Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Yerba Maté
Where to Buy: Maté Factor
Company Description:
Mate Factor Organic Chai Mate Tea combines traditional Indian chai spices with our Fresh Brazilian Yerba Mate! You’ll love the spicy aromatic flavor of this bestselling, full bodied tea!
Ingredients: Green Yerba Mate, Cinnamon, Nutmeg, Cardamom, Ginger, Cloves, Chicory, Black Pepper
Taster’s Review:
Seamless. That is how I’d describe the spice flavor of this Yerba Maté. The masala spices are so well balanced in this blend that it is difficult to discern one spice from the next. I can taste the ginger, the cinnamon, the cardamom, the cloves, even the black pepper, nutmeg and chicory… but, because they are so well balanced they seem to work in harmony with each other, and create a seamless flavor that is very delightful and invigorating.
The Yerba Maté used in this blend is a green Maté, which gives the blend an earthy characteristic. The chicory gives the cup a roasted quality – if you didn’t know you were drinking green Maté, you might mistake this for a lightly roasted Yerba Maté. The chicory adds a lot of depth to the tea, as does the deep, earthy flavor of the Maté.
The spices are spicy yet sweet. It is not the strongest spicy chai I’ve tasted; even so, it is one of the better chai teas I’ve encountered just because it has that very pleasing seamlessness that I mentioned previously. I can almost taste the “love” in this tea – whoever created the recipe for this blend had a great love and passion for chai, it is evident as I taste it.
I enjoyed this hot, but it works equally as well as an iced tea – very pleasantly refreshing! I added a dollop of agave nectar to my cup to bring out the spices – but I didn’t go latte (not yet, anyway, I might do that with my next cuppa!) however I think that it would be very good latte as well.
This is a tea that I would recommend to all chai tea lovers. Yes, it is a bagged tea – but, once you’ve tasted it, I don’t think you’re going to care! It’s really that good!
