Mate Chai

For god’s sakes, this wasn’t in my cupboard, either! Still at 111 teas, dangnabit. My goal is to be down to 100 or less by July 7th!

I almost feel like there’s no point in rating this, as Teaopia is not keeping this one, and it’s really only a passable chai or mate anyhow. I originally bought it because I discovered that mate helps me come down from my ADHD meds without a horrible crash. (Amphetamines = good, horrible zombie-like crash at the end of the day = bad.) But I have since stopped taking my meds because they are not currently covered by insurance, and I’m not in school anyway. (The terrific irony of my meds is that I cannot get through school without them, but I cannot make enough money to afford them while in school! So now I am simply trying to learn to cope without them again, period…and if that doesn’t work, maybe I will have enough savings for them when I go back to school.)

In the meantime, if I need a mate, I have discovered Chocolate Rocket from David’s, and that’s a more than acceptable substitute!

It’s definitely got a roasted flavour to it, and something to it which is almost dusty…or gritty…hard to explain.

But with milk and DAVIDsTEA’s vanilla agave, it’s more than saved, and quite tasty! Two cups of this one this afternoon before I need to go to work, and another successful de-cupboard (in real life, if not on Steepster).

You can actually see the bottom of the tea shelf now; there’s enough space freed up that you could put something like a tin of peanut butter or something in there.

Well, this one is tolerable once you add some honey and milk to it. I’m not really pleased with it and I’m very glad I only have a small bag of it. Without the additives, I can smell the spices – really getting the cardamon, clove and pepper, although it is quite…earthy? Not sure if that’s the word, but it has a earthy/dirt road smell to it. Not really sure how to describe it. Anyway, I tossed some honey into it, milk and have been sipping on it. To be honest, I was only drinking it because it was there, and I was in the middle of the gold medal match for fencing. Well, the match is over, and the mug is still half full of this stuff. I’m looking at it warily, not really sure I want to even bother with the rest of it. I guess that would mean it’s a fail. Ok, onwards to something else.

I like chai and I like mate so I bought this tea for my husband. He’s been looking for a tea to start replacing some of his coffee consumption and I figured this one might be it – it’s not the first I’ve tried to accomplish this.

This time though? It worked and he’s taken my bag to work with him! I had some before he ran off with it and quite enjoyed it. It has a nice chai flavor to it and the mate doesn’t diminish it at all.

I guess if I’m going to buy this again, I’ve got to get out there and do it ASAP.

I tried it with high hopes because its hard finding good variety in mate’s. It was good but nothing special. The chai blend was nice and the roasted taste of the mate did come through, but as I am not a huge chai fan it probably biased my tasting.