Raspberry Riot Lemon Mate

I’ve only had bagged mates before, and I wasn’t overly impressed. I basically concluded that if the choice was between mate and actual tea, I could see no reason to choose mate. So this is definitely not something I would have bought intentionally. It arrived as part of the Teavana tea of the month club classic plan and sat on my kitchen counter staring at me for a while.

I’m still off tea. Not sure why, I just can’t get motivated. I may have had too much of a good thing for a number of months and just simply burnt out. The 100 degree heat and stress at work and home could also have something to do with it, as well as the frustration with my Brita pitcher which decided to become a fish tank for a while. I seem to have eradicated the algae for now, but it was off-putting. It’s not just tea tasting that is suffering, it’s my workouts and my writing and pretty much everything else. I keep telling myself October has to be better because the first month of school will be past and the kids will have reestablished their routines at least. (On the upside, I’ve become interested in chess because my first grader has become interested in it, so I’ve been reading chess books and practicing on the computer trying to develop a game that isn’t embarrassing so I can keep up with him. I have something of a mental block about it, though. I keep telling myself I just don’t get it, so I don’t. See the rock, hit the rock.)

But back to this mate. I finally gave up and cracked it open.

The good thing about it is that you can’t taste the mate. Which if you like mate, is probably also the bad thing. It’s got chunky fruit pieces and blades of lemongrass and basically looks just like a fruit blend. Smells like one too, in the bag. It has a berry-ish, raisiny-ish smell. If there’s a mate smell I can’t detect it. I expected something sort of earthy, but it’s buried under the fruit.

It looks like a fruit blend after it steeps, too. It has that hibiscusy red color. I didn’t pile in the spoonfuls like I do with fruit blends because I didn’t want the mate to be too dense, so I get a Hawaiian punch colored liquor. It doesn’t have a lot of aroma, but what it does has a fruity edge. (Mostly it just smells hot to me, with maybe a disturbing twinge of overheated plastic. I’m using a glass cup so this is mysterious.)

Taste wise, it is basically a fruit blend. I don’t get anything that makes it taste like anything else. Which is a good thing, as far as I’m concerned, because if I could taste the mate I probably wouldn’t like it. As it is, it’s on a par with the average fruit blends I’ve had. Nothing that makes it unusual or unique, and at this point being an average fruit blend isn’t enough to elevate something like this to my shopping list. Particularly since I’m most likely to drink them at night and having the mate in this, albeit rather silent in its participation, takes it out of the running as an evening candidate.

I’m not really feeling caffeine as I drink this. But maybe I’ve overwhelmed myself with increased coffee and Diet Coke consumption while I’ve been off tea and it isn’t making a dent.

This is a tea that is hard for me to review… Why? Well, I had it hot and thought it was absolutely awful. So bad that I forgot about it (or tried to forget about it) for a really long time. This weekend, I arbitrarily remembered it and decided that it was time to try it iced and if I still couldn’t stand it, out it was going! So, turns out, that iced it isn’t nearly as bad!

I brewed a large pitcher of it (8 cups) with 12 teaspoons of the tea. The dry tea was high on the raspberries and lacking in the mate. It is very pleasant to look at the big luscious looking dry berries, but when you want tea, the berries become more annoying than pleasant. The smell is very artificial, it reminded me of Kool-Aid (which I haven’t had since I was 8…). There was a powdery sensation to the scent, which was very disturbing. I can’t really place what it was, but it somehow brought the word “dusty” to mind every time I sniffed it.

I let it brew for hours, basically until the liquid was cool enough to put into the fridge. It was a neat bright pink color. It looked really cool in the sun as well as under the light of my fridge! : )

I sweetened it very slightly and it turned out to be quite enjoyable! It is just tart enough to remind me of fresh raspberries and smooth enough that it doesn’t become painful to drink (no excessive puckering…). The aftertaste is artificial lemon. It reminded me of candy lemon drops. Not terrible, but also not great. The downside to this is that I tasted no mate. If I think about it I get a tiny bit of something that is woody that maybe may be a hint of mate, but I have to put too much effort in to finding it, so I am just going to say that the flavor is absent.

As a fruity iced drink, I would recommend it. As a hot tea, most definitely not, no way. I am enjoying what I have of it iced and maybe, one day, I may get more.

So I think going to the mall went well. I’ll give you no guesses as to where I was going. Since as you can see mall pretzel turned into this and 2 oz of Anjou Pear-adise since I’ve been dreaming about it for a week. I think it went well. I might have come off too into operational things because of my economics major but fingers crossed!

So I’ve been wanting to try this one for ages, every time I try to in a swap it is all gone. It was time to just buy some for myself. Let’s just say every time I crave raspberry lemonade, this is what I’m turning to. I can’t imagine drinking this hot, because it seriously tastes like a better version of raspberry lemonade. And as a bonus, it’s raspberry lemonade with mate!

