Apricot Guayusa

This is my first experience with guayusa – I only got a small bag of this because I wasn’t sure about it but am open to new caffeinated beverages since I quit drinking coffee over a year ago due to heartburn.

My first impression is good – I like this! It’s earthy and slightly sweet and is definitely not as herbaly and bitter as mate. The apricot flavor is a nice touch here, it is fairly subtle but that’s much better than being overly fake or cloying.

I did do a resteep for about 8 minutes and although the apricot flavor has diminished quite a bit it is still a very pleasant drink. Glad I tried it!

I’ve been on a bit of a Steepster hiatus since my past few days of tea drinking have been kind of boring—I was at my parents’ house so I went to my old standby bagged earl grey and lemon herbal, and other than that I’ve been playing around with the sample of my custom blend from Butiki. I’m sure everyone would have been enthralled by 5 tasting notes for the same tea in 2 days! Time for something different tonight, so I reached for one of the Butiki samples I got from the awesome Krystaleyn. I love apricot and am in the mood for something new!

This is my first experience with guayusa—I’ve been a bit nervous to try it after reading some tasting notes describing it as plant-y. Well… it is! But not in a bad way. It tastes like fresh-cut grass, and smells like maple tree leaves in the spring when they’re bright and green and new. It’s herbal without a specific herb taste, and is wonderfully new tasting. It’s less plant-y than it is bud-y. It evokes some kind of odd nostalgia in me—when I was younger I used to go out after the rain and pull up blades of grass so I could see the new, soft green part coated in dew… and then I’d munch on them. I know it’s pretty weird, but it was so fresh and sweet, like veggies straight from the ground. That’s what this tea reminds me of! The sweetness is from the apricot, which is so subtle and light. I think I’m going to have to order some of this asap… as soon as I get some more tea funds.

Another sample from Stacy at Butiki…Thanks! I have avoided Apricot flavored tea’s. They seem to go all sour and bitter. Is it just me? Have you noticed that too? It takes nerve for me to try this tea and the only way I’m trying it is because it doesn’t say ‘Black Tea’ but Guayusa…so I’ll give it a try.
I had some California Rolls for dinner with WASABI! I really love WASABI with soy sauce and pickled ginger. Oh yeh! I was thinking that the Apricot Guayusa would be a nice after dinner drink which proved to be so true.
This is a Brilliant and restrained version of Apricot Tea. The best Apricot Tea I’ve had or am likely to have. I don’t think I’ll even try any others. No bitter overdone sour fruit here but subtle, mellow and round flavors, almost melon like. There is warmth. If you’ve ever eaten an apricot right off the tree…when it is warm and fuzzy…then you have had this melony creamy flavor that has no acidity. Truth is that some sweetening enhances the apricot flavor and brings the fruit alive in your mouth.
For all those who are Apricot Tea haters, give this a try. I think you will be won over!

The smell reminds me of pu’erh, not that I’m terribly experienced with them however! I think it’s mostly an earthiness that I’m getting, along with a bit of fruitiness.

The flavour unfortunately just isn’t doing it for me. All I’m getting is an earthy sort of taste with a touch of sweetness and maybe a suggestion of fruit, which I’m not finding terribly appealing. Ok… a few more sips in and the sweet fruity flavour has intensified a bit and I’m finding it more pleasant, and less earthy. I should temper all this with the fact that I do have a cold and although I can still taste things, it’s entirely possibly that things are a little wonky.

Anyways, I think I have one more guayasa in my stash to try (also from Butiki), but it may just be that guayasa is not for me. Perhaps a bit mixed into a different herbal tea would work better for me if this actually gives me a caffeine kick (kiiind of hoping not, since it’s 10:30pm), but I’ll try that later. I think I might prefer the flavouring in this one to the only other guayasa I’ve tried, DavidsTea’s Jungle Ju Ju, but neither is something I’m likely ever to crave.

ETA: I removed my rating from this, because it’s probably not fair to judge this tea since I appear to not be fond of guayasa itself. Personally, I’d give it a rating of 63, but for people who do enjoy guayasa I imagine that this is a fabulously flavoured version of it more deserving of a rating in the 80s.

