Samovar

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Recent Tasting Notes

70

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Flavors: Bread, Flowers, Honey

Preparation
175 °F / 79 °C 2 min, 0 sec 1 tsp 8 OZ / 250 ML

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10
drank Cinnamon Stonefruit by Samovar
253 tasting notes

Caffeine Free Tea Box

This tea tasted like medicine. :( I’m not exactly sure what the ingredients are since the company didn’t bother to put it on the tin, but I taste hibiscus and cinnamon and I must say they do NOT pair well at all. I literally almost threw up. Yuck.

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82
drank Sweet Yerba Mate by Samovar
4170 tasting notes

Ouch. Harsh. 47 rating for this one?!? No way…. excuse me while my rating makes this one higher than 47:
Another from Rachel’s sale a while ago – thanks again! This might be my favorite of the Samovar yerba mates I have tried. This one has some licorice in the blend and it really adds a sweet flavor that pairs really well with the yerba mate. Smooths it out. I just love the earthiness. I thought star anise was licorice though, but this isn’t star anise. Searching the Wikipedia page and it says they aren’t related. hmm. I wonder why I thought that. The color of the cup is very green – a very unique color.. I haven’t even seen other yerba mates look like this. Very good. Maybe Samovar has improved this one since the other tasting notes? Most of my Samovar yerba mates have half a teaspoon left, so it looks like I’ll be combining some of them to steep. (I guess these were supposedly one cup samples anyway.)
Steep #1 // 30 mins after boiling // 2-3 min
Steep#2 // 15 mins after boiling // 3 min

LiberTEAS

Star Anise has a very licorice-y flavor.

tea-sipper

Well, that would confuse me then. haha.

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drank Royal Garland by Samovar
8 tasting notes

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64

Sipdown no. 130 of the year 2014.

I don’t have anything to add to my previous notes on this, except that I’m looking forward to repurposing the wonderful black matte Samovar tin.

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64

Exciting: within three servings of sipdown on this one. I’m so close to getting rid of my last tin and my last box of bags in the work stash that I took a big step today. I brought in two big tins and a box of tea bags.

The tins: Kusmi Bourbon Vanilla and LeafSpa Organic Blink Bonnie. I expect the latter may become a commuting home tea on the days when I need a boost, otherwise it will be an earlier in the day tea.

The bags: About 10 Numi Magnolia Puerh, and the last few Numi Red Rooibos and Tazo Honeybush. I was a little conflicted about the rooibos and honeybush. I needed decaf options for later in the afternoon, but the kids like these. Then again, the last few times I’ve tried to interest them in a cup they’ve said no. It is pretty hot here lately, so I expect that’s why.

I haven’t decided whether I have enough variety for a while now or whether I need to add a couple of other alternatives, but I’m leaning toward adding a couple.

In any case, I may sip this one down tomorrow, or it may be next week. But soon.

Awesome.

Peggie Bennett

I really like the Numi Magnolia! Good choice! :-)

__Morgana__

I had it so long ago I don’t remember it! Will have to try again soon.

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64

Does anyone know whether peppermint is associated with St. Patrick’s day for any reason other than that peppermint is green (and peppermint fillings in candies are often dyed green as well)? I googled this question but didn’t find an answer and lost patience after flipping through the first four pages of search results.

I’m glad it can contribute to today’s theme, even if the only reason is it’s green. The peppermint leaves in and among the mate certainly are, in any case. The steeped mate is rather the color of butterscotch candy.

This is progressing, slowly, toward sipdown. Maybe this week, but if not, certainly next.

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64

Ah yes, much better than either of the other two yerba mates. Because tastes like peppermint, and only like peppermint for the first few sips. :-) Then the mouthful ’o dirt flavor starts to become apparent.

I thought this was the last of my yerba mates but it appears I also have a Teavana from the old tea of the month club subscription. MateVana. That one seems to have a lot of other stuff in it that may also be successful at masking the mate flavor at least for the first few sips.

Well, at least I know what not to get going forward. Mate has officially been added to my list of NO.

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64

I must be crazy to be drinking this this late in the day but my work stash is dwindling and my curiosity has gotten the better of me. My one hesitation is my fear that I’ll like this better than the Kuki and then I’ll not look forward to the Kuki as much.

And guess what, I was right. But the spread isn’t really that far.

Both the green tea of the Kuki and the peppermint of this make the mate more tolerable in different ways. The green tea takes the edge off the mate. The peppermint pretty much subdues it.

