Honey Drop

Mild herbal tea. Hints of ginger and citrus. Reminiscent of cough candies like Ricola.

Ordered this recently on Black Friday as an Xmas gift for myself. Due to my chronic illnesses, I tend to struggle with sickness in the winter and felt this would be a nice comforting option to have on hand. When I was very little and would get sick, my grandmother would make me tea and flavor it with orange blossom honey. She passed in 2017 and I miss her dearly, so I was hoping this tea might bring back some pleasant memories.

Two separate brewings in and its one of the best decisions I have ever made. The dry leaf smells highly medicinal, with peppermint and some vegetal notes being most prominent. Once brewed, the resulting tea is nicely sweet, with the honeybush and citrus taking center stage in a warm and comforting taste experience. The peppermint is noticeable, but takes a supporting role. The longer the leaves are steeped, the stronger the citrus will be, as well.

I am completely unashamed to say that the moment I tasted this, I was transported back in time to my grandmother’s warm kitchen, where she always waited for me with a hug. This tea will be a mainstay in my cabinet for as long as I can get it.

I opened the package and was met with a beautiful orangey honey aroma. I was super excited to brew up this cup after my dumped cup of Fireside Mocha. Unfortunately, this is another no for me. I don’t get any orange or honey notes, but instead an odd herbal/bitter flavor.

I do not like this tea. I don’t like honey, so really…I’m not sure why I ordered it. It doesn’t really taste like honey though. It’s just a light, bitter, unpleasant flavor, and adding sugar only makes it worse. It is honeyish, but there’s some very disagreeable ingredient in there. Of course, I made a huge mug of it, which I suppose I’ll suffer through, but I’ll likely swap the rest. Maybe this is one of those teas you’re only supposed to drink when you’re sick, but I like the flavor of throat coat even when I’m feeling well. I’m tempted to rate this one really low because I find it to be quite bad, but everyone else enjoys this one decently, so maybe my honey bias is kicking in. What to do…

I bought this tea because it claims to be an immunity boosting orange, ginger, lemon tea. I do not typically like citrus based teas, however with honey being in the name, I was hopeful for some sweetness that would counteract it.
I travel on the subway a lot and so an occasional immunity boost would be a welcomed edition to my routine.

The smell of the tea before being brewed made me a little worried, but after I left it to brew for a good 6 minutes or so, the smell was more of a lemon citrus honey smell and I was pleased.

The taste was nice, well balanced not really sweet but certainly not that tartness you get from lemon and orange . I could taste the honeybush as well as a little bit of ginger.
I enjoyed this cup and it was better than I had expected. It is just not something I would reach for on a typical night. If I was feeling ill, or traveling or had a co-worker come in ill, I could see myself drinking several cups of this a day with no problem. (however I cannot vouch for how well it will keep me from getting ill).

(DavidsTea 2022: 80)

H is for… Honey Drop!

Another epic oversteep but the tea hasn’t particularly suffered, since there’s no actual tea in it. However – really not a fan of this one. I’m iffy on the “honey” flavouring that many companies use, and paired here with stevia, it’s too cloying for me and I’d rather just have real honey. I should save this tea for my husband’s next cold; I feel like it would work well for him, and maybe require less actual honey than he usually puts in?

This is a mild, sweet herbal blend that has the added benefit of providing a boost of vitamin C. And it really does taste like the traditional Ricola throat drop flavor, as purported :-) It reminds me a bit of another herbal DAVIDsTEA, Midsummer Night’s Dream. This will be a nice fall/winter go-to tea in the morning and/or evening, to boost immunity during the flu season.

This tea didn’t smell like much upon smelling it, but I bought 15g to try at home. Since I have a cold, I thought it was a good idea. The tea guide also said it is better than Throat Rescue, which I don’t really care for. I added a bit of sugar, and had it hot, steeped for about 2 mins or less. It’s actually really good. I taste the apple and ginger, orange and also the honeybush. Maybe a hint of peppermint, but it’s not really noticeable. Overall I really enjoy this tea, and I managed to get 2 steeps out of one PS. I will definitely buy more of this! I hope it is part of the core collection.

I am currently sick. Boo. I also blame all my co-workers who came in sick, coughing and sneezing all week. Oh, well…I decided to go into DavidsTea after work and stock up on some cold teas. I got Cold911 as usual and received a sample of Honey drop to try in store. I really liked the sample so I got some of this tea as well to take home. I also caved and bought two mugs (they were on sale 2 for $40!). I got the Llama and Toucan mugs. I am in love with them! Well, back to the tea…this is one refreshing cup of tea. I definitely taste the orange with a hint of sweetness, mint and ginger. I think I would like this one even if I wasn’t sick! I hope this one sticks around for awhile!

Our, sort of, ‘joint’ Thanksgiving & Comfort (ie. Cold&Flu) collection launched today; there are several cute mug designs in this collection – including soup mugs, a ton of core teas being featured for the season, and some new samplers/kits and things. However, the most interesting thing for me is always the new tea – and this is the new one for this collection!

Based on the name, I expected this to me pretty sweet but also mints/potentially eucalyptus tinged – sort of like a cough drop? Something that would be soothing on the throat or good for congestion, like Throat Rescue and Cold 911 but maybe a little more pleasant tasting!?

In practice, I definitely do think this tastes way more pleasant that either of the two aforementioned blends, and I was sort of correct in what the ingredients/profile would be. I mean, it definitely has mint in it but it’s also pretty floral and has a surprisingly strong amount of orange in it as well. The orange is the strongest flavour, in my opinion, though – and it’s actually a really pleasantly sweet and natural orange. I mean, we’re talking really juicy here. As a partially related tangent, there’s this whole weird “thing” on Reddit about eating oranges in the shower – it’s fascinating and I recommend both looking it up and actually trying it. My point here, though, is that the sweet burst/pop or orange flavour reminded me of the intense sensation of eating an orange in the shower…

https://www.reddit.com/r/ShowerOrange/

Apart from a truly magnificent flavour of orange, the finish is a little honey like in its sweetness and there’s a VERY mild tint of mint to everything, that I think accents the sweetness of the orange and adds this extra layer of refreshment to the flavour. I definitely, based on this first cup, wouldn’t describe it as a “minty tea” though. More fruity, for sure.

I’m not currently sick, but I will try to remember next time I have a cold to pull this one out in place of my standard triple strength Cold 911 to see if it does anything for me in terms of in the moment “feel better”-ness. I am glad, though, that there’s a “cold and flu” sort of tea in our line up that I actually like enough to drink when I’m not sick, though!

Friendly reminder that I do not numerically rate DAVIDsTEA blends as I’m currently employed there and it would be an obvious conflict of interest. Any blends you see with numerical ratings were rated prior to my employment there. These reviews are a reflection of my personal thoughts regarding the teas, and not the company’s.