Usually I can keep myself from eating fruit in teas but with three raspberries just sitting there on the surface during the 5 1/2 minute steep that felt like ages, I had to eat one. I’ll probably go eat the others too now.

I imagine this is probably tasty added to other things. I have a lemon green on the way, I can see this making it even more lemonade-like.

I didn’t even know there was hibiscus in here. Well obviously when I took the Finum basket out, it was evident but it doesn’t taste like it at all. I also get the strangest taste from it, like it’s effervescent. I bet this would be another excellent candidate for a tea “soda” too.

I just kind of wish there was a bit more mate because I’m feeling like today is just dragging, but I think that’s the fault of the weather and it’s pretty evident it’s affecting everyone else based on their driving. I had to go the most roundabout way to the mall, when it’s just 2 exits over with a simple pop on the interstate. But no. No, everyone wanted to be terrible. Thanks Isaac. Isaac the terrible.

Oh I just saw rosehips are in here too. Well clearly this isn’t the tea to drink if you want to taste your mate, but I am quite impressed with how both the tart offenders are actually matched well to the raspberry and lemon. This is tart, but it tastes tart from raspberry. And it’s still nice and sweet. In any case, seriously, who needs like those Crystal Light things when you can have this stuff? I can’t wait to cold brew it.

I cold brewed this tea, and while it is good it’s not great. I enjoy the tartness of the raspberries, but there is a strange aftertaste – from the hibiscus maybe? – that I do not like. Also, this tea reminds me of Celestial Seasons Lemon Zinger. Given the difference in price the next time I’m in the mood for this type of tea I’ll just pick up a box of CS and find my caffeine elsewhere.

So, I wanted a nice boost of energy to get my day started, so I decided to go with this tea. I figured I’d go with a yerba maté over black tea cause I’d need the extra energy before I go into work later today since I’ll be getting out pretty late.

My tea blend isn’t straight RRLM though, I had a little less than 1oz of Maté Lemon Blast left over in my tea stash, and when I originally got the RRLM I barely saw any maté leaves in it (not surprising since most of their tea is stuff with fruit anyway). But I definitely wanted more maté leaves in the RRLM. Looking at the ingredients I noticed the MLB was just lemon grass and green maté, which are both in the RRLM, so I decided to just mix the rest of it in with the RRLM (2oz RRLM : 1oz MLB). Now this definitely has the amount of maté I’m looking for, and it only increased the lemon scent of the RRLM by a tiny bit.

The smell of this tea is pretty amazing, extremely fruity, I don’t notice any floral smells from the hibiscus or rose buds, only notice the lemony raspberry scents.

This tea turns a deep deep ruby red color, probably the darkest out of any of the teas that turn red that I currently have. The fruity smells seem to decrease a little bit after steeping.

This tastes so fruity and tart/sour (which is nice since I’m looking for that nice kick). I definitely am glad that I added the MLB to this, to give it a bit more of a maté flavor to it. I think this tea would be GREAT as an iced tea, but hot isn’t bad either.

2nd steep on this is ok. The brew is a light pink color now. It definitely loses A LOT of the tart/sour qualities. There is a slight sweetness to it now, and the mate is a bit more noticeable.

If you like fruity and tart teas, or if you want a nice refreshing iced tea to drink while playing sports or being active, I’d say give this tea a shot.

ICED TEA MODE!

When I got this (from Rachel Sincere, ty!) and smelled the tea, totally smelled like ice tea potential.

double strength, poured over ice, lemon slices and honey.. WOW! Very raspberry, lemony, lots of interest with lemongrass and zing! Very Very good! I think I will be buying some of this in the future!

Gotta fly, shopping with another fellow canadian!

Got this in the iced tea set at the end of the season last year, basically bought it only for my girls to have the blueberry bliss & pineapple kona pop.

This is very similar in raspberry taste to Teaopia’s Raspberry Mint mojito. It’s very raspberry tasting, not really getting the lemon & thankfully you don’t taste the mate.
I would consider adding mint to this one when I run out of the mojito one.

I was expecting a lot of fake flavors with this tea. But it actually tastes like real raspberries. It has a ruby red liquor and a very sweet-tart smell. The taste is very juicy with a slight tart aftertaste. Excellent iced or hot! Honestly, this is one of the best Teavana teas I’ve ever had.

I had high hopes for this tea. I had tried other mates before, and I like raspberry, so I figured I would like this. It smells good dry, you can see raspberries and you can smell the lemongrass part for sure.

I brewed it, and my first thought was that it burned the back of my throat, my second thought was that it was way too lemony. I gave it a fair go, I brewed it a few times, but I had to give up, I just don’t like it. Not enough raspberry, too much lemon

First cold brew attempt and may I just say, holy cup of yummy tartness! This tea is nearly perfect, although not terribly tea-y. Great alternative to sugary lemonades. Added a touch of splenda (well, generic splenda) just to cut the tartness a bit.

Very refreshing and the mate caffiene is a nice addition, especially during long, boring meetings.

Could use a bit more tea in there, but other than that it’s nearly perfect. Easy to cold brew too.

