I believe I got this as part of the Teavana tea of the month club. I had a 2 oz packet that had never been opened (until today) that I brought to work.
Fortunately there is so much going on in the packet that I can’t even smell the mate. There’s a chocolate/coffee liqueur smell and something that’s a little like baked goods, perhaps brownies. I may have underleafed, as I only put 1.5 tsps in the Finum basket (I know it says 2 below, but it wasn’t…)
The mix steeps to an opaque medium-brown. Not as dark as black coffee, not as light as coffee with cream. More like a dark caramel. The aroma isn’t wonderful. It smells a little on the plastic-y side, which may also be that liqueur thing manifesting itself after steeping.
But there is very good news on the taste front. It doesn’t taste like mate! So if you like mate, you may be disappointed. It also doesn’t taste like rooibos, so if you like rooibos you may be disappointed.
What it does taste like is more difficult to describe. There are a number of chocolate flavoring agents in this but amazingly, it doesn’t taste very chocolatey. I think it is supposed to taste like coffee, and I suppose it does lean that way, but I would never mistake it for coffee or hot chocolate. It’s sort of a third thing that isn’t without flavor, but doesn’t taste like anything I can identify. The closest I can come is the flavor in the bottom of the ice-filled cup after the Coca-Cola has been consumed, a sort of dilute sweet flavor that has an echo of chocolate to it.
I wonder if it would taste better with more leaf? Will try next time.
This was the first mate blend I ever tried.