Malted ChocoMaté

I’m not sure I should be drinking this right now (slight stomachache) but I could NOT resist any longer!

The smell of the dry leaves in the bag is absolutely incredible, chocolate-y goodness. I did steep this at around 180 F (who knows what the optimal temperature for mate is?)

I really wanted the malted milk ball experience so I added soymilk and a touch of turbinado sugar to this. OMG! This is so good. I am really getting the chocolate here which is rare for me and chocolate teas. I’m also getting a hint of the malt and the whole thing is just melting into my mouth like a really yummy dessert. I hope I don’t go bouncing off the walls anytime soon due to all the caffeine in this. What a big spanking cup of yum! YUM! :)

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.

So my second order from 52teas arrived today! YAY! Therefore I can drink this without worry, since I now have 200g of it (hahahahaha).

Brewed it strong today…. success. Although I was so distracted logging caramel spice that I let it cool more than I’d like. Sad sad.

I really want to try this one with a bit of sweetener. I think that would make it extra delicious.

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.

When I first tried 52 Teas’ malted genmaicha, I commented that it was like drinking the inside of a Whoppers.

This was like drinking the inside AND the outside of a whole carton of Whoppers! Not sure if it’s the cure for a chocolate craving or if it’s making them worse :)

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.)

I was happy to see this tea in the 12 days of Christmas sampler as I wanted to give it another try. I steeped up two teaspoons with boiling water and only infused for 3 minutes. It was getting pretty dark, so I stopped.

I wish I could like this tea, but there is just something off about it to me. Maybe it is the flavor of the roasted mate, as I have tried other roasted mate’s and not enjoyed them to a greater extent of dissatisfaction than this tea. I taste the cocoa flavor, and that is enjoyable, but there is some off note in the flavor that I just don’t get. Ah, well, there are many more teas out there!

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!

Oh Malted ChocoMate, I’m so glad you’re back in my life again. You were one of my favorite teas from the 2010 Xmas sampler and now you’ve returned again in the Valentines Day sampler.

The mate leaves? chips? smell distinctly malted with a touch of chocolate scent. The mate pieces definitely aren’t leaves but they also aren’t chips in the way that rooibos or honeybush are. Whatever you’d call them, the mate pieces are a dark dark brown with chocolate nubs mixed in.

Steeped, the mate is a dark sable brown and smells mostly malty with only a touch of chocolate scent. The taste is a more even balance of chocolate and malt and oh so good. This is a tea that I sometimes wake up in the morning wanting and I’m glad to have it in my possession again.

I drank the first cup with breakfast (buttered wheat cinnamon raisin toast and a date fig greek yogurt) while watching the beginning of the documentary Love Etc which I’d DVRed off the Oprah channel. The second cup was lighter in flavor but still very tasty and I took that one into the study with me to drink at my desk.

I’m rating this mate a 83 (middle of my great range, 80-90).

2nd steep: 10 mins.

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.

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.