed a little ‘muddled’ – but now that the tea has cooled for the aforementioned 10 minutes, the flavors have really popped and I taste the vanilla, the strawberry and the chocolate – there’s a pleasant creaminess to it. I don’t get a strong flavor from the honeybush but when I really focus on what I’m tasting, I can pick up on the nutty tones from the honeybush. But mostly, what I taste is chocolate, vanilla and strawberry!

Ingredients: honeybush, freeze-dried strawberries, cacao shells, cacao nibs, vanilla beans & natural flavors

to brew: use 1 1/2 rounded teaspoons of tea to 12 ounces of hot water (heated to 195°F) and allow to steep for 6 – 10 minutes. I went with 8 minutes and I got a good representation of each flavor – however, because this is a honeybush blend – you can steep it for longer without worry of tannins making it bitter. In fact, in one of my aforementioned reviews, I suggested brewing it in a glass infuser tumbler like this one and just leave the leaves steeping while you sip.

If you choose not to use one of those nifty tumblers – strain after steeping and allow to cool for at least 10 minutes. Enjoy. My first cuppa, I tried it without sugar and it was really good. For my second taste test, I added about 1/2 a teaspoon of sugar and I found that this heightened the flavors of chocolate, strawberry and vanilla a bit.

About 52teas View company

At 52teas.com, you will find unique, hand-blended artisan loose leaf teas: a new limited edition creation every week of the year. We pride ourselves on offering truly unique, one-of-a-kind tea blends that you won’t find anywhere else.

102 Tasting Notes

87
6105 tasting notes

Another foray into honeybush courtesy of Mercuryhime!

Steeped, this smells a bit like that characteristic 52teas smell. With maybe a hint of cream and/or strawberry. Oh wow though, the flavour!!! I initially got chocolate, followed by a combination of the three flavours, and it’s finishing off with strawberry. Delicious! Yes, this is so neat – initially intense chocolate, then obvious creamy vanilla (maybe with a bit of chocolate), then strawberry at the end. This is great! And the honeybush isn’t making a big fuss about being around; I can barely taste it. I can see why this blend is popular. Now I want to buy the iced teas more than ever :( Need to calculate how much of my cheese panel money is left over (although I really want to make a Butiki order soon too…)

ETA: Second infusion isn’t great, maybe because it’s cold.

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 8 min or more
Mercuryhime

It is good isn’t it? 52Teas makes the best honeybush blends. :) try it as a latte!

Kittenna

Recommended latte-making procedure? I only have enough for one cup left and don’t want to ruin it!

Mercuryhime

Well, my latte making methods are really lame but you are welcome to do it my way if you want. haha I basically make a batch double strength, then heat some milk and add to the tea. sweeten and drink. It’s a really ghetto latte, but I like it. :)

Kittenna

I’ll try something along those lines :D

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95
1184 tasting notes

Thanks to Amanda and tattooed_tea for the samples. I combined what I had left of my samples for a cold brew.

This is really good cold brewed as well. I am getting chocolate most of all, then strawberry, then vanilla. The vanilla is the lightest note here.

I made a tea smoothie with this tea using frozen strawberries and vanilla greek yogurt. It was SOOO good!

I will certainly be ordering this tea one day when my 52teas stash is a little less!

Sil

Mmmmmm tea smoothie.

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82
1112 tasting notes

We just had a very bizarre power outage – I came home to no electricity! – but thankfully everything is now fixed thanks to some long hours from the power company – at 8 pm we shouted “Let there be light!!! (and internet!)”. The first thing I did when the power came on was make tea! I chose this one because I wanted something sweet to ease all my worry.

I was a nervous wreck making it – in a mad rush to try and reset all the clocks in the house, make sure everything was now working, etc and I was too heavy handed with the leaves and probably steeped it a bit too much. I tasted a strong, delicious strawberry flavor and my first taste of honeybush! Yum! Sweeter than rooibos and less cigar humidor-ish! I fear that my heavy steep and the addition of honey masked the vanilla and chocolate flavors. Nevertheless, it was very delicious! I love the honeybush and the strawberry was so natural and good. It does not need honey at all, and I think a 5 minute steep would be more suitable.

