Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Yerba Mate
Where to Buy: Guayaki
Tea Description:
Lemon Elation has a brisk lemony mate flavor. It’s easy drinking and clean tasting, and not too sweet.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
Well, this is the third and final canned Guayaki Yerba Mate drink I picked up.
I was excited about this one; one of my favourite mate blends is a citrus based one so out of the three flavours I thought that this was the one that would be my favourite. Obviously I should have read the ingredients though; had I I’m sure I would have had much different preconceptions. Instead I got to taste the ingredients first – and it was definitely a shock.
Apparently this uses roasted mate and, of all things, ginger. Now, ginger and lemon is a pretty common pairing so I know I’m in the minority for disliking it – ultimately that boils down to my own personal distaste for anything with a strong ginger flavour. And man was it strong; arguably stronger than the lemon for which the drink was named after! As well, I don’t like the pairing of roasted mate with lemon; for me a green pairing with a brighter grassier earth tone is more preferable. The lemon also tasted kind of like furniture cleaner to me – I was very turned off.
That said, I shared the portion of the can which I could not finish with a friend who, while never having tried yerba mate before, absolutely loves lemon and ginger and she really enjoyed the whole thing; which again goes to point out that it’s not that this is a bad tea it’s just that it’s composed of ingredients that I personally do not really like at all.
As a whole (out of the three flavors I purchased), I think that Revel Berry was my favourite and the one that would most widely appeal to people. I’m happy I took the time to explore these tisanes though, and I hope that if these become more widely available that will lead to a more mainstream knowledge of yerba mate. Because let’s face it, as a ‘hardcore’ tea nerd there’s never enough people to talk tea with.
Almond Matcha from Red Leaf Tea
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green/Matcha
Where to Buy: Red Leaf Tea
Tea Description:
The well recognized and much loved taste of sweet almonds can be heightened and made vibrantly unique by adding the exotic Matcha blend. Almond Matcha makes a slightly sweet treat that can be perfect for those looking for a combination of the nutty flavor combined with an interesting twist of oriental Matcha. Almond Matcha is perfect for many desserts, cakes and any other snack because of its naturally sweet taste that blends well with most snacks. This makes it a very popular treat for young kids anytime of the day or night.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
The final flavour from Red Leaf Tea’s sampler! Like the penultimate flavour (Cotton Candy), this is one I’ve tried before – however it’s been over a year since I first had it. Just like Cotton Candy matcha, I also prepared this one in cold milk but for the purposes of this tasting I’ll be doing it in cold cashew milk to stay consistent with the rest of the teas in the sampler.
Here are some snippets from my Steepster review to see if my old observations are in line with the observations from this tasting:
“…really strong … very rich and marzipan like“, “I found that there was a faint chemical edge to the aftertaste“, and “almost too much almond concentrated into … one cup“.
Remarkably, I made almost the same observations this time as well. Even before opening up the sample packet and measuring out the matcha I was sure I could faintly smell the almond aroma – and once that packet was cracked I couldn’t smell anything but. This matcha is very strongly flavoured; I didn’t taste any vegetal or grassy notes from the matcha itself and for, I think, the first time since starting this sampler the flavour of the matcha completely eclipsed the taste of the cashew milk.
The one part where my observation from last time differs is that I didn’t think it tasted chemical or artificial at all; just really, really strong. Of course, like often comes with concentrated almond flavour, I did think this was quite sweet with definite marzipan notes – but apart from that I think this is just a very true, accurate and BOLD flavour. Fans of almond will love it, and people who dislike almond to start will cringe because of the intensity.
Personally, if I didn’t already own a large quantity of Pistachio matcha I’d probably add this to my list of flavors to buy in my next order – but you really only need to own so many nutty matchas at a time.
Final rankings of the five flavors of matcha from the sampler:
1. Almond
2. Butterscotch
3. Coffee
4. Cranberry
5. Cotton Candy
Enlighten Mint Yerba Mate from Guayaki
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Yerba Mate
Where to Buy: Guayaki
Tea Description:
Enlighten Mint has a minty flavor with a touch of honey flavor, and an earthy note from the yerba mate. It’s easy drinking and clean tasting, and not too sweet.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
Continuing with the exploration of Guayaki drinks, this is the one I was most skeptical about of the three I picked up. I’ve tried a few yerba mate and spearmint blends, and actually have one stocked right now so I know that it’s not a terrible pairing; in fact it’s a pretty popular pairing. It’s actually the honey aspect of this that scares me; when it comes to more commercial tea beverages, ‘honey’ usually means very sweet.
