Maya Tea Company

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Recent Tasting Notes

74

This is from my order…. already a couple summers ago.  sigh.  It was when I was away from my stash and thought I needed more no-caff tea options with me, but then totally blanked and bought this even though there is yerba mate in it. But Maya calls it ‘herbal’ in the name!  But it does have caffeine. I haven’t seen this blend sold anywhere else — as far as I can tell, the base is only roasted yerba mate — though I wouldn’t be surprised if they snuck some green yerba mate in.  The photo LOOKS like roasted.  It LOOKS like roasted in my teaspoon when I’m scooping it out.  There is also some cocoa nibs, lavender and rose.  I would say off the bat it tastes like mostly roasted yerba mate with hints of creamy cocoa.  Sadly not much of the floral…  I wouldn’t even guess it was in there.  I would say it was only yerba mate and cocoa nibs.  It’s good!  For two steeps! It you just want a cup of roasted yerba mate that tastes like chocolate.  But I wouldn’t say it was what I expected.  Then others might be scared away by the floral.   I mean, this blend isn’t THAT old yet, that actual floral elements shouldn’t have any flavor or scent already… 
Steep #1 // 1 1/2 teaspoons for a full mug // 25 minutes after boiling // 2 minute steep
Steep #2 // just boiled // 4-5 min

Flavors: Chocolate, Milk Chocolate

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66

Advent Tea 1. Thank you Devon for the box! A very medicinal tea in the aroma. Lemon myrtle and a slight grassy note, also candied lemon pieces and a slight woody note. The flavor is also much like the above, however, the aroma is quite a bit stronger. The vanilla is there but not strong, though the aftertaste reminds me a bit of what vanilla does in flavoring and the mint is kind of weak in my opinion. It makes for an interesting brew. One I have not tried before, though I’m not sure it suits my palate. Despite that, I believe they did a good job of blending the ingredients.

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81
2023 Ode To Tea – Part II – A

I’m back with my tea collection at home again! For a couple months anyway. I went to steep this one up today and thought.. “heeeyyyy, hmmmmm, this starts with ‘A’, maybe I should do another alphabet challenge to get a lightning round of sipdowns in”. So why not?! This is a very decent apricot tea. I am just not sure I NEED an apricot tea in my cupboard. But this was a very awesome sample anyway.
2023 sipdowns: 56

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81

From Michelle! Thanks so much! An apricot tea on a black base with some matching colored (to apricot) safflower petals. And the apricot flavoring is not lacking — plenty of it here, and then some of that apricot left over in the second steep! It’s a bit of a candy flavored apricot. The base tea seems to really just be a background for the flavors, a little bit of a thin black tea. However, I didn’t see any actual fruit chunks in my sample like the photo shows, so maybe it would have made it even more apricot delicious? But if you’re craving apricot, this suits. Pretty straightforward here.
Steep #1 // 1 heaping teaspoon for a full mug // 22 minutes after boiling // 2 minute steep
Steep #2 // just boiled // 3 minute steep

Michelle

This is a comforting sweet tea I reach for when I don’t feel like a straight black. Go for three steeps!

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Advent Tea: Day 10 from Michelle
I really enjoyed this chai and I even thought it tasted good before I added milk to it. The spices are well-balanced here and aren’t overpowering. A lot of chai blends have competing spices or just an overpowering amount that you need to add milk to in order to smooth out the flavors. The ginger and cardamom in this one come through and it’s not a clove heavy blend. The base tea wasn’t astringent or bitter either.

Preparation
200 °F / 93 °C 1 tsp 8 OZ / 236 ML

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75

Well it seems I am waaaay behind on reading tea notes, so I have some catching up to do! I succumbed to Maya’s 25% off iced teas to place an order of this Apricot tea as it steeps 3 times and my original bag was getting low. The tea smells wonderful and tastes like apricot with a slight bitter edge, but its one of the flavored teas that I enjoy so I ‘needed’ more. As if I need more tea!

Flavors: Apricot

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This one from Maya is a bit underwhelming, the blackberry flavor is a bit sour on the first brew, and weaker on the second brew. It could be I’m brewing it too strong, or its better as an iced tea. I will experiment with the rest of the pouch, but I wouldn’t need more of this tea.

Flavors: Sage, Sour

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79

A Sipdown of this bag of chai with a bit more ginger in the last cup. This might cause me to place a Maya order .

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79

This is a very tasty and infinitely drinkable Chai. I wouldn’t say I’m a huge fan of spicy chai tea, and this one is mellow enough with ginger and cardamom notes that two steeps disappeared rather quickly this morning. Not complex, but rather a soothing and well blended chai that I will purchase again.

