85
drank Main Squeeze by DAVIDsTEA
107 tasting notes

This one’s great! My new favourite mate, besides Chocolate Rocket, but who knows…I haven’t tried the other new chocolate-y one yet.

Hot, this basically tastes like orange juice, although it lacks something very particular to orange juice…some of the acidity, maybe? I think the other fruits sweeten it a bit. Underneath that you can taste the mate, but it blends well; although a bit of a bitter roasted flavour comes out as it cools to room temperature, so definitely drink it hotter.

Or maybe colder? I only got 10g of this, which makes about three gourds, so I haven’t iced it yet; but I imagine it’s going to be amazing iced. I’m definitely going back for a tin of this to have in the mornings with toast and eggs!

Oh yes, and I also got the little ceramic gourd and teeny bombilla DAVIDsTEA is selling right now. I’ve seen traditional ones for sale before, and never got them; mainly because I didn’t trust myself to care for them properly, and because the bombillas were severely marked up.

Then I saw this guy in DT: http://www.davidstea.com/ceramic-mate-gourd

And I thought, naw, I totally have to do this cutesy-wutesy easy version. I love it! The only complaint I have is about how the ceramic gives off heat, which makes it very hard to hold until it cools down. But it’s very easy to clean, and the teal silicone attachment holds the bombilla perfectly in place so it doesn’t go all over the place. The bombilla works fine, too; I left the mate to swirl around in the gourd, and the bombilla sucks up all the liquid without getting clogged.

Since I am internally six years old, I delight in now being able to drink tea through a straw. So naturally, I started experimenting with said straw. (Which I’m also going to have to buy replacements for, because I just know I will use this thing until it breaks.)

Back when all the stuff at my local Teaopia was 75% off, I picked up this thing which looks like a plastic coffee cup to-go lid with a removable infuser attached to the bottom. The infuser isn’t large, and is mostly kind of useless, but I discovered yesterday that the lid part fits PERFECTLY on (what else?) a Perfect Mug. And the bombilla? Fits neatly through the little drinking hole in the lid.

So I’ve now discovered a way to drink hot tea in a cup with a lid and a straw. I don’t think it gets more Westernized/Western bastardized than that.

Preparation
200 °F / 93 °C 8 min or more
Lucy

Question… Do you find the metal bombilla gets too hot to drink from? I have one and I can only drink from it when it’s luke warm, otherwise I burn my lips and tongue. Not so fun.

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Lucy

Question… Do you find the metal bombilla gets too hot to drink from? I have one and I can only drink from it when it’s luke warm, otherwise I burn my lips and tongue. Not so fun.

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Bio

I’ve always been a tea drinker – I grew up drinking Tetley’s Orange Pekoe and their Chai, and considered myself to really like tea.

I’ve been working various retail jobs to put myself through higher education. One day at my store, a customer left a newly purchased bag of loose-leaf behind. We waited for three days for said customer to return, but they (likely not realizing where they had left their bag) did not return to claim the would-be brew. Too bad for them; lucky for me! I claimed the bag, took it home, and awkwardly made my first cup of loose-leaf tea with the only strainer we owned which was small enough.

I haven’t bothered with Tetley since. For the most part (and due to convenience), my patronage is limited to David’s Tea and Teavana. I also order from 52teas and Verdant Tea.

My rating system – hah, I don’t have a rating system. I rate teas a lot like Ebert rates movies. Everything’s relative.

I may often forget to mention it, but you can safely assume everything I drink is sweetened in one way or another – most rock sugar, or honey for green and white teas. I have not yet achieved drinking most tea clear. The few teas I drink unsweetened include milk oolong and genmaicha so far.

The guy in my avatar can be bought at Teaopia or here: http://www.jas-etea.com/products/Jingdezhen-%22Easy%22-Gaiwan-%22Blue-on-White-Phoenix%22-100ml.html

I currently work for Teavana. But I just work there, and my opinions about any of their teas are entirely my own and not meant to be reflective of the views of the company.

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