Another sample package from DT’s, one that I was intrigued by… honeydew mate. I enjoy the fresh fruit, but I’ve never been able to find anything else that actually was able to replicate the actual flavor without it becoming artificial. Well with nothing to do but try it out :D
Dry this tea punches you in the face with it’s extremely sweet scent. It does actually smell like honeydew (if a bit artificial and concentrated) so it’s somewhat of a success on that side of things but I can’t really find the other scents due to how overpowering the sweet honeydew aroma is.
Steeped this tea’s liquor is a clear orange color. It still smells like honeydew but luckily isn’t as sweet as the dry tea and it has lost some of that artificial scent. Instead you can actually start to smell the yerba mate as a slightly darker note underneath the honeydew along with a very slight floral tone from the hibiscus.
The flavor profile is very light and definitely maintains that honeydew flavor; I was quite surprised at how real that flavor became after steeping, especially given the artificial quality of the dry tea’s scent. And the mate warms up the melon flavor quite nicely, it’s actually almost like drinking the fruit portion of a crumble, it has that kind of baked quality to it. As for the hibiscus, you get hits of it every once and a while, just enough to round out the top end of the flavor profile but without giving it an overly floral flavor. As for the green rooibos, it helps to lighten the mate up enough to really make this blend work but flavor wise I don’t find that it really added much. Then again I think that if this tea was any more complicated it would fall through, it’s the simplicity that really helps it to balance out.
Overall I was quite surprised by this tea, it successfully pulled off a hard flavor without it being overly artificial. Light and refreshing it would be good hot or cold and can really wake up your palette on those days when everything seems to be a bit dull.
