Main Squeeze

Backlogging from Monday.

This is very refreshing like orange juice but with a sweet tropical aftertaste. I am definitely getting hints of pineapple and papaya. Still a bit earthy from the mate base. I like that there are no artificial ingredients in this blend.

I put some in the fridge to cool, and it is good chilled too. The same notes shine through as I mentioned.

Dry leaves smell almost like Elf Help. The first time I had this was little over a month ago and I found it to be a bit weak for my tastes.

Tonight I decided I wanted something fruity- it was a toss up between the remainder of this or Kiwi’s Big Adventure. Remembering how watery it was the first time, I dumped the last of my fourteen gram sample into my teapot and let it sit for six minutes.

Taking the wet leaves out, wooooo! Is there really no ginger OR orange in this? It smells almost exactly like my ginger pineapple orange drink that I get at the university. It’s zappy.

The flavour is more toned down than the aroma but it’s still deceiving! The leafy materiel and pineapple come together to give it a pleasant acidic citrus note but it’s mostly sweetness- like SunnyD? Safflower contributes a nice oily sweet texture.

This time around, Main Squeeze wasn’t a bad drink at all! I bet this would be good iced. Still, I can’t help but think this is some relative to Elf Help every time I take a sip. Maybe it’s the candy orange papaya notes.

This one’s great! My new favourite mate, besides Chocolate Rocket, but who knows…I haven’t tried the other new chocolate-y one yet.

Hot, this basically tastes like orange juice, although it lacks something very particular to orange juice…some of the acidity, maybe? I think the other fruits sweeten it a bit. Underneath that you can taste the mate, but it blends well; although a bit of a bitter roasted flavour comes out as it cools to room temperature, so definitely drink it hotter.

Or maybe colder? I only got 10g of this, which makes about three gourds, so I haven’t iced it yet; but I imagine it’s going to be amazing iced. I’m definitely going back for a tin of this to have in the mornings with toast and eggs!

Oh yes, and I also got the little ceramic gourd and teeny bombilla DAVIDsTEA is selling right now. I’ve seen traditional ones for sale before, and never got them; mainly because I didn’t trust myself to care for them properly, and because the bombillas were severely marked up.

Then I saw this guy in DT: http://www.davidstea.com/ceramic-mate-gourd

And I thought, naw, I totally have to do this cutesy-wutesy easy version. I love it! The only complaint I have is about how the ceramic gives off heat, which makes it very hard to hold until it cools down. But it’s very easy to clean, and the teal silicone attachment holds the bombilla perfectly in place so it doesn’t go all over the place. The bombilla works fine, too; I left the mate to swirl around in the gourd, and the bombilla sucks up all the liquid without getting clogged.

Since I am internally six years old, I delight in now being able to drink tea through a straw. So naturally, I started experimenting with said straw. (Which I’m also going to have to buy replacements for, because I just know I will use this thing until it breaks.)

Back when all the stuff at my local Teaopia was 75% off, I picked up this thing which looks like a plastic coffee cup to-go lid with a removable infuser attached to the bottom. The infuser isn’t large, and is mostly kind of useless, but I discovered yesterday that the lid part fits PERFECTLY on (what else?) a Perfect Mug. And the bombilla? Fits neatly through the little drinking hole in the lid.

So I’ve now discovered a way to drink hot tea in a cup with a lid and a straw. I don’t think it gets more Westernized/Western bastardized than that.

Dry Leaf Nose: Sweet and orangey, like orange juice or sherbet.

Liquor: Golden green with a slight cloudiness.

Flavour: The orange and mate are prominent with the papaya taking rung on the palate. The natural sweetness of the blend is refreshing and well-balanced by the slightly bitter nature of the green mate – an appealing, fresh and orangey flavour.

Felt all blah waking up, figured I’d drink some mate and take a nap so I’d wake up energized.

Yeah…woke up at 1pm.

