Hey there Teacups! I’m back today with a Let’s Talk Tea post and this time around I’m going to be reviewing Adagio’s – Honeybush Pumpkin Chai. This was very kindly gifted to me along with some other samples from Adagio during 2019 and I had plans to review it not long after it arrived at my house but sadly as you all know by now because the later half of 2019 was so hard for me health wise I had to push a lot of my plans back and take some time for myself. Hence why I’m only just getting around to reviewing this and the other samples Adagio sent. That’s why you’ve seen a lot of them on my blog since 2020 started and you’re going to see a lot more of them throughout the year as well. But for today lets get back to this review.
Here’s what Adagio have to say about this blend over on their website: ” Masala chai spices in a South African honeybush herb base, with a hint of pumpkin. This blend of honeybush, cinnamon bark, cardamom, ginger root, cocoa nibs & safflower is sure to delight. Beautiful clear and bright cup, with a crisp and tangy-sweet flavour. The heat of the spices is balanced beautifully with the natural smooth, mellow quality of the honeybush. Naturally caffeine free for an anytime treat. We suggest two heaping teaspoons per cup. Sugar, cream or soy if desired.”
Ingredients: honeybush tea, cinnamon, cardamom, ginger, cocoa nibs, natural pumpkin spice flavour and safflower.
Tea Tasting Notes
If you’ve been reading my blog for a while now you’ll know I’m a huge fan of blends that use Honeybush for a base. I love Honeybush, its so much more smooth and relaxing to drink that Rooibos is and I just can’t get enough of it. So, I knew going into this tasting session that I was going to enjoy this. Not only does it have a honeybush base, it is packed with all my favourite Chai spices, just a hit of pumpkin pie spice and a hit of cocoa! How could I not love this blend.
The Honeybush base is smooth, floral, lightly roasted, and has a taste that is similar to honey and it is the perfect base for the spices and pairs with them perfectly. The spices take the forefront with the cinnamon and the cloves being the strongest and the cardamom and the ginger coming through a little more in the aftertaste. There is an ever so slight butternut squash like note that also comes through in not sure which of the tea ingredients is giving off this note but I won’t question it because its delicious.
I wasn’t expecting to see cocoa in this blend as I’ve only ever had one Chai blend with that in and its not often something I would associate with Chai however it pairs beautifully with the lightly roasted note that the Honeybush has. It’s definitely more of a background note but if you wanted that to be stronger you could always add some more. The ginger and the honeybush both add a nice natural sweetness so I really wouldn’t recommend adding any sweetness unless you have an insane sweet tooth. In terms of adding milk I wouldn’t recommend doing that either.
There are a lot of subtle notes to this blend that would definitely be overpowered by the milk, so this really is best to have on its own. I have about half a sample bag of this left and I don’t think that will last too long with me, I can definitely see myself reaching for this over the next few days as my bedtime tea when I want those Chai flavours and not caffeine. This will definitely be going on “to buy” list for when I lift my tea buying ban because its absolutely delicious and definitely one of the best no caffeine Chai blends I’ve ever had.
Overall Teacup Rating: 5/5
If you want to find out more about Adagio Tea and purchase some of this delicious tisane for yourself, you can do both here. As always if you have any questions at all either stick them in the comments or send them to me over on Twitter/Instagram @teaisawishblog and I’ll answer them all as soon as I can.
Speak to you all again soon. Happy Steeping – Kimberley
*The tea featured in this post was sent to me for the purpose of this review. All opinions are my own and have not been paid for.*
Kimberley's Kyusu 
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