My Morning Mate

Hands down, my favorite tea. There are amazing chocolate and carmel undertones. Can’t think of anything I would rather drink in the morning.

I went in to the city on my day off yesterday to go to David’s Tea. I was hoping they’d have their fall stuff on in the 2 for $5 bags, but not yet. Apparently that’s today. Cue kicking myself in the butt. But I picked up 100g of Mom’s Apple Pie and Cocoberry each, as they were the only two of the fall collection I was really eager to hold on to. Picked up a few others to try while there and wound up not spending as much as usual. Forty bucks, maybe? I was amazed and so pleased with myself.

And then I found Teavana at the other end of the mall.

I will always be a David’s Tea fan and going in to Tavana solidified that in me. Teavana was a really neat shop and their workers were really knowledgable, but I felt kind of intimidated by it all. Teavana felt a little bit elite-y. Like if you don’t have two hundred dollars to spend on a tiny cast iron teapot right there you’re not welcome. I fell in love with David’s because I could walk in in pajamas and a paint-stained t-shirt and the girls were perfectly happy to chat with me for an hour and weird stuff. I spent about $60 at Teavana and I don’t really feel like I got that much tea out of the deal, but I’m probably just being a fussy baby about it.

To soothe my crying baby-ness and to keep me going after getting up early to do my Halloween makeup, I brought some My Morning Mate in to steep at work. I tried one other last night that I wasn’t so impressed with, but that’s an issue for another review.

My Morning Mate is an interesting tea, and I knew I was going to love it when I bought it. It’s chocolatey(and anything chocolate is a plus in my books) and nutty and I don’t find myself getting bored of the taste. Taking it in and sifting it around a bit, I definitely get some very rich, deep notes that remind me of those chocolate covered espresso beans; sweet and warm with a little kick to get you into gear. It tastes as good as it smells and if nothing else takes me back to Teavana, this will be one I’ll go back for.

Honestly, this tastes a bit like pizza to me. I have no idea why but even my friend described it the same way. Somehow, it tastes like basil and tomato. Not my thing, at all!!

I steeped several cups of this and turned it into 32oz of tea. I put it in the refrigerator and let it get nice and cold. This tea is really good iced. I do prefer to drink iced coffee rather than hot, so that is probably why I like this tea iced. I did not add sugar or milk to this tea. I am sure it would taste fine that way and I might just try that in the future.

Ok, so I opened the bag, smelled it, thought it smelled interesting but there was something off… I looked inside… wait… is that… ? I looked at the ingredients… yes, rooibos. Oh, no.

And now I’m scared. I sooooo need to look more carefully at all the ingredients before I go crazy and buy everything… sigh

Let’s see… the smell of the actual cup of tea is quite nice. I can’t smell any rooibos, that’s a relief ! Now, do I dare try it… ?

Oh, surprise ! I like it ! I can’t taste the rooibos at all, yay ! It’s only the second mate I’ve tried (the first being Chocolate Rocket from David’s Tea, yummy!) but I think I can recognize the earthy taste, which I think is quite nice when mixed with chocolate. And I’ve only had like 3 or 4 sips and I can already feel the caffeine buzz.

It’s nowhere near morning, but that’s not going to stop me from drinking this. I’ve had a tiring week and I need a little pep!

I was very intrigued by this one due to the triple-tea mix of mate, black tea AND rooibos. I suppose there might be potential for something to go wrong there, but I find that they don’t clash whatsoever. Immediately upon opening the package I find that I am going to like this one much better than Matevana: whereas Matevana’s leaf smell was overpowering chocolate, this one is a much more complex spicy nuttiness.

After a couple sips I added a splash of cream because that’s generally how I prefer my mate. This is a very pleasant tea to drink. The teas blend very smoothly, with lots of roasted nutty flavor. There is a hint of chocolatey sweetness, but it’s downplayed by the earthiness in a good way. This is definitely my Teavana mate of choice.

I got this in the big online sale and I am pleased that I did.

I had been drinking various sheng puer teas for the last month so this was a nice change of pace.

For all the choco-notes in this while it is dry I really did not get that as the over riding taste. Instead, I was treated to notes of a nice blend of teas that were predominately nutty. The hazelnut really shines in this to me.

It may be heresy but I drink coffee as well as tea. This to me would only be a coffee killer to someone who hasn’t had a good cuppa in a very long while.

My Morning Maté is an okay tea, and just that. The smell is much better than the flavor to me. When you open the tin, it’s a very nutty smell with hints of chocolate. That intrigued me so I had to try it.

Brewed, it’s a bit of a different story. You still get a taste of nuts and ever-so-slightly chocolate, but there’s something about it that I don’t like. It produces one of the weirdest aftertastes I’ve had in a tea.

I think “coffee-replacement” teas just aren’t my, well, cup of tea.

This is another Teavana yerba mate blend that totally does not taste like mate. To me, it tastes like a cross between MateVana and Tiramisu Treviso. I’m not really tasting the chocolate in it, just more of a creamy almond and slightly fruity flavor. There is a bit of burnt sugar flavor, which is really good (just wish there was more of it). It seems to be a lighter tea than Teavana’s similar blends, MateVana and JavaMate. It might be my favorite mate blend so far. Prepared with almond milk and stevia.

I used a solid tablespoon of tea, and I feel like this is very weak in flavor. I didn’t want to over steep since the blend contains black tea, but maybe I need to do it longer because I find this tea incredibly underwhelming.

When I smelled it at Teavana it had these magical chocolate and caramel notes to it that once brewed seem to come through on the nose, but lack in the taste.

It’s overall not something that I would purchase again. For Teavana mates the Samurai Chai and Rasperbby Riot are MUCH better.