Focus

This one can go bitter when you zone out and forget to remove the bag, so it’s not completely sleep-deprivation-proof. (Storms again. Panicked teenager. Up till the wee hours at a friend’s house—-friend has brand new safe room.) But, oh, how I need the mate’ no matter how it tastes…

There was a great temptation to crawl back into bed this morning, but I had bought some lamb and needed to get Shepherd’s Pie made. Once the puppies had finished ravaging my kitchen, I decided to get it going before I could change my mind. I thought this tea from GMATHIS might help me stay on track and not slip away to the soft, soft down comforter and all those pillows…oh, wait, this is called Focus, right?

So I took a sip. Nice! I taste the tea, and there is the chocolate-y orange-y flavor nicely present but not masking the base. I don’t know if I have ever had chicory, so I am not sure if I am picking it up, but I do taste a touch of the mate. I would swear I taste a hint of something Ike cardamom. Is that the chicory?

Thank you, GMathis, for a lovely new tea to start my day with today!

Drinking this while sitting at my desk. It tastes a lot like David’s Tea The Skinny. For comparison the ingredients in this tea are: BLACK TEAS, CHICORY, COCOA PEELS, ROASTED YERBA MATÉ, ORANGE PEEL, ROSE PETALS, ROSEMARY, LEMON BALM, CITRUS ESSENCE OIL, NATURAL FLAVOR. YERBA MATÉ CONTAINS NATURALLY OCCURRING STIMULANT COMPOUNDS IN ADDITION TO CAFFEINE.

And the ingredients in David’s Tea the Skinny are:
Chinese oolong tea**, Chinese pu’erh tea, ginger, eleuthero root, orange peel. With natural flavouring*.

The similar ingredients are the ginger and the orange peel. This has a less harsh mouth feel but less intense flavor. I enjoy this flavor profile so both are winners to me! While both are different flavors due to different tea, etc. the flavor profile is similar.

I got to taste this as part of the “Considering a new Traveling Tea Box” tea box.

I decided to have some of this this with breakfast this morning. I was looking for some motivation to get some homework done today so I can watch the Superbowl tomorrow (Go Packers!!).
I think it helped a little – regardless it was yummy.

Someone left a few of these tea bags at work in the “need a tea, take a tea, have a tea, leave a tea” pile. It is ok, not bad but certainly not amazing. It feels like someone tried to dress the tea up with whatever flavours we left over in the cupboard. I can definitely taste citrus oil and cocoa. While it is not making me focus it is certainly waking me up. There is a mildly sweet cocoa aftertaste that lingers. There is a chicory flavour that seems to mask the flavour of the mate tea. It also feels like my mouth is coated in a fuzzy substance after drinking this tea.

I should have known better that if the tea was in the community sharing pile, it probably wasn’t the best tea, otherwise it wouldn’t have been left there.

/sigh/ I forgot to bring enough tea whilst visiting my parents. I am now raiding their stash of teabags to find some good blacks for the mornings. This isn’t bad, I’ve had it before. Not a whole lot of “deep” flavors here, but it’s nice.

Found a box on vacation in Florida for 25 cents at a yard sale…first win! I was intrigued at the list of ingredients including the Mate and the rosemary. I could not taste much cocoa in this tea as I could a mix of the citrus and rosemary. Overall it’s a good tea. Not teagasm good but this is one I would buy and have on hand at work. I like the fact that it has the Mate in it. My wife’s aunt does not drink coffee so it’s nice to have this on hand as a sub. I definitely like this tea better than a lot of the selections you can find at a Starbucks location.

I don’t know what I was expecting from this tea, but It was definitely a very pleasant surprise. The flavor reminds me of chocolate covered candied orange peel, and that’s not a bad thing ;) The tea is a robust, earthy black. I’ve not had any mate before, so I really can’t identify the flavor.

A surprising amount of depth and complexity. I usually don’t like flavored teas, and this one is definitely good.

This was a nice smooth tea! I really enjoyed drinking it! The tea bag smelled like those chocolate oranges that you smash against the table to break apart the slices. I love the smell of chocolate orange! The flavor wasn’t to overwhelming and it wasn’t underwhelming either! I found the flavor to be really calming while giving me the extra boost I needed without making me feel jittery. Overall a really good tea that I will continue to drink in the mornings! It will be helpful when I go back to school in the Fall! :) (I’m home schooled now). ♥♥

Tea #8.

I keep forgetting that Tazo does loose leaf. It’s a surprise every time I remember again.

Tried half a cup of this one this morning — I decided I could use the energy and focus, even if it was just the placebo effect. I wasn’t terribly impressed — it was just okay. I wanted it to taste like those chocolate covered orange marmalade sticks from Trader Joe’s (the old ones, before their dis-and-re-appearance). The orange was not quite marmaladey, but not quite fresh tasting, and it didn’t mesh with the chocolate as well as I might have liked…

I think there’s a chocolate orange tea in the box somewhere, I should try that and see if I like it better…