Banana Coconut Upside Down Cake Honeybush Tea

Found a packet of this while inventorying my 52teas; smells a bit less than fresh but I gave it a try anyway. Not too bad, as things go – not a ton of flavour, but the flavour also wasn’t bad. Kind of a tropical honeybush. Decent pick for an evening of working overtime.

Another of my 52Teas finds as I cleared my room to move. I’m a little less impressed with this one – I get “upside-down cake”, kinda – there’s a background buttery sugariness that’s fairly spot on. What I don’t get is banana, or actually (surprisingly?) coconut. That leaves me feeling, on the whole, a bit meh about the whole thing. I wanted banana! A good banana tea is a rare thing on this earth, apparently.

I think next time I might try adding a bit of crystal sugar, just to see if I can amplify things a bit. I might also try increasing the brew time a touch, although it got a good five minutes or so while I was on the phone.

I wanted to love this one, and as an upside-down cake replica, I do. Banana, though.

I had this the other day and meh. Today, I added a spoon of honey to the steeped tea and it made a huge difference. Quite lovely. The banana and butteriness picked up a bit more. The coconut is still very subtle despite many shreds of coconut in my spoon of dry leaf. The honeybush is beautifully supporting the other flavours. Yes, yes, enjoying this cup.

Herbal TTB

My first thought when I wake up in the morning is often, “What kind of tea should I drink with breakfast today?” (Surely I’m not alone?) This morning, I was really craving Butiki’s Hello Sweetie. Sadly, it’s gone forever, so I decided to try this similar-sounding blend from 52Teas. The scent was very promising…lots of sweet banana and coconut goodness, just like Hello Sweetie. But for me, the flavor just wasn’t enough. I mostly tasted the honeybush base with little bit of mild, watery banana flavor. I didn’t get anything that was reminding me of coconut or cake. Guess I’ll have to keep hunting for the perfect replacement!

Thankyou for the sample 52teas!
I would not have bought this for myself because I am not usually a fan of banana flavour in teas. I am not sure what it is about hot bananas but it just doesn’t jive with me.
Anyways, this honeybush was better than I was expecting it to be. Coconut is fairly high up there on the favourite list for me, and it was the most prominent note in this cuppa. The “cake” was missing a little for me though. To me, the banana was fairly in the background which made me happy.

I feel like the rest of you got a different tea that i did. this is the second time i’ve had it, and the second time i’ve let the sink finish it. I can see the coconut in the blend and there was a single chunk of banana. but brewed, this is just honeybush..with a dash of coconut..leading to a giant pile of ICK for me. Great that it was a free sample in my package to offset a lighter weighted tea…but i’d rather have the other tea. blech.

this will forever be referred to as banana upsidedown coconut barf monster just for omgsrsly Sorry Liberteas! i’m glad it’s working for other folks haha. Can’t win them all.

This tea smells amazing-like a perfect combination of coconut and fresh banana cream, and a slight trace of what I can only assume is the honeybush if you inhale deeply enough. I have tried this tea twice—once with a bit of cream, which ended up overwhelming the tea, and once without additions. Despite a ten minute steep both times, the strength of the flavor was just very minimal, despite the absolutely delightful aroma wafting up from the cup. Not to worry, though—I think I’m just realizing that perhaps honeybush teas are too lightly flavoured for this need-to-be-punched-in-the-face-with-flavor girl, and will therefor be finishing up the package by making lattes. Because mm banana coconut milk!

When I put in my order with 52teas, I kept going back and forth over whether I wanted to order this or not. Banana and coconut are both flavors in tea that I’m really picky about, and they’re not always done well. I wasn’t super impressed with the old 52teas honeybush teas that I tried, but I’ve been hearing so many glowing review that I felt like I ought to give it a chance. In the end, I decided not to order this one, which is perfect because I ended up getting it as a free sample! I decided to try it first, because I always try to drink up coconut teas quickly. The instructions say 1 tsp/8 oz and to steep it for 6-10 minutes, which is not at all how I normally handle honeybush. Honeybush is usually really lightly flavored, for some reason, and often goes sour if steeped longer than 5 minutes, but I decided to try the instructions as written first. That was a good choice. I ended up steeping it for quite a while because the boys were demanding my attention, but it tastes good, so that’s not a problem. I’m always happy to find another tea where I don’t have to worry about the steep time. The most prominent flavors are banana and honeybush. The banana tastes natural – like banana chips rather than artificial banana flavoring. The honeybush is smooth and woody, not at all sour or astringent. There’s a bit of extra sweetness, but I’m not really tasting coconut or cake specifically. I’ll try watching the steep time a little better next time to see how that affects the flavors. I’m definitely interested in trying more banana flavored teas by 52teas now. I’ll keep that in mind for the future. And their honeybush teas are really good now, so I’ll remember that as well.

I absolutely love how this company adds pieces of real fruit to their teas, rather than just “flavors.” It looks pretty and generally means I get more of that flavor (not to mention that a lot of times, I’ll pick the rehydrated fruit out of the tea when I’m done drinking and just munch on it. This one had gorgeous long strips of coconut, and tiny half rounds of banana nestled in the honeybush.

When I first started steeping, I could really smell the coconut, and that’s about it. Now I smell the banana too. (I got one banana piece in this steep – I think there’s enough left in the sample package for one more steep, and that one will have at least two pieces of banana in it).

I’m definitely getting both coconut and banana in the first sip. A little heavier on the coconut than the banana. This is very pleasant. I’m not really getting the “cake” bit in this, but it might be overwhelmed by the coconut and banana.

I’m trying to use up more of the tea I have in my cabinet before it decides to come crashing down, but I might have to get myself a larger packet of this one.

As usual, I’ll make a note that I should probably try this with milk and sugar, too, but my habits still usually have me drinking it without.

I am not the biggest fan of this one, but not because the tea is poorly flavored. I just don’t care much for coconut in tea, or banana flavoring. But this is very desserty, and thankfully is drinkable. I appreciated the real coconut flakes, it made the coconut more real tasting and less like weird butter, which I often taste in other coconut teas.