Mate Chocolate

I was doing so great about finish off some of my tea samples and decupboarding but then TeaEqualsBliss just had to send a stuffed envelope full of goodies! Okay, so my cupboard doesn’t look near as slim now, but I’m totally not complaining!

With lots of nifty things to choose from, for some reason I decided this one spoke to me. It just seems so odd! Mate scares me on a good day but to blend it with so much other stuff? I’m scared but also intrigued.

The dry leaves smell horrible. Like chocolate and death. Okay, not quite that bad. Maybe like chocolate-flavored medicine? I can’t really peg what that weird note is but it is something that makes me think of the doctor’s office and other funny-smelling-but-sterile locations. Yeah, scared is winning right now!

Ah ha! I think I just realized what that smell is when I was sniffing the brewed tea! Alcohol! It smells like what a scotch with chocolate notes would smell like. And now that I’ve made that connection, scotch is all I smell when I sniff this. The husband is a big single malt fan and while I detest the taste of the stuff, I find the different flavors and smells interesting. Right now I feel like I’m about to down a hot cup of scotch.

OMG! This is horrible! Hahaha! I’m cracking up but this is really not good! OMG! It’s like drinking watered down whisky or a hot toddy! AHHHH! I keep sipping it to see if I will get anything else but I seriously feel like I’m drinking booze at work! Dude, even the aftertaste has a bit of the whooshy, dragon breath feeling to it that strong alcohol does! OMG, THIS IS SCOTCH TEA! And I detest scotch! HA! OMG!!!!!!!!

We interrupt this log for commentator crack up.

Whew, okay, better now. Seriously, this tea is not my friend. Like, at all. HORRIBLE! Hah! But honestly, the experience of it has been a total blast, which is where most of the points in the rating come from. So HUGE thanks to TeaEqualsBliss for this delightfully horrible experience! Whee!

Thank you Dhart1214 for this tea sample!

The only Mate I’ve had thus far has been unflavored. When I saw the bag of Chocolate Mate in the samples from Dhart I was intrigued. It sounded like a good combination. Earthy Mate and Chocolate would be a natural.

I steeped the mix for 5 minutes and the resulting brew smelled more like prune or raisin and carob.
My first taste was interesting in the odd meaning of interesting.
If I was a hard liquor drinker, I could pick out a whiskey that this tasted like I’m sure of it.
I just stopped and went to the Georgia Tea Company Website to read the ingredients because of the odd taste (non-listed on the package).

UH OH…ROOIBOS!…I’M ALLERGIC TO ROOIBOS! (Good thing I only drank 1/3 of the cup so far! And the rest of the package will go elsewhere! I know Dhart had no idea!)

Anyway, the ingredients are: mate roasted, rooibos, cocoa bits, barley malt, coconut rasps, cinnamon, cloves, flavoring, cornflower blossoms.

Even with cream and sweetening this didn’t taste like chocolate. When you look at the ingredients is there any wonder?! It could have been good!

A heads up to all tea companies. If you call a tea ‘Chocolate’ and nothing else, it had better taste like ‘Chocolate’. Also, PUT THE INGREDIENTS ON THE LABEL! People like me have allergies!

So I didn’t write a story this morning with this tea, I soap boxed.

Happy weekend to all!

This doesn’t taste bad – it’s actually quite good, however, I am not tasting that much chocolate or much other ingredients…but…it does make a GREAT Coffee alternative so I guess…mission accomplished!

After having the last infusion of my Sugar Caramel Oolong leaves this morning, I decided I needed to have a bit of caffeine. I chose this one because I love mate and the other chocolate mate I’ve had (Malted Chocomate) is one of my all time favorite teas. I’ve also heard a lot of great things about this company. So here goes…

Initially, the scent of the dry tea was a bit strange – mate, chocolate, and a kick of something else that truly reminds me of hard liquor. The dry tea is very pretty though and reminds me of espresso hued confetti. After brewing, the tea was very strange when taken plain – initially tasting of chocolate but dissolving into that strange liquor taste. I added a bit of sugar and milk which made a huge difference. The liquor (I’m thinking whiskey) taste is still present, but slightly muted and is blending with the other flavors pretty nicely.

I’m liking this more as I’m drinking it, but I’m still not sure about it. I feel like I shouldn’t be drinking something so whiskey-like this early in the morning. I’m halfway expecting to feel a buzz coming on…

The wife sprung this on me without telling me what it was. I am not sure what to think of it. Makes me think a bit of scotch – so I’m wondering if that is what she had before (yeah, it is)… A bit chocolaty. Very weird. I can almost get the nose of a scotch from it, and definite chocolaty flavors to it. I don’t think it is necessarily a good tea, but it is interesting for it’s odd similarities to a drink it should taste nothing like. Not bitter, not overly dry, just not very good.

The tea itself smells like dark craft beer. No joke.

It didn’t have an actual chocolate flavor either, but in a way that’s not a bad thing. It tastes just like a porter I like with the malty profile and very slight cocoa note. It just wasn’t at all what I was expecting!

I can see this becoming a fast replacement for any coffee addiction I have though as it’s strong and full-bodied.