Mate Libre
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I thought I’d tried all of the Mate Libre RTD flavours but I saw this one while shopping yesterday and didn’t recognize it so I bought it to drink on my commute home. It’s very Mojito like in terms of taste, with a really lovely sweet and sour note of fresh, zesty lime. The mint is surprising because it tastes like a blend of peppermint and spearmint. The spearmint has a very lingering, mouth coating sweetness that reminds me a little of the leaf shaped mint gummy candies. I was never a huge fan of those.
It’s not that it’s super unpleasant or anything, but that candy-like comparison does feel a smidge out of place when you have such a strong presence of fresh and natural flavours coming from the lime and grassy/mineral yerba mate that acts as the foundation of this drink.
I probably wouldn’t rebuy this one.
Hmm, tastes more or less like ginger ale, which I don’t usually drink, with the addition of mate bitterness and non-caloric sweetener, aspartame maybe? Nope, not aspartame. The ingredients show sugarcane reb.m. Not sure what that is if it is not sugar. I’ll look it up and get back.
I would not buy this as I am not typically an energy drink consumer. I do like Yerba mate though and enjoy the bit of wake up buzz that comes from it.
It came in my online Quebec Tea Festival tea box which I purchased after Ms. Strange’s review. I have a lot to say about the way the tea boxes were arranged, organized, and sold. Some (Many?) of the original items featured in the boxes were substituted for other things. It was mentioned that there may be substitutions. The original sale advertising mini-videos of the boxes were pulled down by the time the boxes were shipped out—a three-week time lag. More venting to come.This is my first review of one of the box items. This drink is peppy, I’ll give it that.
There’s that fizzy ginger ale thing going on.
I am probably not the person to be reviewing this drink as I am biased. Ginger ale reminds me of having my tonsils taken out.
That’s incredibly disappointing. Sounds like a drink best saved for a sick day :P
I do like the grab bag-like idea of the tea fest boxes. I also want to discover and support our local tea people, who have probably been suffering during this endless COVId situation.
There were a number of random tea things in the boxes, but I’ll refrain from comment until I have a chance to explore more thoroughly.
I got something like five RTD drinks (among my three boxes). To be continued. Maybe a bit of praise with the ranting and raving.
A local tea box is such a neat idea; its cool they change things up but it sounds like a bit more transparency would be nice (the hit or miss nature of sub boxes, eh). Was there a link with this event? Totally flew under my radar.
Looking forward to what you got though!
I was certain you were around when she posted details and discount code. It was, however, a very brief window before the purchase cutoff date.
Click into red visit the site button and shop to see what’s available (though boxes I think are done.). https://en.festivalduthequebec.com/
Who knows—maybe they are still available.
I probably was but am sometimes (often) oblivious to hyped deals and sales.
The boxes that are up right now are pretty nice! :)
The packaging is fun and some of the contents are cool. Looking forward to exploring. I like the idea of a tea festival in a box, especially in our quasi-lockdown days. I was hoping to go beyond my tea comfort zone a bit. I wonder what they will be putting up on the site the days of the fest.
I do love that they got creative with an online festival. You’re right, it’s a nice option with covid stuff causing everything to be up in the air all the time!
It also looks like a better spread than our Vancouver Tea Festival; when I went to that one a few years back, everyone was pushing puerh. So.Much.Puerh. lol
The Portland (Oregon, US) Tea Festival did the same this year, since they had to cancel an in-person event. Offered limited time sampler boxes which also included the cups you’d get from a physical tea festival.
Did you get one of the boxes?
I was one of the tasters for the Toronto Fest a couple of years ago and the sampler pack we got was awesome.
These are pretty well everything—oolong, whites, herbals, forest botanicals, fruit blends,, greens, mate, puerh, matcha— except for the dearth of black tea.
Yup, I bought one and so did my friend; we attended the festival at their last in-person event in 2019, so I was on the notification list for them. It was quite a limited run, though.
Here too, I think. Overall, I think it is going to be a positive experience.
Portland Festival’s page says they did 200 boxes? I could see them being a good one! It’s going on the bucket list; Portland is fun.
Our in-person festivals are quite good with quite a variety of vendors. I’ve been to several. That said, I find the crowds overwhelming.
I’ve had this can/RTD sitting my fridge for so long now that I finally just said ‘fuck it’ tonight and decided to have it with supper/writing tasting notes tonight so that I’m starting fresh for tomorrow in terms of teas…
I like this so much more than the original flavour though! It still tastes like yerba mate with the sweet grassiness and little bit of naturally earthy/smoky undertone but the passionfruit is bright and sweet and not as harshly tangy/acidic as I expected it to be. I keep getting note of banana which is throwing my a bit but mostly it’s just very refreshing and not too heavy. Really well balanced!
This is a sipdown but I forgot to put it in my Steepster cupboard so not stash number decrease…
This was a gifted RTD through the MTL Tea Festival. Truthfully I didn’t think I would like it because I have a complex and not always favourable relationship with ginger, but it ended up being pretty tasty! I’d describe it as very similar to a ginger beer but with an added grassy earthiness from the mate used in making it. Refreshing and not overly spicy, but still some heat and tickle. Not my first pick, but good and I definitely see the appeal.
Montreal Tea Festival – Tea #16
Another RTD that this company was sampling at their booth – it likes like it’s the first flavour apart from their original recipe that they’ve carried and I think we were actually technically getting a sneak peak of it, because on their website it’s listed as “coming soon”.
If I’m being honest with myself, despite the fact this one did not taste as clearly/distinctly of the yerba mate used in it I do actually think I liked it better. It was very fresh/refreshing and the rose was the more prominent note, accented with a hint of tartness that only made it feel even crisper. Perfect amount of sweetness, as well. I like rose a lot, and this fizzy rose drink with hints of hibiscus and mate!? Well it’s right up my alley. I could probably drink litres of this at a time…
I honestly probably would have bought several bottles of this, save for the fact I only had my backpack with me and I didn’t feel comfortable tossing several liquid filled bottles into my backpack along with all my newly purchased tea and teaware.
Montreal Tea Festival – Tea #15
The other yerba mate booth at the festival – but as an RTD. I don’t know if I’ve mentioned it, but there were actually a lot of RTD booths (mostly kombucha though). I liked this booth; it was very sleek and visually appealing, and the drink itself sounded pretty cool/well executed.
I was actually very impressed – it tasted really good while still also tasting distinctly like yerba mate! Basically just a very crisp, refreshing mate with a burst of sweet citrus. More orange feeling than lemon I suppose, but it’s a generic enough citrus note while still feeling authentically natural. Not too sweet, either. This might be the best RTD mate I’ve had to date that still tasted like mate! Very impressive.
I also swear I’ve seen this company somewhere else other than the festival but I cannot for the life of me place where, and that’s driving me insane…
