Honeybush Tea

I've been on a big rooibos and honeybush kick lately, as sleep is important in my life, and sleeping is about the only thing tea won't help you with.

Now, I've known about rooibos for a long time. Honeybush, however, I've only found out about more recently.

Honeybush from Adagio tea—as you can see I've already used most of it

Honeybush is often lumped in with rooibos when you go to buy it. It brews a similar color, the dried plant looks like a coarser version of rooibos, and it even tastes somewhat similar. In addition, from what I've found online, it's even somewhat similar chemically, containing many antioxidants (but not aspalathin—that is unique to rooibos) and grows in South Africa as well. Unlike rooibos, however, it is not cultivated, so if you drink honeybush tea, you're drinking wildharvested tisane, not something grown on a plantation. This has its benefits (no pesticides) and its drawbacks (no quality control), which I won't get into here.

Like it's name implies, honeybush tastes sweet. Sweeter than rooibos. You don't need to add any sweetener to it—it tastes like it already has a small dollop of honey in it. And like rooibos, it's slightly fruity and tangy. I prefer it, taste-wise, to rooibos.

Basically, the same rules apply to honeybush as they do to rooibos: steep for a long time, drink as much as you want, expect to become immortal, etc. Just bear in mind that you'll pay a premium for honeybush tea over rooibos because it's rarer.