I still taste the mate, but it’s really not that different from earthy peppermint tisanes I’ve had that had no mate in them at all. The Upton, as I recall, had a sort of dirt undertone which I didn’t really care for in a single note peppermint tisane. That’s what this tastes like, but it has the excuse of the mate.

It’s a relief to know that I prefer both the Kuki and the Peppermint to the plain because that’s what I’ll be drinking down at work for the next few weeks.

Meanwhile I need to start thinking about replenishing my work stock. I don’t have access to a full kitchen at work, though I do have filtered hot water and a place to rinse out cups and filters. No easy way to gauge temperature, though. I’d like to bring in lower caffeine teas if possible, so I don’t leave the office wired, but those are usually the ones that need more temp control.

Suggestions?

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 3 min, 0 sec
Ubacat

I usually have a plain peppermint tea, rooibos , one of my lapacho teas, or some Tulsi tea. I just use boiling water on them all.

Anna

Every single flavoured green, white and oolong tea from Lupicia I’ve tried (a lot) are steeped for 1.5 minutes in boiling water. Can’t really get quicker or simpler than that.

__Morgana__

Herbals and Lupicia. On the list. Thanks!

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56
drank Kuki Yerba Mate by Samovar
2036 tasting notes

Sipdown no. 119 of the year 2014. Not sorry to see it go. Now I just have the peppermint left, and as I like it best of all I hope it won’t be too onerous of a sipdown.

Ah well, at least I gave yerba mate a try. But I feel pretty safe in saying it’s never going to be my cup of tea.

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56
drank Kuki Yerba Mate by Samovar
2036 tasting notes

It’s a lot more mate than kuki today, and that makes me want to bump it down (so I dropped it a few points). Also a lot of dusty residue in the bottom of the cup, which I’d had more with the plain mate and less with the kuki until today. Maybe I just hit a few scoops that had more mate in them. Who knows.

There is light at the end of the tunnel, though, as I’ve passed the halfway point on this tin.

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56
drank Kuki Yerba Mate by Samovar
2036 tasting notes

Second time having this, and it remains an improvement, at least in the view of my palate, over the plain yerba mate.

It also remains not enough to push me into mate fandom.

But it’s a nice greenish tea flavor for the after lunch caffeine boost (though matcha or a black tea would probably do a better job).

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56
drank Kuki Yerba Mate by Samovar
2036 tasting notes

I still have one serving of the plain Yerba Mate before sipdown, but I thought I’d crack this open today anyway and see what’s what.

It was definitely the right choice to try to plain first. This is much easier to drink than the plain version. It is much mellower—tastes more grassy and less dirty-grassy. Steeping a shorter time may make the difference, but it could also be the addition of the kukicha. In general it is less bitter and closer to sweet, though I wouldn’t go far enough to call it sweet as the description does. Interestingly, I’m not really getting a mineral or metallic note, but then I didn’t get a passion fruit aroma from the leaves, either.

Definitely more to my liking than the plain version. I’m not going to rush out and buy mate blends, though. Mate remains not really my thing.

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 2 min, 0 sec

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50
drank Yerba Mate by Samovar
2036 tasting notes

Sipdown no. 104 of the year 2014.

Not a lot to add to previous notes, other than it is now gone and I’ve recycled the lovely black tin for another tea.

I am glad I like the Kuki version better, since I have a lot of it left. Something tells me I’m going to like the peppermint even better though I haven’t tried it yet.

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50
drank Yerba Mate by Samovar
2036 tasting notes

File under stupid tea tricks.

I had two Finum baskets on my desk at work, both with measured portions of this in it. The first was to consume, the second was to attempt to ascertain how many servings were left in the tin. (My guess is there were about 3-4.)

I say were because after I steeped the first basket, I grabbed a basket to toss out what I thought was the spent yerba mate and dumped the dry mix into the garbage.

There are now about 2-3 servings left and I feel like an utter dolt. If this had been something I love, I would have been heartbroken, too.

Fortunately, I’m sure it is more than apparent from my previous notes on this how I feel about yerba mate. On the bright side, I’m one serving more away from being able to recycle the awesome black matte Samovar tin. I already know what I want to put in it.

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50
drank Yerba Mate by Samovar
2036 tasting notes

Not quite so bitter as the last time and a little less like grassy dirt but still not my favorite.

I have two other types of Samovar Yerba Mate that came in the gift box—Peppermint and Kuki. I wanted to get a feel for the plain version before I branched out into those, though. It will be interesting to see how they compare.

Still have a few servings of this one left. Stay tuned.

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50
drank Yerba Mate by Samovar
2036 tasting notes

This is my third try of straight yerba mate, the try by which I’m supposed to become used to the taste.

