Honey Bee Beautiful - Bluebird Tea Co.

So, tea that smells like weeds – I honestly can’t stand the stuff. When I was a teenager and still living at home my mum used to ‘enjoy’ and I use the word loosely drinking things like chamomile tea, a beverage which made me feel ill. It was the smell, mainly. I couldn’t even get as far as tasting it because the horrible smell was so off-putting.

Fortunately, years have passed and chamomile is no longer quite as popular as it once was and so I’ve managed to keep away from its terrible ditch water smell, until today. 

Today, I decided to try the Bluebird Tea Company’s Honey Bee Beautiful as I was having quite a stressful day at work (and that was before I found out about the General Election) and wanted something soothing.

Ingredients: Rooibos, honeybush, chamomile, nettle leaves, cornflowers, calendula petals, flavour

They describe it thus:

‘Have you ever considered the work it must take to make a queen bee? Their beauty regime is extensive and their mums are very pushy! Someone really should tell them that our Honey Bee Beautiful tea not only tastes amazing but its skin elixir properties helps you be beautiful too.’

The reviews are impressive enough, with everyone loving the honey flavour and smell that mixes so well with the rooibos and honeybush base, and I’ll admit that the honey smell is almost overpowering and quite pleasant if you like that sort of thing – from a distance.

Having not really bothered to look at the ingredients list, my first cause for concern was the quantity of dried white flowers that were in my spoonful of tea. Undeterred, I added the boiling water, gave it a stir, impressed at the fragrance of honey already coming through, and then took a deep sniff of the pot.

Urgh! There was, still the vaguest aroma of honey, but overlaying and overpowering it was that horrible ditch water smell that I always associate with chamomile. A quick check of the ingredient list showed that not only was chamomile the next main ingredient to the tea, but there is also nettle (another nasty smelling brew as I recall) and other flowers too before we get anywhere near honey (not even mentioned on the ingredients list).

Once poured, the tea has that strange dual quality about it. With the mug resting on my desk, I can smell the honey but when I raise it to my nose the honey disappears leaving . . . well, I’m not quite sure what. It seems that mashing all these ditch water smells with rooibos and honey does dilute it a little so it doesn’t smell anywhere near as bad as pure chamomile tea. But it’s still not very appealing nor is it very strong, despite leaving it to steep for twice as long as recommended on the packet.

The first sip reveals very little with regards to taste. It’s extremely bland and I can’t really taste anything much, although it is sweet enough to drink on its own if you wanted to. The next few sips reveal a slight taste of chamomile, possibly, it’s certainly not honey or rooibos or even honeybush, so I’m guessing it’s flowers. Basically, it’s warm and wet – not pleasant or unpleasant really.

In an attempt to do something with it, I added a teaspoon of Manuka honey (not because I’m posh or trendy or anything but because it’s the only honey I currently have in the house – I am not a big honey consumer).

This does nothing to increase the honey smell – in fact, it appears to kill the smell of it that was rising up from the cup – and the other smell has gone too. It’s now much sweeter, and the flowery flavour has been increased making it almost undrinkable for me. I much preferred it unsweetened.

I seem to recall someone in the reviews talking about enjoying it with milk but I really can’t face doing that (unscientific, I know, but I really am disliking this tea and can’t believe a dash of milk or cream will make it any more palatable).

After another few sips, I have to concede defeat and throw it away as it’s too much for me and I honestly can’t drink anymore otherwise I think I’ll be sick.

Sorry Bluebird, I know everyone loves this tea but I really don’t. I think my mum’s going to love it, though!