Morning Kick

Good morning everyone. I have managed to get the day off work (WOOHOO!) so I can relax and have another tea crazy day. I’m going to start off with a morning tea.

In raw form this tea has a spicy citrus smell and is rather twiggy and large in appearance.

Once steeped this tea is yellow in colour with a sweet lemon grass and ginger aroma.

In flavour there are strong lemon tones (particularly lemon grass and lemon verbena) with a spicy undertone of ginger which over all creates a stimulating and warm blend. The mate is rich but is covered nicely by the mix of flavours and would be suitable for those that are not keen on it’s robustness.

The flavours mellow rather quickly so you’re left with a refreshing and mellow lemon flavour in between sips. I believe the ginger works very well with the lemon and it would also be a great drink if your coming down with a sore throat or cold.

One cup down and I am buzzing like a very happy bee. (buzz buzz buzz)
It tastes nice and gives you the caffeine kick it promises. Well done. :)

This would be a good substitute for a glass of orange juice in the morning. Maybe I oversteeped it a tad, as the lemongrass is potent today! So is the ginger. Very nice citrus overtones. The finish is sour and bittersweet. The only thing I’m unsure about is the earthy mate undertone. I have off and on days with that flavour.

I still really enjoyed this cup. Thanks, Bluebird Tea Co., for the sample! Love the new little tea bags too.

Thank you Dexter3657 for sending this one my way.

I found the flavours in this tea sedate. There was a strong lemon aroma, but the taste was mellow and not at all tart. I got a bit of heat from the ginger.

This was only ok for me.

I had my first cup of tea just before leaving the house at 6.00 this morning. My second cup, unknown to me, wouldn’t pass my lips until gone 11.00. It might just have been sheer thirst, but I swear this tea seemed like the best thing I’ve ever tasted. I gulped it down as soon as it cooled enough, and I felt better almost instantly. I must have known, subconsciously, to pack such an auspicious tea, because I did need a kick to revive me once I got back to the office from setting off my interview sessions. I thought it would take 30 minutes, but I was actually there for 3 hours. Without my bad, as I hadn’t thought I’d be that long. Silly me. Anyway, making a cup of this was the first thing I did when I staggered back in.

I can’t taste a whole lot of mate, and I can’t see all that much among the leaf, either. I actually think this is mostly lemongrass, but it tastes deliciously fresh and vibrant, very lemony with a more generic citrus aftertaste. There was probably some mate, but it doesn’t contribute much to the flavour of the blend. I certainly felt a little more awake, though, so maybe it helped a bit.

I have another sample of this waiting in my stash, so I’ll have to try it again when I’m not so rushed and chronically thirsty. I’m sure it’s as nice as it seemed, hence the high rating – I’d give it that just for being pleasant and refreshing in my time of need, though, so there you go. A very successful morning tea, for a not-so-successful morning.

Another delicious sample from Bluebird Tea Co~

Mmm. I’ve never had mate before, so I don’t have much of a reference frame. This is pretty good though. It’s very lemon-gingery, and leaves a nice clean feeling. I’m not quite getting the caffeine kick mate is supposed to have, but that’s just because my body is weird. Very refreshing. I quite enjoyed it. Thanks for sending it my way, Bluebird!

I don’t know why I don’t drink more mate, I like the kind of mellow alertness it tends to leave me with, different than the buzz I tend to get from coffee or strong tea. I suppose It has to do with a bad experience I had with a jarring tasting lemon mate I had once, where it tasted harsh and unpleasant. However my other experiences were positive. My first experience with mate was at the debriefing after a contract I had in Ecuador. One of the other people I was with had been in Rosario, Argentina and she shared a pleasant sweet tasting mate with us while sharing stories of riots in the streets after the bank collapse there. In Ecuador I had very little tea but I did have some great coffee, even the chain coffee was great. Anyways that first experience was pleasant and mate is a really nice tea to share among friends.

Anyways, I think this tea has helped to cure me of my mate aversion. It is really quite a pleasant and balanced tea. Once brewed the tea has a scent of green tones from the lemongrass and the mate, and hints of ginger, lemon, and of something floral from the calendula. It brews to a nice light amber yellow.

Flavour wise it has top notes of lemongrass and lemon (creating a toned down baked lemon flavour), and ginger. There is a sweetness provided by the mate and calendula. These notes are all over a sweet and savoury vegetal note. Everything is done to a nice balance, neither the ginger, nor the lemon or the mate over power each other. Ginger provides a light bit of warmth but not too much heat and the lemon and mate help to create a sense of alertness and clarity. I am quite enjoying this cup and it would probably be nice cold as well.

