Chocolate Mate

Girls night out in Scotland!

One of Della Terra’s that came in a pretty red Christmas box!

I enjoy a good Maté, I like the malty characteristics of the roasted ones. After I opened it, I deeply inhaled as I always do, and went WOH-HO!!! This is bold! Strong smell of fermentation, malt and barley, very «boozy»!

I was drawn to it cause I like the unusual, but to be honest, I was scared of how it would taste like! I brewed according to instructions, about 4 min. Expecting a slap on the face, I only got a very mild caress… I put the tea basket back in my cup, and I let it rest for another 2min. Still not enough. It ended up being steeped for a good 8 minutes. So next time, I take note to put a little more than

1 1/2 tsp. in my 8oz cup.

The taste was really good, like malty liquid black treacle, with notes of clove and a very smooth finish. I don’t get much of them but the chocolate and coconut are probable what gives that sweet finish. As for the Rooibos, I wouldn’t have known it was there at all and I don’t mind since I don’t care much for it, aside from a few exceptions.

As it cooled, I picked up whisky notes. I think this blend would be very interesting to experiment with during holiday season, I’m thinking cocktails for sure!

It didn’t hold up for a second steep, I got pretty much all the flavor out of steep one. Maybe multiple infusions will be possible next time when I measure more tea to the cup.

But all in all, this is something I will have again for sure!

Now please skip this part if you have no interest for the story

Friday was girls night out… we went to this nice pub we heard of. We were told it was a nice lounge bar, good chill ambiance and good company.

So we got there with that in mind. We went inside, and…we stopped: what we saw was somewhat distracting. You know when the DJ makes that scratchy noise with the vinyl records? That’s the sound my brain created in my head while trying to process what I was looking at…

There were LOTS of men in that pub, and they all seemed to have the same dress code: KILTS! Yes, ladies, brace yourselves, men in kilts! Turns out, Friday was a special night, some kind of Scottish men gathering. I must say that a kilt on a good looking dude has its charms :-)

We were offered beer immediately, some dark Scottish Ale of course. Now, beer and I are not best friends, but I was pleasantly surprised by this one, it was spicy, malty and woodsy, but very smooth and sweet tasting… which reminded me a lot of this maté!

Well it seems that Scotsmen live by one rule: «Cha deoch-slàint, i gun a tràghadh!» meaning «It’s no health if the glass is not emptied» (one guy actually tried to make me pronounce it Gaelic style, and I told him please just put it in writing, so I really didn’t know if it was accurate, but I checked and it seems to be!!!)

If they mean it for beer, well I mean it for tea!

Our night out wasn’t what we had expected, but we had lots of fun, we even danced on traditional Scottish music!

When I got home, I wanted to spend some time with The Twilight Sad, a fairly unknown but amazing Band from Scotland. (I’ve been on a tunes and tea mood lately) Yes, at 3 in morning, I put on their record full blast (living in the woods has its perks). Mr Right got up: What the …???? Oops sorry! Forgot it wasn’t boys night out! Yes, I am quite fun to live with apparently.

James, the signer has a haunting voice, here’s a good example of that. Hope they get the recognition they deserve one day, in the mean time, they make great tea companions!

http://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=fvwrel&v=oRhkFDhLLMw

(P.S. I know the album cover is dark and disturbing but so is their work, call it artistic approach!)

No sir, I don’t like it.

To be fair, I am (at least mentally) comparing this to 52Teas Malted ChocoMate, and it isn’t holding up. There is a bit of a chocolate flavor to this, but mostly I get a very marshy, sweet flavor.

Its weird. It looks like roasted mate, but for all the world tastes like green mate.

At any rate, I uh, I don’t see this one sticking around.

I’m not putting a rating on this one, because this seems very much like a ’It’s not you, it’s me’ kind of deal. But personally, I’m not finishing the cup.

This was a free sample with my order! This one is so smooth it might be TOO smooth somehow. I’m not sure how to explain it. The flavors go so well together, it seems like it turns into ONE flavor. Make sense? Probably not. There is a definite chocolate with that great roasted mate flavor that is kind of earthy. I also tasted a hint of coconut and that was lovely in this blend too. The flowers were a bit of color! A yummy blend from Della Terra, but the flavors work so well together, they need something more to really pop. But maybe I’m just getting spoiled with all these ridiculous blends lately.

Both dry and brewed the smells of the coconut, malt, and barely are at the forefront. Not sure how much chocolate flavor I’m getting from the scent at least. This kind of combine and remind of a licorice type scent, but that could just be my weird nose.
I went for a lower water temp than was suggested, mostly because that’s how I’ve done mate before, I also steeped it for a bit less. Taste wise, it’s interesting. Not sure how much mate I’m picking up, seems to be more spice type flavors. It’s sweet, but I’m having such trouble putting a descriptive phrase to the flavor because it reminds me of something, but it’s right there and I can’t figure out what it is. There is a light cocoa note, but I wouldn’t have named this Chocolate Mate, it doesn’t quite have enough chocolate in it for that. Just looked up that it had rooibos in it, didn’t realize. I think that’s the more dominant flavor, the sweet kind of woody caramel note.

Tea: 1 tsp
Water: 8 oz
Additives: none
Brewing method: My lovely forest teapot

I was just looking through my cupboard and realized I hadn’t logged this yet. I’ve had it a couple times and its definitely a taste that has to grow on me. It tastes a bit like it’s spiked to me and not much at all like chocolate. I did not like the smell or taste at first, but the more times I sip it the better I like it. I’m not going to rate it until I have a cup with me while I’m writing.