Pulled out this 2018 blend for the January prompt item “a spicy tea”.
The description of this tea says it is a yerba mate/black tea blend, but I honestly don’t see any black tea leaf in the mix? Just lots of roasted mate and spices. So I brewed a heaping teaspoon in 185F 350ml water for about a 4 minute steep (roughly how I handle yerba mate).
The tea has a rich roasted mate body, with some notes of hot hay, wood, and nuts. Mostly what I’m getting from the spices is a very forward cinnamon flavor… not sweet desserty cinnamon, or red hot candy cinnamon, but that very barky/woody/sweet cinnamon. It is really adding to that roasted woodiness of the tea. There is a light, warming-but-not-burny ginger flavor at the end of the sip that leaves a pleasant warmth on the throat afterwards. There is a little bit of pepperiness to the flavor as well.
It’s a pleasantly warm chai… spiced, but not spicy, with a strong cinnamon presense. The roasted mate is very smooth here. It’s a nice tea for the blechiness that is Pacific Northwest winter.
Flavors: Bark, Cinnamon, Ginger, Hot Hay, Nutty, Pepper, Roasted, Spices, Wood