However, today, I am drinking this on the heels of eating a turkey wrap for lunch and perhaps because of the influence of the food, I’m getting a much more of a bitterness in the initial sip than I got the first couple of times. This quickly smooths out into the usual grassy, earthy, sweet dirt flavor, which is what I was expecting.

I do see that one could get used to this flavor, however, I don’t think it’s something I’m ever going to find appealing. I’ve seen mate described as having a flavor similar to green tea. I haven’t tasted a green tea with a flavor like this. I’ve also seen that this one is described as having a licorice flavor (in the product description). I really don’t taste licorice, though I’m not sure it would improve the flavor to my tastebuds. Perhaps it is what is keeping this from being overly bitter though.

On the upside, I’m now about halfway through the tin…

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50
drank Yerba Mate by Samovar
2036 tasting notes

I read somewhere that it takes three separate occasions of drinking yerba mate to get used to the taste. I’m counting this as my second occasion, because it’s my second time trying it straight.

I think I’m going to need a third. Even if I do get used to the flavor, I’m thinking I’ll never really like it.

Today I think I used more leaf and less water, or perhaps the yerba mate absorbed a ridiculous amount of water so it just looked less? It came out looking like an opaque liquid about the color of caramel hard candies, with maybe a bit more of a greenish tinge than the candies.

I’ll keep trying but it’s really not my thing. Lowering the rating some. Note that the rating isn’t a commentary on whether this is good mate. I don’t know what the objective standards are for measuring whether a mate is good.

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50
drank Yerba Mate by Samovar
2036 tasting notes

One year I spent a lot of money at Samovar and they added me to their Christmas list. A package appeared at my door that contained three tins of different types of yerba mate (including this one) and the Four Hour Workweek book. I never got around to trying the yerba mate until now.

I was avoiding it, to tell the truth. I had had some in blends and didn’t really love it, plus some of the things I read about carcinogenic effects bugged me.

But here it is in my work drawer, so I thought I’d give it a try.

It isn’t as bad as I thought it would be. I doubt I’ll ever become a yerba mate fan, but it’s tolerable to drink from time to time. (And because you use a lot of leaf to the cup it should go reasonably fast.)

It smells and tastes a little like dirty grass, but believe it or not, that’s not as bad as it sounds. It’s also a little like eating a mixture of raw potato and raw yellow squash.

I doubt it will grow on me, but we’ll see. Not sure how to rate this because I can’t say how good a yerba mate it is. I’ll have to rate it non-comparatively and base the rating on taste, I guess.

Flavors: Earth, Grass, Loam, Potato

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 3 min, 30 sec 4 tsp 12 OZ / 354 ML
Kirkoneill1988

i remember yerba mate! the Peruvians drank it out of some shell thing. i tried it once (i mean by yerba mate, in general. not a specific kind)

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86
drank Ocean of Wisdom by Samovar
2036 tasting notes

Sipdown no. 71 of the year 2014. A sample. Wow, my first sipdown of the day? I’m obviously losing my momentum…

But finally a Samovar herbal that is still available to buy! Whew.

I was reading about this being the equivalent of their chai but without caffeine, which got me wondering about how to prepare it. Samovar recommends their chai be prepared using a stovetop method on the sample packet (I still have a chai sample, too), but the directions on the sample packet for this don’t make that recommendation. I’ll steep as directed, since I’ve had excellent results for the most part when I follow Samovar’s instructions exactly.

(I feel slightly intimidated by this blend, which was made for the Dalai Lama…)

The sample didn’t have much of a smell in the packet, just a sort of generic spiciness. This, along with the licorice-as-ingredient, along with the last tisane experience, Nocturnal Bliss, had me slightly worried as I waited for the steeping to take its course. I wasn’t getting a lot of aroma from the steeped tisane either.

But why, oh why did I doubt the blending power of the Samovar? The flavor pulls all the loose ends together so nicely. I know the clove is there, but it doesn’t push the other flavors out of the cup as it can sometimes do. I know the cinnamon is there, but it isn’t heavy, or woody, or powdery. I know the ginger is there, but it isn’t bitter or pungent. I know the licorice is there, but it doesn’t attack me.

I don’t know so much that either the rooibos or honeybush are there, though I can definitely pick them out if I try. There’s a hint of something vanilla-like coming through from the rooibos and honey-like from the honeybush, and I can even get to something woody/reedy if I try hard enough, but I really do have to try pretty hard.

Each of the flavors can be identified, but each melds into the others to create something completely different that isn’t any of them separately and is more then all of them together. It’s as though each ingredient adds depth to the flavor.