So I’ve been slacking in the posting department for the past couple of days and that’s likely to continue. I’m guessing i’m going to need to do some serious backlogging when I get back from vacation. I ordered this as part of Butiki’s Summer Sampler before it went away. I love the mango lassi and cantelope and cream so I figured it was a safe bet and a chance to try this one and the almond indulgence (stacy was out of pistachio ice cream so i scored this one instead, which is A-ok by me!). Anyway this is a really nice apricot tea. As is usually the case with stacy’s tea it’s subtle but not lacking. What I like about this tea is the earthy spricot taste that others have commented on. It’s not that artificial taste of apricot that so many drinks try and fail at. Once again, colour me happy with stacy’s wonderful teas

WOOOT! Butiki tea order! Ohh yeah! All the teas I got smell great!

Very excited to Apricot Guayusa after having that tea trade sample of Tangerine Creamsicle – thats the great thing about tea trades, you can get introduced to new teas!

Yesterday was stressful from the rabbit neutering – he’s home and this morning he’s 80% back to normal and recovering well. I just had that one black tea and some cold steeped tea in the morning, I should of drank more tea yesterday to feel less stressed out.

Onto Apricot Guayusa!

DRY: creamy… creamy? Fruity smell. Lots of big bits of calendula, I made an attempt to mix the tea incase those flower things were sneaking up to the top, but it looks like the flowers are pretty generous and evenly distributed.

STEEPED: Light, smooth and fruity. Yellowy brown liquid.

TASTE: Smooth and slightly creamy taste almost with a bit of earthyness (the guayusa I’m guessing). Aftertaste of apricot, subtly sweet – and by apricot I mean I can imagine the flesh and the skin of the apricot blended in. No bitterness, tartness or grassyness. As the tea cools, more apricot and sweetness.

WHO’D LIKE THIS TEA: someone wanting to be introduced to guayusa. I find this tea to be much more gentle on grassyness compared to Tangerine Creamsicle.

COMMENTS: I was almost wondering if this would taste like I ate half my apricot and I dropped in on the grass after trying Tangerine Creamsicle. Apricot Guayusa is on the earthy creamy side rather than grassy.

I could see adding a sweetner would make it more apricoty but I find this tea to be enjoyable as is. I love the depth of this tea, even though it has minimal ingredients – the apricot is natural tasting, the guayusa is creamy and earthy.
And yes, starting to feel full again from the guayusa – very weird (but good, I’m doing a 20lb jiu jitsu weight loss challenge on my blog, so I need all the help I can get!)

Very awesome! I can’t wait to try more Butiki teas – but also I need to have more guayusa blends.
/searches steepster wow, there isn’t many guayusa tea blends out there! I can think up some crazy teas!

Thanks Stacy! this was a sample and I put into my travel mug so I could have an afternoon pick me-up and I decided to try this. Well my travel mug is I think 16oz but you in this case I don’t think it made a difference. It’s quite tasty and I highly recommend it. It won’t steal my heart from the awesome Good Morning Sunshine but it is a good alternative. I’ll try some of the other samples tomorrow :D

Apricot Guayusa! My first flavored guayusa. This is definitely better than unflavored guayusa. Nice apricot flavor. It’s not bad. I wish I had more to say about it, but it’s a fairly simple cup of tea. There’s not a lot of dimension to guayusa in my opinion. It’s a unique flavor, just not one of my favorites. It is nice every once in a while for a change of pace. Thanks to Kittenna for the chance to try another Butiki creation!

One of the best flavored guayusa’s I have had! I LOVE Apricot and this is PERFECTLY Flavored! WOW! Awesome!

This smelled very apricot-y.
Taste: this is strongly apricot, but also very earthy from the guayusa. It is fairly sweet. The earthiness is fairly strong, but it is a nice flavour.
I am certainly feeling energized after drinking it!

Yum! This is really good. The smell of the dry leaf smelled like a sweet apricot and hoped that brewed it would taste just as good, and it does! I also love how the subtle spice of the guayusa works with the apricot. Really delicious way to wake up this morning. Thanks for creating this one Stacy!

My first experience with Guayusa. I love it. I love anything Apricot and this has such a nice, true to fruit flavor. I think I’m digging Guayusa over Yerba Mate..it has a less abrupt herbal note, is sweeter with little after taste. Thank you Stacey for sending me this sample I will definitely order it next time.