Preparation
Boiling 7 min, 0 sec
mpierce87

This tea has had so many great reviews lately that I really need to order some. However, I’m on a self-imposed tea buying hiatus for the month of April, so if it is still in stock at midnight on April 30, I’m ordering some! Until then, I am glad to live vicariously through your and others reviews of this blend.

Rabs

Ah, I loves me some honeybush (she says whilst sipping her Honeybush Mango)!

Dan

When our electric is out we light the wood stove and get out the metal tea kettle. Have to have my tea.

JacquelineM

Dan – It’s great that you have an alternative energy source! That is the smart thing to have! I felt so fragile thinking I couldn’t do ANYTHING with the way the modern things were set up. When the apocalypse comes, I’m in DEEP TROUBLE!!!

Kristin

I think 52teas has proven that more tea makers should offer flavored honeybush. Not enough flavored honeybush!

LadyLondonderry

Glad you’ve got your power back! I’m a little surprised you didn’t seek comfort from your beloved Thomas … but then again, he might be a little too stimulating for this situation!

JacquelineM

Yes – the last thing I needed was caffeine!! I was shaking as it was :) I should have drank a whole chamomile bush!!!

~lauren.

JacquelineM – maybe consider a natural-gas stove next time? The igniter doesn’t work during power outages but the stove does once you ignite it with a long fireplace match or one of those long-long-nozzled lighter-thingy. At least tea & even dinner gets on the table during outages…!

JacquelineM

We have a gas oven and burners that run by an electronic pad thing. Can I light those burners with a long match?

~lauren.

I don’t do the oven (though my mom did on hers all the time) I only do my stove with the long-nozzled-fire-lighty-thing (often as we are subject to black outs and brown outs on the wind’s whim).

JacquelineM

I will try it – only on the burners! :) if I have this happen again. When I saw the whole stove looking dead I just figured nothing worked! THANK YOU!

~lauren.

My only caution – make sure you can turn it off somehow (my knobby thing turns off my stove) I don’t know about your electronic pad thing.

JacquelineM

Yes I have knobs that you turn as well as the electric part. I hope I never have to try it :) :) :) :) but it is so good to know about.

~lauren.

Try it, JacquelineM! Try it out now when you have power – that way you won’t panic about trying something different in a stressful situation (which is so me, probably, more than you).

JacquelineM

That’s a good idea – I was totally shaking yesterday!! In our last house, our electricity went out and we wound up having to get the whole house rewired at $$$$$$$$$ – the wires were old and rotted – so of course that is what I automatically thought happened and I was like noooooooooo! Thankfully it was something the power company had to fix.

~lauren.

Oh, so glad that it worked out for you (yay – that the onus was on the power company!!!)!

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1220 tasting notes

I drank this last night. A friend and I have started reading the horrible published fanfiction that is 50 Shades of Grey and just laughing ourselves silly over how horrible it is. Oh man. I think I am scarred for life.

As it is the written trainwreck I can’t look away from, now I am finally getting around to it. Actually, all of today I have been worrying like crazy over an orchid I just got. I had to return it for a different one and it makes me sad. Oh well.

This time around, this tea tasted a lot like chocolate covered strawberries. It didn’t seem as creamy or vanilla-y this time around but it is still DEFINITELY one of my favorite honeybush blends ever, even after two cups!

Mercuryhime

It’s one of my favorites as well!

Daniel Scott

I honestly HATE that book, and I haven’t even read it yet.

Parody story for you: http://lantoniou.blogspot.ca/2012/04/50-shades-of-sellout.html

momo

Oh it goes between enraging with its stupidity to hilarious because it’s so horribly written. There’s a local theatre group that does improv to movies and I cannot wait until this one’s been made into a movie, I know they will be on it as soon as they can.

The first sentence of this parody is already gold.

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100
2238 tasting notes

Finally tried this last night. I actually bought this with my second 52Teas order, just before last Christmas. I’m not sure why I held off. Maybe because I’d heard such great things and I didn’t want to be disappointed.