If I’m honest with myself, I like the Berry Rooibos and the Orange Ginger slightly better, mostly because I find berry an easier flavor to consume late at night than a chai-like combination, and because the Orange Ginger did some rather marvelous voodoo on my stomach and by extension my entire nervous system. Given this is a non-caffeinated blend, I’d be drinking this at night.

But this has one thing those don’t have. It’s available. If you can’t be with the one you love, love the one you’re with.

Preparation
Boiling 5 min, 0 sec

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56
drank Nocturnal Bliss by Samovar
2036 tasting notes

Sipdown no. 64 of the year 2014. A sample of yet another no-longer-offered Samovar tisane.

I think I bought this one because of the name. I wouldn’t have bought it because of the ingredients as a main one is lemon myrtle, which for a while during my search for the perfect lemon tisane almost ruined lemon flavor for me. The lemon myrtle and some sweetness which may be the stevia is the main smell of the dry leaf and the steeped aroma is also heavy on the myrtle.

So go on, Samovar. Do your magic and make something amazing out of lemon myrtle! The thing that, standing alone, got one of the lowest scores I’ve ever awarded on Steepster for tartness, soapiness and all manner of unpleasantness…

And it’s pretty darn close, but it’s a lesson to me that lemon myrtle and I will likely never get along. If Samovar can’t do it for me, it’s unlikely anyone can. This isn’t tart, and it doesn’t cross over to soapy, but it has a savory quality that makes it a bit lemon brothy with too much of a bitter edge and aftertaste for my palate.

I have to give it points for making lemon myrtle at least tolerable to me, but alas, this is one I would not have reordered had it still been available (which it appears not to be on the Samovar web site). Perhaps a first in my Samovar experience, but somehow heartening as it proves that those behind their blends aren’t infallible.

Preparation
Boiling 5 min, 0 sec

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73
drank Peppermint Yerba Mate by Samovar
4170 tasting notes

I’m not sure what to think about the new Steepster look… I’m typing in italics right now, first of all. ANYWAY… this is a sample I had from Rachel’s sale a while back! Thank you! I’ve got a headache so that means peppermint teas are the choice. I made a handy list of my peppermint teas yesterday, for that reason. After cooling the water for a half hour and brewing for a few minutes, there isn’t much of a mint flavor here, but the yerba mate is nice as usual, sweet and earthy. Hopefully yerba mate isn’t one of the things that likes to give me headaches. I had some of my Zen Chocolate mint rooibos yesterday (also headache) and even though the tea is kind of older, it still tastes as fresh as when I bought it!

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87
drank Orange Ginger by Samovar
2036 tasting notes

Sipdown no. 37 of 2014 is my sample of this.

I’m sad about sipping down my Samovar samples. I was just on their web site and it looks like they’ve cut back a lot on what they offer. It seems like there used to be more of everything—more tisanes, more white tea, more black tea. Perhaps they’ve decided to focus on just a few things and do those really well. And at least they are still around, unlike some companies. But I have so much love for their tea and for the amazing variety they used to have that I can’t help but feel sad. I never met a Samovar product I didn’t find anywhere from incredibly drinkable to off the charts amazing.

This, alas, appears to be on offer no longer. I really wish I’d had the foresight to drink my samples and order up everything I liked back when I got them. That’s what I get for saving the best while drinking my way through others I didn’t like as much. Their stuff is so good, it never occurred to me that it wouldn’t always be around.

When I first opened up the packet, I thought perhaps this might at last be a Samovar product that wasn’t for me. I mostly smelled the bitter tang of orange peel and not much else. And I’ve had hit or miss experiences with ginger in tea.

The steeped tea allowed the ginger to come through in the aroma, though it remained in the background, which I appreciated. The liquor looked like lemonade.

The flavor, however, wasn’t at all bitter. It’s not exactly sweet either. I guess the word is refreshing? The ginger gives the flavor a little spicy kick and I can taste it, but it isn’t overpowering. The orange remains the main flavor given a little extra citrusy boost by the lemon myrtle (which, thank heavens, is otherwise innocuous in the blend). And fortunately, I don’t taste licorice.

I like the Berry Rooibos (also no longer around) somewhat better, but if the Orange Ginger was still around and I was placing and order, I’d include it. As I’m sitting here, I’m noticing that something about this is really wonderfully calming. It must be the ginger; I have been under much work related stress lately and the stress goes to my stomach. I feel as though my stomach has been permanently clenched for months, and right now I feel as though it has finally relaxed.

So yeah. This and the Berry Rooibos. Bring ’em back?

Preparation
Boiling 5 min, 0 sec

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