Green Mate (Organic)

I keep a stash of this handy in the fridge, cold-steeped for 24hrs. I then heat it up and brew other teas in the hot brewed mate. It gives a really good jolt without too much flavour, so is versatile for mixing with herbals that taste awesome but don’t give you the morning boost. I don’t like hot steeping it, I find it burns fairly easily, like a green tea. That being said, the blends that DT offers that have green mate in them don’t get the burnt taste to them if I use hot water. Weird. Anywho, cold steeping it, it’s impossible to oversteep. Half the time I leave the leaves in the pitcher for days and only filter it out when I pour it. Right now there’s no room for a pitcher in the fridge, so I have some dixie cups in the deep freeze full of it, and I use them to chill iced tea without watering it down too much and adding a boost.

I don’t really enjoy drinking straight mate, I prefer to mix it with fruity herbals and it’s good for that purpose

I often drink this in powdered form. What I would do is take the powder, put it in my water bottle and shake for my mate drink. I would usually drink this cold.

Fast forward to now where I am drinking this hot. I actually like the taste that comes out more…very roasted and delicious. This tea definitely has potential. I don’t really know how to describe this…it’s has a very nice flavour to it! I am not a fan of the frequent bathroom trips though.

Drank this one earlier today on shift because my manager Dani wanted to do a side by side of this one and Guayusa, but didn’t want to commit to a full cup of both. So, I let her try this and I drank the rest.

We’re both in agreement that of the two, Guayusa is the nicer one. It’s just more lush, and full bodied with I think a bit more natural, green sweetness. This one isn’t bad though! Sadly, it’s being retired so it was nice to enjoy another recent cup of it since it’s not one I’m going to stock up on before it’s retired. Dani made an interesting observation though when trying this, and it’s been bugging me all day because after she said it I couldn’t shake the comparison. What she said was “This tea tastes like Mexico”. And that just… feels true?

Neither of us can place why though, and that’s eating at me so badly. If anyone can help us nail down exactly what it is that “tastes like Mexico” we’d be super greatful, though!

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8pvHZ4ddR-4&index=1&list=WL

Just what was playing on the radio; it was a nice pairing though. I like The Kooks a lot.

Friendly reminder that I do not numerically rate DAVIDsTEA blends as I’m currently employed there and it would be an obvious conflict of interest. Any blends you see with numerical ratings were rated prior to my employment there. These reviews are a reflection of my personal thoughts regarding the teas, and not the company’s.

I love it when I need an energy boost + I am craving a straight tea. It is a little smokey and since it is the only green maté I have tasted, I cannot say if it is usual for this type of tea. It is an okay tea. I think it flattens my stomach a little when I drink it, but it can be my imagination!

This is another tea I have had my eye on for months. I bought 10g of it just to try it out.

The brewed tea looks like green tea, but the taste is almost like an oolong. It has sweet notes like ginseng, and therefore reminds me of the long-gone ginseng oolong from DAVIDs. I like it! Once again though, just like guayusa, it is a stimulant so I have to be careful with my caffeine intake with this tea. Overall though It’s one that I may stock up on in the future- especially considering the decent price!

Day #8 of tea! This is my first time drinking a plain maté – usually my maté go-to blend is Chocolate Rocket or Main Squeeze. So the lack of an actual flavour in this one is kind of weird on that level, but at the same time, there really is nothing like drinking it as it was originally meant to be. Definitely a grassy taste, but it’s one I don’t mind (at least this morning, as I really need the caffeine jolt, haha). And this is organic, which I also appreciate. This is going to be on my radar for maté now, for sure.

This tastes overwhelmingly smoky. I get a primary grass flavour. More like burnt grass. Definitely smells like south american grass though – there’s no other way to put it.

I haven’t had any matès before. This is my first. So I can’t compare. I plan on trying many more in future and then hopefully I’ll be able to contribute something useful and make decisions about tea quality and authenticity. Until then I have to say I didn’t like the flavours. Whether the problem lies with davidstea’s matè, or just all matès in general, I’ll have to decide at a future date.

I’m kind of in a drowsy netherworld right now. I woke up early this morning and couldn’t get back to sleep, so I got up to work on my computer. Now, I feel like I could sleep again, but it’s too late in the day to go back to bed without seriously messing up my sleep cycle.

So, extra caffeinated tea to the rescue! The extremely generous De and aisling of tea gave me a good-sized sample of this to try out, and since I liked the Mango Mate blend from Tea Haus last week, I figured I’d try out a different kind this time.

This is just plain, straight-up mate, and it tastes like it: smoky, grassy, and slightly sweet. However, I think it really does work better for me in blends rather than straight. Once this is done, I’ll probably add some flavoured mates to my collection.

My first straight mate! Done for the week (in terms of homework), so decided to experiment!

First off, the leaves look so nice. Evenly chopped, and such a bright green. The smell is weird though not unpleasant, reminded me of straw, sort of.
The brew looks green, a bit muddy, not the clear colors one usually gets with tea. It now smells even more like straw, and wet ones at that. The taste is also weird, and aside from that it is slightly bitter and…smoky?, I am really at a loss at how to explain it.

Maybe if I try it cold I might like it better. We’ll see.