I found myself wanting this, yet skeptical when I saw it described as tasting like orange juice….but it does. It’s like that Simply Orange (that’s not simply orange it turns out) with pineapple, and papaya too.

This is definitely one of the better flavored green mates I’ve had, although I prefer to be able to taste a bit of the mate itself. It’s pretty covered up in this one by being so fruity. If this manages to still be around when I finally drink down tea, I would definitely get more. Thanks Kittenna!

So I went to package some of this up for momo the other day, and was curious as to what I thought of it, so I checked on here… and lo and behold, I had not ever actually tried it! Or at least, it appears that it isn’t logged. Given the amount in the bag, my suspicion is that I didn’t actually brew any of it up (in spite of Steepster’s apparent tendency to eat tasting notes). Either way, it had been sitting in my work drawer for a while, and I had no memory of drinking it, so figured I may as well give it a shot!

Turns out that it’s one of the best green mate blends I’ve tasted. Not that I’ve had many, but most seem to churn my stomach a little, but I downed two cups of this one quite happily. It’s probably because it tastes quite fruity, which disguises the flavour of the mate (which is perfect for me!) I actually think it tasted kind of like a less crazy-sweet version of Mango ’n Friends (available from multiple vendors, it appears), which I rather enjoyed when Azzrian sent me a sample of it.

Anyhow, in spite of it being rather tasty for a mate, it would still not likely be my drink of choice if I was given one, unless all the options were green mates. Haha. I imagine it would make a tasty iced beverage in the summer as well, though not sure the remaining cup’s worth of my sample will last that long.

I didn’t expect to like any of the new teas in this collection, and dang am I being proven wrong. This is why I always get some to try, just in case. This is a lovely fruit tea! I think I prefer this to any of the orange greens I’ve had, the mate just seems to blend better with the fruit flavours. I drank my cup unsweetened and didn’t even mind since there is a natural sweetness that comes from the fruit chunks.

If you’re a fan of any citrus type teas, especially whites or greens, I really recommend trying this one. As for the energy boost, I’m drinking this at ten at night so we’ll see how I feel in a couple hours :D

Tea Tasting Session with Emily(the mighty).
(tea number one, the rest have no notes and are just logged)

I’ve been wanting to try more mate’s since I found that I love Honeydew Mate by DavidsTea. So I decided to pick up some of this one this week. The dry smell won me over, it smells like juicy oranges!

I steeped this for 5 minutes today, first cup of the day. I might be going grad dress shopping later with a friend, so I need a bit of energy to help me decide if I will do that or just stay and drink tea haha. I’m also reading a pretty good book, so that is also a factor. Anyways, tea! The liquor is a sunny yellow, matching the citrusy smell! To me, it isn’t overly tropical smelling, it’s more just oranges, orange juice like.

The taste is quite good! I am beginning to know what green mate tastes like, it definitely does have an earthiness that I enjoy. The orange flavor is a bit more tropical I suppose, but mostly this is like an orange juice with an earthy flavor added to make it almost more natural to me. It’s quite smooth and very refreshing, and I am starting to feel the mate wake up.

Overall, this is a tasty blend. I still prefer Honeydew Mate, but that might be because it has green rooibos in it. I should buy some green rooibos to mix with this just to see what it does to the flavor! This was a nice purchase though, and I might pick up more of it in the future, depending how attached I get to it.

This is pretty tasty! I’d have to agree with the Tang/“orange drink” comparisons, because that’s the first flavour I noticed. Followed up with the grassy, earthy taste of the mate. I wish I could taste more of the other fruits, but the orange really seems to overtake the cup. I had it iced, and I can see myself drinking it once in a while in the summer, but it’s not as good as my beloved Honeybee as an iced mate. I think the Tang association just makes it a bit too artificial tasting for me.

I can’t imagine enjoying it hot, as I’m really not a fan of fruity teas hot, unless they’re balanced with something rich like chocolate, vanilla/cream, or nutty flavours. So I doubt this will make it into my cupboard, but the cup I had in store was enjoyable for sure!

