Samurai Chai Maté

Thanks to Madeline Alyce for sending me a sample of this tea!

I’ve been curious to try a few mates in the morning in hopes that they may WAKE ME UP! This reminds me a lot of Teavana’s white chai, which was also okay in my opinion. The cinnamon is very strong here, it’s kind of sweet and reminds me a bit of bubblegum. I liked this a bit better with soymilk. I think next time I will try using slightly less tea because the spices are a bit overwhelming. The DJ Booth mentioned a tongue numbing feeling and I am also getting that. Sometimes it happens with a tea strong in cinnamon or clove.

I will gladly finish off the sample that I have but will probably not need to get any more of this…

Pushing the rating up a bit. I think this is what lets the Masala I blend it with really shine…like a good coat of light primer to layer darker shades of paint on top of. On a related note though, I’m convinced there must be a heavenly chai out there that I haven’t tried, so I’m definitely looking for recommendations now!

Steep time only reflects the water portion of making this, and not the heating of the milk with everything afterward.

So this is the fourth and final tea from the gift pack I first talked about in this note: http://steepster.com/annchen/posts/184829

Today is an important day; it’s Swedish Cinnamon Roll Day! http://www.su.se/english/about/news-and-events/cinnamon-bun-day-kanelbullens-dag-1.5166 Please go honour this sacred occasion by procuring a suitable cinnamon pastry this very instant.

And as I can’t get anything even remotely similar today (Seriously, Rome. Sometimes you’re just so Italian.) I’m tackling this chai mate. See, I despise cinnamon in tea. Loathe it. In food and pastries, cinnamon is one of my favourite flavours of all time, but drinking it is just vile.

In other words, I’m not the right person to review this poor tea. It has a weird sweet-sour hint to it – I can taste it on the sides of my tongue far better than on my tongue, which is a very weird feeling – disregarding the flavour, the mere act of drinking this tea is unsettling.

The tea tastes like it smells and looks – like spicy tea leftover salad. I guess it’s supposed to appear bountiful, but it just seems like there were all these bits and pieces that didn’t fit anywhere else, and that were just thrown together, resulting in this blend.

Just… no.

[Purchased/gifted at Teavana in Honolulu, January 2013.]

i’m addicted to the scent of this after a steep! couldn’t put the teapot down…and i wouldnt have if i didnt have to pour out the pot of MateVana (steeped them at the same time for comparison)

even now, my nose is in the empty teapot as i type….sigh…
the taste is ok. it has a tinge of sweetness that is just right. but the scent in the teapot is still the best…ahhhh

Sip down day #3/ tea #1

I got this in a swap from TheDJBooth. I’m not generally a fan of mate. Actually I hate it, almost as much as rooibos, I have found one that I can manage. But this one sounded too good not to.try.
I LOVE chais, especially in the fall. I don’t think I’ve ever met a chai I didn’t like. I was fully expe tcing to dislike this one.

It smells fantastic, both in the dry notes and once steeped. It’s very spi rd smelling, a menagerie of spi es…. And a little like cinnamon gum.
It’s a little on Tue sweet side. It doesn’t quote taste as spicey as it smells, which is unfortunate. This isn’t my favourite chai, but its decent. I think this will probably stay in my cupboard for mornings I need a jolt of caffeine.

ok so i don’t LOVE chais. they’re fine enough.
and i don’t LOVE mate. though it’s fun for variety.

but i’ll try ANY tea once. maybe even twice. :)
i got a local running friend into tea and she came over to my house SO excited about this one. which is the cutest thing. and i already knew we had very different taste in tea (among other things; ie; i went to art school and she is in the military) but i told her i’d gladly take a sample anytime!

so. i tried it.
‘if you don’t have anything nice to say…’ so, um, i liked the lemongrass very much :)

haha OKAY OKAY i’m joking! this was actually a very nice mate. i’m not gonna buy any, but it’s a cup that the label and smell would have me thinking i would hate, and i actually truly enjoyed it.

it’s good and sweet spicy balanced. invigorating is a good word for it. lemongrass and licorice. but still light and bright. i might even take another sample if it’s offered to me. cheers.

Walking by Teavana, knowing I have a doozy of an article to write tonight, prompted me to stop in for some mate. This was the only mate they had that was appealing, so I asked for it neat, and cold. While it steeped we discussed the four yuck teas I was gifted with my Breville purchase (all discontinued), and why I’m feeling violent nausea whenever I drink oolong (supposedly, it’s healing my gut and so I should drink more. Discuss?)

I was surprised at first sip; it’s sweet with zero sweetener added, while spicy and tangy too. Cinnamon takes over here, and while I LOVE it, like others have mentioned, my tongue is now numb. I keep on drinking it though, because its the punch-in-the-face I needed, and that’s just how I like my flavors, too.

First ever visit to an actual teavana store as I live in Canada and there are no teavana’s nearby :(
so as I landed in Miami Florida the first thing I did… Teavana!!!! Tried this as a sampler then ordered a cup :) pretty solid, lots of spices kinda of over doing it but I admired the amount of flavor they were able to pack into this particular tea . Lots of cinnemon, a little too much if you ask me but it’s a chai and chai’s are supposed to be like that, kinda why I was never a huuuuge fan of chai.
The blend with the red rooibos was facinating and had a interesting first couple sips. By the end it got tiring and overdone . It left me with a bloaty tea feeling, however all in all, I was impressed by the flavor. So as it wasn’t my favorite , some will enjoy it if they are big fans of chai. It gave me quite an energy boost as I may add as when I get off a plane I always feel out of loop.

A chai maté. Alone, that sounds like either a delicious mixture or a huge disaster. I’ve gotta put this in the delicious mixture category, because I think this will be my new morning maté. Upon opening the package, I got a really strong, spicy cinnamon smell (almost like Big Red chewing gum). After brewing up a cup and taking a sip, I was sold. Aside from the strong, sweet, and spicy taste, I got hints of almond, coriander, orange, and pineapple. And it all worked together beautifully. If you like a spicy, complex tea that’s also a caffeine pick-me-up, go for this one. It’s yummy.

This definitely rings in as Teavana’s flagship in my book. There isn’t a single other tea or tisane in their repertoire that even compares.

Again, here we are making the distinction of a ‘spice’ tea or a ‘fruit’ tea, as this blend gives you quite a bit of both. The cinnamon is very much the dominant flavor of this blend, which is always something that wins points in my book (why you would keep a pointy book, who knows).

Past the cinnamon, I taste the very wonderful candied pineapple flavor, which then gives way to all the other spice flavors. It is really a very flavorful blend. What’s interesting is that I don’t particularly consider myself a fan of either mate or rooibos. This blend though, man, it’s just the perfect combination of flavors to tie those two base herbs together. The whole is greater than the sum of its parts, or some such.

It had been awhile since we had made some, so Missy brewed it up tonight… very pleasant. Although, maybe not the best thought for a nighttime blend… hrmm.

My OvationTeas order will be coming soon… and the Samurai may finally have to defend itself against an upstart challenger. Queue the Rocky music!