Caramel Cream Mate

Backlog! Thank you very much to Fusion Tea Room for sending me this generously sized sample!

Compared to the Coco-Raspberry Mate this one is simply an “eh” tea. Don’t get me wrong, it’s good, it’s just somewhat unremarkable. I definitely plan on making this one again with milk so I can play around with the taste a little more, but for now this one gets a medium rating in my book.

I have to say that I like this quite a bit more than others on here seem to. It has an earthy, somewhat smokey/musty flavor that reminds me a lot of pu-erh and I think that those flavors are complemented quite well by the caramel flavor. I was expecting to need to add milk and sugar but I found that it was mellow enough and had enough sweetness on its own. I didn’t like this as much as the mocha mint mate, but it was still very good.

This is actually my first experiment with Mate. It’s totally new to me! I received a generous box of samples from the Fusion Tea Room (thanks again!) and decided that I’d give this one a try first, because caramel flavors are very comfortable for me.

I followed the brewing instructions carefully, because I didn’t really know what it is supposed to taste like. The smell of it is definitely caramel-y, but I think the smell of the actual mate is a little odd to me.

I’m first trying it plain, without any sugar or milk. I have to agree that the chicory is a bit strong, but it’s not entirely unpleasant to me. It just sort of adds a bite. I can see that preventing me from having too much of it at one time, however.

I went ahead and followed suit with LiberTEAS and added some milk, which definitely did mellow it out nicely. I then added some sugar (the packet did say to sweeten to taste, after all!). With these additions, it really is a fun, sweet, drink. Reminiscent of a caramel latte, as LiberTEAS described.

I don’t dislike it, that’s for sure. I’m just still new to this kind of flavor, so we’ll see how it goes for me!

I tried this for the first time today, and I am trying to determine how I feel about it. I definitely enjoy the caramel aspect of this, and the roasted yerba mate is a good platform for the caramel flavor. I think it’s the chicory for me… it’s a little heavy on the chicory. It would be so much better with a little less chicory.

I am going to try this again in a day or two and see if I can improve on the flavors with the addition of sweetener and milk…

I think I agree with the previous reviews of this mate. The chickory overwhelms the rest of the flavors. I got a lot of chickory, a little mate and almost no caramel taste.
Overall, not a bad tea, but not what I had expected.

Not too sure about this one…I mean it’s alright and it ends find but I think there is a little too much Chicory in this for my tastes. I love the idea of it. The caramel is nice and I like the mate and rooibos mix. It smells like Caramel coffee. I think the only thing interrupting this one for me is the amount of chicory flavoring…

Yikes. This is the mate that got me interested in ordering from Fusion Tea Room, as it came up when I was trawling through the results of my “caramel” search here on Steepster. (Give me all the caramel teas, allllll of them.) I tend to keep at least a few mates around and have had good luck with flavored ones in the past. I’m sorry to say, though, that this one was a disappointment.

I also picked up Fusion’s caramel-based rooibos (the Toffee Ole) and perhaps it’s the quality of the caramel they’re using, or their infusion process needs work, because this definitely has a similar woody, overbearing sort of flavor. I thought it was the rooibos on the Toffee Ole that was doing it, but I taste it here too with the roasted mate base. I very very rarely sweeten teas, but this one makes me think I might have to buy some sugar (yeah, I don’t even own loose sugar) just to get through the rest of it. Or maybe add a bit of vanilla soy milk? This is bumming me out.

It does get a little more bearable as it cools down, some of the harshness goes away. Looks like I’m still on the hunt for the perfect caramel tea.

Finally got around to trying this sample! Upon opening the package, it immediately brought to mind caramel candies! After steeping, I could smell the roasted mate at the forefront. I added a little sugar in the raw and a tiny bit of milk (again with the caramel candy vibe, I felt it needed a ‘creamy’ texture).

It’s definitely not terrible. By the second cup, it’s grown on me. It also isn’t likely to be one I’ll order in the future.