Flavors: Cardamom, Clove, Ginger

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80

This is a nice chai. It’s a nice blend of flavors with the main notes being cardamom and cinnamon. I do wish the base tea was a little stronger. Even steeping for five minutes there isn’t a lot of malt or bready notes going on in my cup. That said, I enjoy this as a simple, spicy chai, and I’m sure I’ll have no problem making my way through my bag.

Flavors: Cardamom, Cinnamon, Ginger

Preparation
Boiling 3 min, 30 sec 2 tsp 16 OZ / 473 ML

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62

Did I love the name of this one! Vanilla! Mint! I had to try it. Sadly, there is Eleuthero Root in this blend, which to my tastebuds is very medicinal flavored and it’s drowning out my dreams of what I wish this tea to be. I hardly taste any vanilla and what should be peppermint tastes like spearmint to me. There should also be honeybush here, but I don’t notice it. Maybe that is where the vanilla flavor is located. So whatever Eleuthero Root is has kind of ruined this one. But again, happy to find all this out for the small price of one dolla.
Steep #1 // 1 teaspoon for a full mug // 35 minutes after boiling // 1 minute steep
Steep #2 // 30 min after boiling // 2 min

Flavors: Medicinal, Spearmint

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75

From the Cinco de Mayo sale from last year.  I’m trying to write some notes for the last few teas before then, if they happen to have a sale again this year (though I will be refraining from that sale this time around.)  This is a decent example of English Breakfast.  I can tell it is NOT just Ceylon, and looking up the info, I’m correct.  It still isn’t the best black tea I have ever had, but it’s a mix of Ceylon, Chinese and Indian teas.   There is a sweetness here, dried hay, and when it cools, hints of stonefruits.  The second steep gets a bit more bitey, but retains that fresh fruit quality, then maybe hazelnuts. (I notice a flavor note from another Steepsterer says “nutty”.) Worth trying for a dollar!
Steep #1 // 1 1/2 teaspoons for full mug // 24 minutes after boiling // 2 minute steep
Steep #2 // just boiled // 3 minute steep

On another note, it looks like Maya Tea is going allergen free, so they have many good blends on sale to make room for new recipes. 

Flavors: Hay, Hazelnut, Stonefruit

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84

additional notes: I really wanted to buy more of this one, since I liked it so much from their one ounce pouch sale a couple years ago. I tried the old harvest again to remind myself what I loved about it. It’s so sweet and malty. This harvest seems like a different tea! Less sweet and malty and more like a brisk traditional assam. But also it seems more like the flavor profile of keemun?! I tried using the same steep parameters with the old and new harvests. I do like the older one better, but the new harvest isn’t bad either. Just seems like every other assam I’ve ever had.

Martin Bednář

That happened to me a few times too. It’s so annoying to find a proper new steeping paramters.

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84

Happy St. Patrick’s day! I’m trying to think of some appropriate teas to have today… hmm.. This one is from a few days ago: A tea I’m glad I caught in the Cinco de Mayo sale and it is almost that time again. This is a lovely unique assam. Or maybe it’s just NEW so it tastes distinctive to me. Remember FRESH teas? I miss them. The flavor is brisk yet sweet, dark berries, maybe blackberries with red wine. Very good. I wish I had a big bag. But then the resteep tastes bland despite it being a bit too oversteeped. It basically just tastes astringent after the deliciousness of the first steep. I have to watch that on the resteeps in the future…
Steep #1 // 1 1/2 teaspoons for full mug // 20 minutes after boiling // 2 minute steep
Steep #2 // just boiled // 3-4 min

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One of my favorite things about this lengthy Christmas break from work has been the time to have tea in the afternoon. Just have tea. Not tea and the afternoon’s load of desk work, not tea and a meeting, not tea left to get cold while I scramble around doing housework, just tea. And for these pleasant, non-multitasking breaks, I’ve been trying to choose teas that have been shared, swapped, gifted, or hand-selected so that I can appreciate them.

And I did appreciate this one! (Especially to calm down after a crazy run to Walmart—not only New Year’s Eve shopping, but frigid weather on the way—the bread and milk crowd was out, too.)

The mojito scent jumped right out of the bag, and carried forward nicely when it steeped. As far as the pomegranate: From childhood, I have never been a very good fruit or vegetable eater. Thus, my quality time with real pomegranates has been limited to “pomegranate flavor,” which always comes through to me as vaguely fruity and artificial. In this blend, I got fruity but not artificial—a nice change of pace.