Let’s get one thing straight. I am not disappointed, because this is absolutely amazing. I was unsure about the scent at first. I could only really detect the honeybush, and maybe a faint whiff of chocolate. I left it sitting in the kitchen for 6 minutes or so, though, and when I came back things had definitely changed. I could smell strawberry, for starters. I added milk to this, because I couldn’t get my mind to think ice cream if it wasn’t some kind of creamy. That actually seemed to drown out the scent again, but I needn’t have feared.

I was seriously impressed by the first sip. The initial taste was quite strongly chocolatey, then the vanilla started to edge in, and then the strawberry emerged right at the end, carrying through into the aftertaste. Maybe because the milk contributed the creaminess I was looking for, but this tastes just like Neapolitan ice cream. It’s hot, but that doesn’t seem to matter somehow. The flavour is spot on. It’s almost uncanny.

I’m looking forward to this evening just so that I can drink it again. It’s going to be a really welcome addition to my summer pre-bedtime rotation, and I suspect there’ll be tears when it’s gone. I’d like to cold brew it, because part of me feels that ice cream should be cold. It’s so gorgeous hot, though, I’m almost tempted not to bother. I do have the SBT version of this, so perhaps I’ll break that out tomorrow. I’m almost done with the Razzleberry I’ve got at work, so I’ll need some more iced tea to keep me going tomorrow. Apparently we’re going to have a heatwave, but I’ll believe that when I see it.

I don’t think there’s anything left to say, other than “I really love this tea!” Amazing, amazing stuff.

Preparation
Boiling 6 min, 0 sec

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51
709 tasting notes

Finishing this up today I get a different taste than before. I steeped for about 10 minutes and get a creaminess behind the chocolate and rooibos notes that really suggests the neapolitan flavour. I still don’t get vanilla or strawberry, but as I said in my last note, I find chocolate always takes over.

I did shake the dust out of my infuser this time, though an annoying amount has fallen into my mug. It’s a good thing this is a rooibos, otherwise it would be undrinkable. I am getting a sharp taste of the rooibos in the back of my throat, and for once I almost understand what people mean when they say a mintiness. I must confess I am not found of this strong rooibos presence, but it’s completely my fault. Nice to see another sample finished!

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84
357 tasting notes

I’m finishing off the last of this honeybush today. It’s tasty, but personally I like it best when I brew it a little on the strong side – heap the leaves in there and leave it steeping. I have to keep this tealog short so I can get back to researching mattresses. I had no idea there were so many options!

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85
4843 tasting notes

Having a cup of this – this time I did it latte style with a bit of warmed, frothed milk. It is so much better this way! The milk brings out the creamy flavor of the blend. Nice!

I am improving the rating on this one just a bit… because I can!

Preparation
Boiling 8 min or more
JacquelineM

Ooooh gotta try that! You have the best ideas :)

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88
525 tasting notes

I’ve gotta learn to be careful with my honeybush/rooibos teas. After a long steep, the flavors I don’t like come out and ruin things. AFter 6-7 minutes, it starts to taste like sour wood.

Anyway, over steeping aside, this tea is nice flavored! It’s actually better than any neapolitan ice cream I’ve ever had. The strawberry was sweet and juicy and the chocolate was totally yum. I didn’t get much vanilla, but I’m betting it’s the stupid sour wood flavor that’s getting in the way. I’ll have this again soon, steeped correctly, and then we’ll see. I’m enjoying this one though. I’m glad I picked this one over the strawberry pie, though I’m sure that one’s good too. :)

TeaBrat

I think I am going through the same thing myself lately; some r/h blends seem to be really picky.

CHAroma

What an apt description: sour wood! I completely agree! ;)

Indigobloom

ughhh yes that bothers me too sometimes!! one of the reasons I always use agave to spruce it up.

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98
1015 tasting notes

This is really, really good. I’m getting a lot of strawberry and vanilla with a hint of chocolate. It really does taste like Neapolitan ice cream! I knew it would be great though – Frank rocks honeybush! As a result, honeybush has quickly become my nightly vice. Delicious! My cup is disappearing way too fast…

Preparation
8 min or more

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