Jumpy Monkey

My mom is a big maté fan, so if she loves teas like this I should too, right?

Wrong… something about matés just comes off as musty-tasting to me. I wanted to like this, since I can no longer drink coffee I need something in the mornings to get me going. Jumpy Monkey just doesn’t appear to be that tea, guess I will have to stick with Jungle Ju Ju for the energy boost in the mornings.

I bought this tea for a boyfriend almost a year ago to help him get through his long student nights and he loved it. In fact, a year later, he still loves this tea and swears by it for an energy boost before a workout or to get him in a creative mindset to write. So, I steeped some today because I had a terrible night of sleep and thought it would be the perfect start to my day.

Sorry to say, Jumpy Monkey is probably the most disappointing tea I’ve tried from Davids Tea to date. It smells wonderful and perhaps that’s why I was so disappointed when it turned out to have such a lack lustre taste. Initially, it has a mild taste of cloves but over time it turns out tasting like… leaves. It leaves a taste in my mouth that I imagine would resemble the taste of chewing on fallen autumn leaves. It also leave my tongue feeling waxy and oily which I didn’t quite appreciate first thing in the morning.

To be fair (and recognize that I may have done something wrong, as this seems like a cult favorite), the tea does go from bad to worse as it cools. Next time I’ll steep it in much hotter water to see it it makes a different to the brew, and also play around with the steep times. But for now, I’m ecstatic that I did not let the charming sales associate talk me into buying 100g of this tea.

Other than the taste, the tea does everything it claims. It is an instant energizer which lasts in the system for a long time. However, in my world of teas I can easily find a replacement with a better taste.

This tea has been sitting in my cuboard for a while now and I decided to bring it out to try this morning. I really enjoyed it. I have a big sweet tooth so I usually go for much sweeter teas but with a bit of honey, jumpy monkey was great for me. The coffee beans in it gave it a nice lingering coffee taste ( like when I smell my roommates making coffee in the morning) without having to drink it.
If you really don’t like the taste of coffee, this is not the tea for you.
I don’t see myself getting addicted to this tea like I am with some other ones but I will definitely be returning to it soon!

Yum!

I wasn’t expecting to like this one much, having had bad experiences with mate in the past, but it’s so popular, and the description sounds so yummy, and I’m rather fond of spicy teas… so, I bought some to taste.

And it’s good! I get a lot of cloves from it, some cinnamon, and a little sweetness from the chocolate. I like the roasty, earthy flavour (is that the mate? The coffee? Or the “other roasted barks”?), and it has a surprisingly full body.

I drank about half of the cup unsweetened, and then added a bit of agave to see what that did. I like it both ways, but would definitely want the sweetener if I were replacing a morning coffee. There’s just something about warm and sweet that does it for me first thing in the morning.

Glad I took a chance on this one!

Didn’t think I’d like mates, based on the smell.. but I really love this tea! Gives me just the right amount of energy, without the jittery feeling I get from coffee.

Got to try this tea at work last week…I’m not much of a coffee fan as I find it too acidic, but this tea was amazing! Much lighter and perkier than other caffeinated drinks, and the hint of chocolate is delicious. Perfect late morning tea for me :)

I adore this tea. It was one of the first ones that I went back for a tin of. I drink this instead of my coffee now in the morning. It’s excellent hot and not too bad when it’s cold. You can definitely taste the white chocolate and almonds in it. One of the girls at my local Davids told me that it’s also an appetite suppressant!

This tea is growing on me, and I find I enjoy it more with a bit of milk. I was hoping that the mate would be a better stimulant to help with my coffee cravings, but it’s not really giving me enough of a “buzz” for lack of a better term. I still enjoy it though.

Not bad, I was thinking it would have banana, anything with monkey in the title tends to make me think bananas. Anywho, it does have a strong coffee taste, lotsa visible coffee beans- green beans etc. its nice although pretty sweet on its own. Liked it most as a latte. Good for coffee lovers that are looking to switch to tea…

I grabbed a sample from the tea box to share with my sister since she loves coffee teas. She finds the strongest flavor to be cardamom. I’m not a coffee person and definitely find the strongest flavor to be coffee. We had it with milk, and it was all right, but we’ve preferred all of DT’s other coffee blends to this one. It needed more complexity. On the other hand, this tea is probably pretty old – maybe it once had more flavor!