There’s nothing I love more than a truly experimental blend. So when I caught wind of Climber’s High, I rushed to order it. Experimental is perhaps the best “category” for this tea which contains black, green AND white tea, PLUS pu’erh, PLUS yerba mate AND a host of various herbs, roots and spices.
This tea certainly packs an energetic punch, thanks to the caffeine from the green, black and pu’erh teas, and the from the mateine from the yerba mate, and the also the warming and stimulating effects of the ginseng root, cinnamon, black pepper, cardamom and chocolate.
The aroma of the dry tea conjures up a spicy chocolate forest – which is lost when brewed, as many blends (without artificial flavors) are apt to do.
The tea itself is a bit too cut & torn for my liking. Out of 18 ingredients I could only identify four of them. Even the brightly colored safflower petals were all but absent.
There is a strong and bakey quality to this tea. However, the sheer amount of ingredients seems to flatten out the taste. It lacks the excitement of a journey that having such a long list of ingredients might imply. The dry finish was reminiscent of many pu’erhs I have tried. Of all the teas, herbs and spices in this blend, the most pronounced is yerba mate, but I wouldn’t say that it dominated the blend.
To bend an old axiom: Too many leaves spoil the blend.
