Herbal Yerba maté Blend by 52teas
I had soooo much fun last week with the malted genmaicha, and after hearing several people ask why we didn’t make it a chocolate malt, I decided we should do a chocolate malt tea this week. Here it is, our Malted ChocoMaté!
This is roasted yerba mate with organic cacao nibs and all natural chocolate and malt flavors. It is one delicious energy kick!
Thank you The Quiet Life for allowing me to taste this wonderful tea.
I loved the flavor of this tea. The chocolate shines through and the mate makes for a rich malty taste. I LOVE the depth of and complexity of flavor in this tea. However, the caffeine was overwhelming have to have this in small bits.
WARNING Do not consume after taking Darvocet Wow, it will make your heart pop out of your chest. Yikes!!!
I gently set the tea on the table to steep when my beloved looked up from his book (a rarity since he hardly ever notices me when he’s deep in a book), sniffed the air and said, “Chocolate tea?” It really does smell good, like good deep chocolate.
It tastes wonderful with a creamy, malted, chocolate, mocha taste and something slightly grassy. No bitterness. No astringency. No weird dusty taste. It’s a far cry from my yerba mate experiences of twenty years ago. (Those were the experiments that led me to swear never, ever, ever again to try yerba mate.) It’s quite nice. I can see using this as a base with ice and soy milk for a chocolate malt smoothie.
I love the smell of this one. I opened my cupboard this morning and was hit in the face with chocolate, chocolate, chocolate. I couldn’t help but make a cup to bring to class with me. It’s like healthy hot chocolate, especially if you add milk and sugar like I do. Too bad it’s so hot out because I don’t think this will be good iced. Oh well, I guess I’ll just wait until next year to enjoy this again! It certainly was a winter favorite.
Yay, it came today! Tearing the bag open… Oh my. I can see the nibs and it smells like… Like a delicious artisan dark chocolate bar. I could barely wait for the water to heat. It steeps to a beautiful dark amber liquor. And the smell… Like melting chocolate, dark chocolate, with that faint hint of bittersweetness and the tang of the malt behind it.
Yet the taste is even better than the smell! I don’t know how these guys do it with these flavors, but the supporting base is so mellow and smooth. This reminds me faintly of Godiva liqueur, only not sweet. I’d go into overload if I actually put sugar in this. I seriously need to be alone with this. Bravo yet again.
(I have a KitchenAid mixer with attachments, and I think this spring, this would make some DAMNED incredible ice cream if I simmered it in the cream.)
Even though the instructions say to use boiling water I’ve heard that maté can get scalded and become bitter like green teas, so I kept the steeping temperature at 90ºC. The tea smelled so incredibly chocolatey when I opened the package, like one of those rich chocolate shakes you can sometimes still get at diners. I could see that cocoa nibs mixed in with the mate leaves aswell which is a good sign – I always like it when a company uses real ingredients instead of ‘flavouring’.
The first thing I can taste when I sip the tea is the mate; it has the roasted, nutty, and slightly vegetale flavour that is unique to that particular plant. But underneath there’s a creamy, malty flavour with a hint of sweetness that makes me think of Ovaltine a bit. The chocolate is there too but maybe not as a stong as I wished I was – although that might just mean that I need to steep it longer. The taste lingers subtly and pleasently in the mouth, not letting itself be dismissed.
This is a wonderful, unique blend that I really enjoyed drinking. Congrats to Frank for creating another winner.
made a half cup of tea, steeped about 9 min, iced it down, and stirred in about 3 scoops vanilla ice cream (too lazy to bother with blender). MMMM tastes very chocolatey and malty – I think the vanilla is bringing both out nicely.
I was hesitant to try 52 Teas because I’m rather conservative when it comes to flavored tea and their blends sounded too complicated or exotic. So it’s rather strange that I ordered this, especially considering that I’ve never had mate before. But chocolate and malt, those two can’t go bad, I thought, so I gave it a try.
And I’m happy I did. I opened the pouch and immediately smelled rich chocolate with a hint of malt, mixed with the mint (not exactly mint, but a distinct refreshing scent that I think comes from the mate). I’m sure this is great straight, which I will try perhaps tomorrow, but today I enjoyed it with milk and sugar. It has a lot of flavor but doesn’t get too heavy because of the mate base. I made a big mug-full so I left a bit to chill to see how it’d taste iced, and it’s very good. I can see myself making iced tea latte or shake with this one.
This is my favorite tea at the moment, but I’ll see how I like it straight and if it’s still as good as the first time after several more tries. As of right now, I would love it added to the permanent collection, esp. 52 Teas has yet to add a yerba mate!
Okay so my first order from 52 Teas arrived and I rip it open and smell this wonderful deep dark chocolate Mate smell. I boil some hot water and let it go for about a 5 minute steep and to my surprise the liquor is not very dark in fact it is kinda ambery in color. I then take a whiff and I still get chocolate only not as much as post steep. I let it cool and take a sip and I get nothing! I mostly just taste hot water and a hint of chocolate flavor. If this is the case I’ll be sticking with Teavana’s My Morning Mate but I won’t give up on it just yet I’ll try some different steep times and maybe more Mate and see what happens I’ll wait till then to rate it to give it a fair shot.
Update: Giving this tea a second time this time going for seven minutes at the suggestion of some of my fellow steeps and I still get a hint of cocoa flavor but honestly nothing about this tea is WOWing me. :( I like big bold flavors unless of course I am drinking a white or green tea but otherwise I like big bold flavors and this just doesn’t do it. My rating on this tea is not because it’s bad but because it lacks flavor.
Finally some tea! I had a dentist appt this morning so I’m just now having my 1st cup. From Ricky! Also my 1st mate… I really need to try my best to start trying the base of teas before a flavored version, it’d make reviewing a tea a heck of a lot easier.
Whoa! The raw “leaf” smells really chocolatey! Definitely a “I gotta grab my spoon!” tisane. But… unfortunately the aroma of the decanted tea loses some of that. It still tastes like chocolate, but now there are also notes of roasty and spicyness.
I was really hoping this would be like liquid chocolate as others have described, but I’m not getting it. The roastyness and weird spicyness are taking away from the chocolate.
I’ve got maybe one more serving to go after this one. I will miss you malted chocomate. I was thinking of getting more, but I have decided that life (and money) is too short to go around repeating teas unless they are a particularly delicious Earl Grey (:P) Considering that basically every time I receive the 52teas newsletter I want what’s in it…it’s time to seize the day! or the tea! That’s right! (are you ready for it?
it’s gonna be bad…
better mentally prepare now….
I’ll give you a few more seconds…
ok, time’s up!)
Carpe Tea-em!
Smells Great! Looking forward to trying this.
After steeping though i was a little disappointed. Really am not getting a alot of chocolate in this. I added some milk and sugar to try and bing it out. As it’s cooling i’m getting a little more aftertaste of cocoa but not really the chocoalte i was looking for.