However, because Revel Berry maintained a respectable level of sweetness I was open to this one; hopefully it would do the same. I was poorly mistaken in my assumptions, however. This was assaulting; the spearmint was ridiculously strong and sweet in and of itself; like those Spearmint leaf five cent gummy candies that come in giant bulk bags. I’ve never been a fan of those. They taste so fake. On top of that the sweetness of the honey was equally as intense. The yerba mate, while pretty drowned up, did come through a little bit but it felt kind of grimy, and yet at the same time all three notes together conjured up the image of neon green slime.
To me, it tasted like one of those five cent candies dipped into a bottle of raw honey and then sprinkled with a little dirt. Why would you willingly put that in your mouth? I struggled through a third of the can and then finally called it quits and tossed it. It makes me more skeptical to try the third, and last, one I bought now knowing just how big the range between ‘hit’ and ‘miss’ from this company can be. Personally, I’ll be avoiding (and internally wincing) this flavor every time I pass it in the aisles at work – but if you’re feeling bold enough, and you like super sweet mint flavored things, I guess giving it a try couldn’t hurt.
Cotton Candy Matcha from Red Leaf Tea
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green/Matcha
Where to Buy: Red Leaf Tea
Tea Description:
Cotton Candy Matcha’s sugary flavor makes the perfect sweet snack for any dull day. This is because, this supremely sweet flavor is ideal for those who love all sweet things and relish their uplifting quality. The sheer variety of Cotton Candy Matcha makes it an instant favorite for those who want to sample the sweet delights that can be enjoyed by their palates. This is an excellent flavor for occasions of the young and young at heart who want to enliven their taste buds with something pleasurable.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
Continuing with the “Choose Your Own Matcha” sampler from Red Leaf Tea, I thought it’d be a cool idea to make some of the five flavors I chose ones I had previously tried to do a comparison and see how my tastes have changed personally. Here are some of the highlights from my old tastings/reviews on Steepster from over a year ago:
“…there’s also a slight vegetal taste in the first part of the sip”, and
“…in the aftertaste you get more of a true cotton candy flavour”.
The first time I tried this was in cold milk, but for this tasting I’ll be using cold cashew milk like I have for all the other flavors so far. Dry, I think this smells pretty rich but in a generically sugary way; it’s hard to capture a smell that’s clearly cotton candy when, realistically, all cotton candy is just hot, spun sugar.
Funnily enough, my initial impression/observation is true to my old review: I think the first thing you taste is a very grassy top note which eventually does lean into a more sweet body flavor. It is very generic for me though; I don’t think if I was trying this blind I’d be able to pinpoint it as cotton candy flavor. That said, I did actually like it and I appreciate the nice balance between the flavor of the matcha and the added flavors. It’s not as accurate as it could be though, so that is a bit disappointing.
I’m happy I revisited this one though! And I look forward to trying out the last sample to see if my observations from a year ago are also accurate for that one.
Revel Berry Yerba Mate from Guayaki
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Yerba Mate
Where to Buy: Guayaki
Tea Description:
Revel Berry has a delicious raspberry and blackberry flavor. It’s easy drinking and clean tasting, and not too sweet.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
For those who don’t know, I work in a grocery store. It’s not uncommon for us to start carrying different, less common drinks but it is uncommon for them to be tea-related so when we picked up some of this brand’s flavors of iced/canned Yerba Mate I got really excited! I knew I’d seen at least one of this brand’s products reviewed on Steepster so I took the plunge and a bought a can of each flavor to try out.
I don’t know what I expected when I tried this one, maybe a little more yerba mate flavour? But this threw me off a little bit; it definitely tastes distinctly of raspberry and even has a tinge of sharper tartness however I can’t taste anything specifically blackberry flavoured. If anything, I almost want to say there’s more of a blueberry flavor present. Regardless, this does seem pretty watered down and I’m missing any distinctly earthy notes from the yerba mate – which is kind of the best part of mate other than the caffeine. I absolutely appreciate that this is not overly sweet though!
I don’t know if I’d personally buy this one again because I know I enjoy a stronger Yerba Mate flavour but I do look forward to trying the other two flavours I picked up and I’m all for the idea of this if it gets a more “mainstream” consumer experiencing Yerba Mate – which I know it’s been doing at work since some my coworkers have taken to drinking this during break instead of other popular and more “conventional” energy drinks. Plus, the convenience of it being canned it always a plus.