A sample that I received in a Tea Fairy mailing. I’ve hesitated to try it because many ginger teas are just too much for me. This was good though. I enjoyed the lemon with a slight zip at the end from the ginger. I could see this a good cold season tea.

Sipdown! It felt like it took forever to finish this one, as even though it’s only a 20g pouch, the tea is so fluffy and light that it was neverending, ha ha. Not that I’m complaining, I do like this one, and if anything it grew on me even more as I sipped it down.

This has a lovely sweet and mellow herbaceous lemon flavor from the lemongrass and verbena. The ginger is present but fairly tame, adding a nice warmth and a little kick at the end of the sip. The maté has a soft and earthy herbal flavor that blends in perfectly with the herbs. There’s an almost minty quality to it from the verbena as well.

Very tasty. I’m torn on whether I would reorder this, though, because the flavors are so relaxing and would be perfect for bedtime, yet it has yerba maté in it… This isn’t really a flavor profile that I would seek out in the morning, so I suppose it would work for afternoon? Hmm, more consideration is required…

This is one of the samples Bird & Blend sent me in my last order. A yerba mate based infusion, which I´m normally not such a fan of, aromatised with lemon and ginger…to give me an energy boost, not this morning in my case, but after lunch. I quite like this infusion, where the grassy bite of the yerba mate is nicely complemented by the citric addition. The ginger touch is subtle, which I can appreciate as well.

Apparently, this tea won a Great Taste Award in UK. The Guild of Fine Food judges said:
‘Lively citric nose that’s encouraging and properly promises what you will get, which is something delicious and stimulating. Mate makes it an original choice in the overcrowded field of lemon-ginger infusions. Excellent to see the quality of the natural ingredients.’ Quite right, I say ;-)

Sampler Sunday! This is the last single-serve Bird & Blend sampler I had sitting around, back from their Bluebird Tea Co. days, and it’s a lemon ginger tea blended with yerba mate… basically a caffeinated lemon ginger. I do like lemon ginger teas when I feel nauseous (from the ginger, I either go for a ginger or mint tea in those cases) and I’ve been quite nauseous recently… my sister has been similarly afflicted, and we are thinking stress stomach ulcers may be the culprit due to a major family stressor we are dealing with at the moment. Caffeinated lemon ginger tea first thing this morning sounds kind of nice…

While my cup is steeping, I just want to take a moment to say I’ve been going through a lot of stress, frustration, and depression due to several things that I don’t really want to get into publicly, and I’ve been shown nothing but absolute kindness from my “Steepster family” during this hard time and it’s been really appreciated. It means more than you could ever know and I seriously appreciate it. You are all the best. ♥

The aroma of the tea actually smells very juicy lemon citrus, with a touch of a peppery ginger spice note; I’m not getting any of the herby vegetal/smoky notes I typically get from yerba mate, at least from the aroma. I’d have a hard time telling just from the scent that this wasn’t just a typical lemon ginger tea, and it also smells much more lemon heavy than ginger heavy, which is precisely how I like them (I especially don’t like lemon ginger teas filled with a bunch of artificial lemon pledge tasting flavoring or super strong artificial ginger flavoring that burns my tongue off… blech!)

With the taste, the mate makes itself more apparent, but it’s quite smooth and blends well with the lemon herbals. I’m getting some of the dry hay/grassy notes from the mate, but the smoky tobacco notes that I really don’t like from mate aren’t present in the cup at all; in fact, I think the grassiness of the mate is emphasized a bit by the lemongrass, helping bring out a bit more of the lemongrass’ herbiness, as well. The lemon flavor in this tea is excellent! I’ve had a lot of lemon teas that tasted too artificial or “cleaner” in their flavor, but this is very juicy and citrusy to me, it has a pleasant tanginess but doesn’t come close to approaching tart or sour at all. And honestly, the ginger is incredibly mild! It’s just a subnote, a slight warming sensation you feel as the sip slides down your throat, but you don’t really get that strong “gingery flavor” and there is no lingering heat or taste in your mouth. It’s a bit hard to even tell it is there, honestly, which is quite unusual for me compared to most lemon ginger teas I drink. You really have to look for it. Other than my beloved Tulsi Lemon Ginger by Davidson Teas, which I’d still say is probably my favorite non-caffeinated lemon ginger tea option, I’d say this one would be up there, just below it, as a perfect caffeinated option for those days you want lemon ginger but want a buzz to go along with it.

I hope B&B hasn’t changed the blend/mix on this much over the years, as I know this is an older teabag, because I’d gladly get more of this one sometime.