So my husband gave me the look that means “Friday is video game night… quit goofing off in the kitchen!” I knew I had to make something to take with me upstairs and those GM samplers are just too small.

I mixed up a mug that was half Teavana’s Mate Lemon Blast and half Teavana’s Raspberry Riot Lemon Mate.

I believe next time I try this I’ll decrease the amount of Lemon Blast, since the smoky mate flavor is still coming through (it’s present in the LB but not in the Raspberry Riot, that I’ve noticed).

The blend does tone down the tartness of the RR, which is a nice change. Sometimes I like the tart, but some days I’m just not up for it.

Backlog—
Unlike other reviewers, I really enjoy/prefer this hot. Especially blended with Teavana’s Lemon Youkou. Iced fruit teas aren’t really my thing. I’d rather just have a glass of ice water.

This is super tart & I find it needs a lot of sweetener for me to enjoy it. But it definitely tastes like raspberry & has the tartness of lemon. I don’t really taste the mate because the fruit flavors are so prominent. But this is a really good fruit tea that could probably be blended with a green or white tea to add interesting flavor.
This blend is kind of sticky though! It would cling to the walls of the glass jar I kept it in. Very strange.

Another tea that I had to try from my local store! The smell is very overwhelming in the store and I was actually a bit afraid of this when I got it home. Before this and the Acai Mateini I had very bad experiences with mate teas. In fact, I hated them. But these two teas really have turned things around for me. I love that they are both tart teas with fruit back up flavors. This is my kind of flavor.
I must say that this would probably blend very well with the Acai Mateini that I mentioned before. I love mate now and noticed that I enjoy the “up” it gives me much more than coffee; which I have never really cared for. This is very tart, but I love tart flavors so this one is a keeper! This would probably be excelent iced. I do appreciate also that it is very sweet tasting w/o having to add extra sugar. I think that this would be the perfect thing for me to keep to remind myself of summer during the upcoming dreadful, dry and wet winter.

Summertime! That’s what this tea is perfect for. I am surprised by how tasty this is. I often had it as a sample at the store. My friend sent me some. It’s mixed with Lemon Youku. I added a little sugar, drank it iced…real blissful. I bet it would be equally good warm, though it’s perfect iced. I loved the raspberry flavor, tasted creamy to me.

This is a very exciting tea with A LOT going on with it. Strong lemon flavor with a raspberry undertone. Gives a nice even caffeine kick. Pair this with the Himalayan Black from Teavana for some extra goodness.

I just tried this mate for the first time and I tried it iced (double recipe, then pour on ice in a stainless bottle and shake: instant iced tea). I wanted to add honey, but I was in a hurry so I didn’t. Not surprisingly, this mate tastes what it announces: raspberry and lemon… raspberry lemonade! True, the lemon taste is a bit artificial, but it adds a little pep to it. And the raspberry taste is very good. It’s like a good cocktail, without the alchool and all the sugar. I definately buy this.

Not what I was looking for as a hot tea, but going to try it as iced tea and come back for a second round!

Great all day long. I slurped this one and could really get the aroma and taste of the raspberries. It was still great cooled to room temp. One spoon of rock sugar was used in the water boiling process in the Breville. Yummy.

I think I might have to try this tea a few different ways… something just wasn’t right. I brewed it just as Teavana instructs. 4.5 tsp, 24 oz water, a tiny bit of rock sugar (just because I tend to like my tea a little on the sweet side). It’s beautiful to look at, enough so that I was a little sad that I don’t have anything clear to put it in, and smelled heavenly. I just think that when I purchased something called Raspberry Riot I expected something to really pop, and it just didn’t. It was fruity, but I didn’t get the lemon that others seem to (maybe I killed it with the rock sugar?), and the berry just wasn’t as intense as I would have liked. Maybe more tea? Less sugar? Ice it instead? I don’t know. I’ll drink what I purchased, I don’t mind it, but I’ll probably play with it a bit to see what I can do to improve what I perceived to be a rather weak tea.

I have a canister of fruit sangria Argo tea that was given to me from a friend that knows I love Argo Tea’s fruit sangria, and the aroma that raspberry riot lemon mate gives right when you open the bag instantly reminded me of fruit sangria.

This is a good thing, as I absolutely love bright fruity teas that give you such a great amount of flavor explosions in your mouth, and the fruity scents just overwhelm your nostrils.

It doesn’t stop, as you steep it still gives that overpowering fruity scent, as does when you are finished, you are engulfed in fruit scented clouds.

Once the brew hits your lips, it is more raspberry than anything, which can be good, but is not quite as good as the complete epicness that is Argo’s fruit sangria.

It is a very dark tea, not as bright as most berry teas, but more leaning towards black teas with the flowers and rosebuds, but I do appreciate the underlying citrus blend.

The taste is not as overwhelming as the aroma, but it is a good fruit mate tea nonetheless, and would be a very enjoyable late afternoon or early evening tea.