Devil's Maté

A sample from Roswell Strange. Quite frankly, I’m scared by the amount of chili there is in this one. It’s not chili flakes, or chili powder, it’s actual rings of chili. I like spicy things, but I just have a feeling that this one might be more than I can really handle. I used 1 tsp of leaf for my cup, and gave it a very conservative 1.5 minutes in boiling water. The resulting liquor is a murky brown, fairly typical of mate.

I took the tiniest first sip of this one, because I was expecting to be assaulted by chili. I’m actually pleasantly surprised, though, because it tastes a lot nice than I thought it was going to. There is heat, but at the moment it’s not too strong or overpowering. You can tell it’s chili, but it reminds me more of chipotle than anything. It has a mildly smoky, rich flavour, which combines well with the earthiness of the mate. A bigger sip yields a bit of a burn at the back of the throat, but (again) nothing overwhelming. I think the short brew time helped to make this one palatable!

The last very spicy tea I tried was 52 Teas Mayan Chocolate Chai, and even with a lot of milk that was too much for me. This one is much better balanced, despite the proliferation of chili. Nothing to be scared of after all!

I just saw Liquid Proust’s comment about wanting a Ghost Pepper though Carolina Reaper would be worse tea in this thread:

http://steepster.com/discuss/11229-to-a-tea-just-launched-a-kickstarter

I actually thought to myself “I’d totally try that”, but then I instantly remembered that I drank this one cold brewed today at work and it was so hot that it made me want to both vomit and chug a 2L of milk at the same time. I don’t do spices at all. I’m too much of a wimp. So realistically, a Carolina Reaper tea would be a nightmare for me.

But I’d still totally try it just to say I had.

Oh well, at least that’s a little less of this blend in my cupboard. I refuse to throw it out…