I’m not generally a fan of mate, when I requested this in a swap from Artp I didnt realize it was a mate. but this morning I need my boost of energy, I’ve got a photoshoot this afternoon which I am so nervous about.

the dry leaves smells so fruity & juicy, something I would enjoy in smoothie form. as it steeps you can smell the mate, but as it sits beside me it smells like a cup of orange juice.

taste wise I mostly get the earthy mate, followed by some delicious juicy fruits.
however that mate comes out too much in the front for me.

This is weird. I don’t know if I like it. The description sounded amazing but it kinda tastes like grassy watered down kool-aid. That being said, I’d drink it again. What is wrong with me. Maybe I just really like grassy watered down kool-aid, what’s it to you. (It was an extra that came with my order.)

It’d probably be really good iced in the summer, too.

Backlog review.

Definitely my new fave Maté! I’ve been waiting for Fruite Mate to be re-released for what seems like forever – so I’m really glad they came out with Main Squeeze! I love the green mate blended with the fruity notes. I love drinking this hot in the morning without sugar or anything – provides a wonderful boost to get through three hour seminars or essay writing binges. One of my favourites for sure, and Something I definitely refill on a regular basis. My steep times vary depending on the circumstance – at home I’ll steep it for a minute or three, if I have it in a travel mug though it tends to steep for longer and I add some agave. Either way, it’s excellent!

I had a cup of this iced from the store on the weekend, and I could smell it before they even handed over the cup! I immediately decided that I needed to buy more because there was no way this one would let me down! I have to say that the actual taste was a bit of a let-down, but that seems to be a trend with anything I get iced in store. I should have taken some home and steeped it myself and I’m sure I would have been happier with it. I am still contemplating buying more, but it wasn’t so good that I had to make an extra trip back to the store to buy some.

This tea has quite the citrus herbal scent to it! I would put this in a chicken dish haha! The taste has a great herbalness from the Mate with a nice and balanced sweet citrus taste. Extremely simple, and because of that I thoroughly enjoyed it!

29 down – 471 to go!

okay, yuuum!!! I absolutly adore this tea! I like the taste! but I LOVE the energy boost! this is my first mate tea, this was one of my samples from davids tea! and I am so glad they threw this in!and I am going to have to buy this! and I just orderd jumpy monkey and super excited to get it! yay for this tea! its kinda like drinking warm orange juice and that sounds gross but its actually really awesome! but I imagine I would love this cold too, but I may drink way too much cold lol…. p.s I cant change my rating on my teas for some reason! lol

mmm! i am pleasantly surprised! i have to admit, i wasn’t expecting much (not really liking mates and not really believing fresh orange juice flavour would translate well into tea), but it is good!
it’s late, so i can’t drink the whole cup (only brewed for tasting purposes!), because i’m afraid it would keep me up until 4am, but it’s hard to resist!
i’ll definitely pick up some more next time i’m at a davids, but i’ve got other morning teas to keep me going until then ;)

This is a lovely tea! I’ve been wanting to try this one since it came out.
It’s not too strong, but it’s not weak either. I’m liking the fruity taste I’m getting from it. I’m wishing I had added just a touch more sugar, but it’s good anyway. I’m wondering what it would taste like chilled. I could see it being good.
I’m interested to see if it gives me the boost I need today to keep going. I didn’t sleep well last night and I’m really dragging. Anyway, Hopefully it wakes me up.

This is quite nice. I’d definitely like to try it over ice, as it was a little sickly sweet tasting while super hot. But once I’d let it cool down some, it had a nice fruity, citrusy taste that was neither overbearingly sweet nor tart (which, given the fruits in it, could have easily happened). The mate gives it a nice kick and helped me to actually focus in my morning classes on what SHOULD BE a holiday Monday.

More from my backlog!

This is wonderful, and a great mate. This itself has really gotten me into mates, and it’s pretty wonderful. So, I recommend this to anyone who likes some tropical flavours (or any mate fan!)