Banana Cherry Green Yerba Mate

I have a love-hate relationship with banana. Mostly I hate it. Fresh banana grosses me out, and I dislike banana-flavored candies. But I do like it in baked goods (banana oatmeal walnut cookies, oh yeah!). I was really contemplating putting “please no banana!” in the notes on my grab bag but I’d already requested no rooibos and didn’t want to be too demanding. And there was only 1 banana-flavored tea, what were the chances that I’d get it? Funnily enough I got 3 teas I had been hoping for and… this. Ahh, my luck is both wonderful and terrible.

This smells like runts. Banana runts. I was all ready to swap it away instantly, but the bf saw it and wanted to try it. Funnily enough, I showed him the Banana Foster blend since it seemed like something he’d enjoy and it was met with a resounding “no.” I was thinking “oh we’ll make one cup, then I’ll swap it.” However, it was not to be, and I am officially adding this to my cupboard because it was a huge hit! Well, not really with me—I think it’s okay and tolerable (which is saying a lot, since the smell of the dry leaves totally horrified me), but it’s not something I am gonna be “oh I want more of this right now!”

The bf LOVES it. I mean, almost as much as Paris. I can see why: the grassy, earthy notes of yerba mate are right up his alley, and the banana is subdued enough to not be overwhelming. There’s just a hint of cherry which makes everything else pop. So I’m actually pretty happy I wound up with this: it’s always great to find a tea for someone else in your life I think.

Revisiting this tisane today. I do like this, it just wasn’t quite what I expected when I first opened the pouch. With a fragrance so distinctly banana, I expected the flavor to be strongly BANANA. But, my first couple of sips were more yerba mate than anything else, sure, there were hints of banana and cherry, but they weren’t as strong as I expected them to be. However, the flavors do develop as I continue to sip, and now the banana is well-balanced with the yerba mate, and I like the way these two ingredients meld together. The sweetness of the banana softens the vegetative, earthy tones of the mate quite nicely. The cherry is more of a hint, which sort of weaves its way in and out throughout the sip, but is especially noticed in the aftertaste, where there is a cherry sweetness as well as a hint of tart.

This is actually quite good.

This sample comes to me via Ian – so thanks for letting me try it!

I’m fairly new to mate blends so I don’t have much to compare this to. The dry leaf smells a bit banana like but I’m not picking up on any cherry.

I steeped this via regular infuser mug method. The brewed tea is very similar to my inital impression. I’m picking up on lots of mate and the banana but where is the cherry? I thought this needed a little… something so I added some soymilk to it and I liked it better that way, now it reminds me a bit of chunky monkey. I liked this fairly well, not sure if I would buy any for the personal stash, but if I had it around I would most certainly drink it.

I did manage to get a 2nd steep out of this, although it is much lighter in flavor and mostly tastes like mate…

Thanks again, Ian!

I drank this last night after browsing through my box that LiberTEAS sent me and I decided I needed some caffeine.

I did two steeps (I did the first iced) and I enjoyed the second one (hot) waaaay more. The first tasted (and smelled) sort of like bubblegum, and I was kind of turned off. I made the second one hot, however, and I liked it a bit more! It tasted less artificial. I still couldn’t pick out a solid banana or cherry flavor, but it was still pretty good.

This is my first yerba mate. I only used 1 tsp in 8 oz. of water because I read that online somewhere for steeping instructions. I’m not sure if it would be better or not with more leaf. It definitely isn’t too watery.

But that’s probably because I’m tasting A LOT of banana in this cup. I don’t really like banana flavorings, let alone in tea. I believe I’ve said this before. I also am left wondering what yerba mate really tastes like. All I can think of is…tea. Hello, Captain Obvious! But alas, descriptive words are eluding me today.

I’m not getting much in the way of cherry either. I think I’d like a pure cherry flavored yerba mate over this. Overall, I don’t fault the tea as much as I fault my own taste buds. I’m afraid the last few 52teas blends have been a bust. This is just not my thing. But if you like banana, this is your tea!

Sipdown! Thanks to CHAroma for letting me sample this tea!

The aroma is of banana runts; a similar banana essence to that in other 52teas. I can’t detect any cherry, but sometimes flavours don’t present as aromas… here’s hoping! Sip – HOLY CRAP. This tastes very smoky. I can taste a flavour very reminiscent of ChocoMate (presumably the mate?) although I thought it wasn’t roasted in this blend, but green. A quick check confirms this… so it’s quite interesting that I’m tasting the roastiness/smokiness. I don’t think this is contamination (I have few lapsangs and don’t believe it was near them), but wow. This is really strange and somewhat unpleasant. I can’t really taste any sort of fruitiness in the tea because of the overwhelming other notes… I wish I had tried this sooner so I could verify what was possibly going on, but I didn’t. Oh well. I’ll leave a rating off here, as it’s quite possible that something has happened here (especially given the other reviews), but now I’m very suspicious of mate, and looking to try a couple others (I’m positive I have some…) to see how they taste to me…