I think this was a sample from Lexie Aleah, and if I’ve mixed up my donors, I apologize! May you all finish the year well, content, and at peace.

Evol Ving Ness

Single tasking tea! What a blessing that is, to just sit and savour.

I hope you have many moments like these in the new year, gmathis.

Courtney

Agreed! I have really been trying to enjoy my tea and catch up on some reading I never seem to have proper time for. Happiest of new years!

gmathis

Whatcha readin’?

Courtney

Oh, I’m reading “Octopus The Ocean’s Most Intelligent Invertebrate”!

derk

Heh, milk and bread crowd. That takes me back to Ohio. Here, it’s water and propane. Happy you got to sit down with tea :)

Lexie Aleah

This one wasn’t from me as I haven’t tried or owned any tea from this company. I’ve been behind on tasting notes so I’m just seeing this note now.

gmathis

OK, that means I’m going to have to do some comparative handwriting analysis so I can thank the proper person!

Michelle

If the handwriting is messy, then I’m pretty sure it was from me :)

gmathis

It was, Michelle - before I put swaps from multiple friends in one basket, I scribbled down whose whose, and then lost the scribbles until today! I’ve got your bag of Numi Tumeric in a cup right now-perfect timing for this stupid cold.

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68

Mastress Alita’s sipdown challenge Sunday, December 12th: Universal Health Coverage Day Tea #1

I haven’t had this from my Maya Tea order yet… and it’s one of the only “Health” teas I have.  So why not try it today?  From the scent alone, I can tell this is a “health” tea rather than a tasty tea.  Very fine and crumbled ingredients and smells very medicinal.  The ingredients:  Alfalfa Leaf, Astralagus, Licorice Root, Organic Echinacea, Tulsi Leaf.  The flavor is about as good as an immunity tea would taste like.  A bit of spicy and sweet, but mostly like licorice so I don’t love it…  I’m not sure how much it would boost immunity, but it can’t hurt. The second steep is sweeter, not too bad flavored, better than I expected.
Steep #1 //  1 teaspoon // 24 minutes after boiling // 2 minute steep
Steep #2 // just boiled // 3 min

Mastress Alita

I remember one of the first teas I ever tried in my tea journey was a health tea for menstrual cramps, and the base was alfalfa leaf. It was so foul I couldn’t even handle the smell! I remember thinking, “Cows deserve better than this” and ended up tossing it.

tea-sipper

Poor cows. haha

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88

Gong fu session. Advent Tea. Day something of something. I’m actually on my third gaiwan. This is a great earthy black tea with overarching woodsy notes.

On a side note if you’re looking for a good Christmas movie to add to your repertoire look up Klaus on Netflix. This one gets astringent fairly quickly so maybe doing it western style is preferred. This third steeping is lacking a bit of the depth that the first two had. Earthy aroma. Wet deciduous forest.

Thought I’d save enough for another cup tomorrow but sometimes today is tomorrow so I’m drinking it this afternoon. Right now. Definitly could have used more leaf and I prefer it gong fu style. More of the earthy wet wood tones come out.

Cameron B.

I love Klaus too, so sweet and the animation style is gorgeous!

ashmanra

Thanks for the recommendation! I haven’t seen it and could use a new movie for the line up!

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80

This is a pretty decent, easy to drink chai. It’s not very spicy. I taste licorice and some ginger. It doesn’t have any tea in it, not even rooibos, so I do feel that it’s lacking a little body. With milk, it’s pretty mild, but enjoyable. I like to pair it with soy milk to try to overpower the incredibly strong licorice a little. The more I drink of this, the more I really do enjoy it.

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60

On some sips, I think this is okay, but on others, a little muddled. It’s decently spicy, and it doesn’t lack body, despite being herbal. The strongest flavors might be ginger and clove. There’s just something a little off below. It sort of reminds me of weed, which is a flavor I really don’t want in tea. Maybe that’s the rooibos, I’m not sure. It tastes okay with milk and sugar, but after three cups of this, I don’t know if I’d want it again.

Michelle

He gives a stovetop chai recipe in his Steeping Around podcast that I haven’t tried yet. Dunno if it would be any good without the black tea base. Maybe I’ll be more motivated to try it once the weather turns colder :)

AJRimmer

I’ve only tried the stovetop method with herbal chais, and it always made them taste worse for some reason? Maybe I should try it with black chai!

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85

Ashmanra’s sipdown challenge – August 2023 Tea #7 – An impulse buy tea

This will fit for the “impulse buy” prompt!  But to me, if I buy any tea, isn’t it ALWAYS an impulse buy??  Lord knows I don’t NEED to buy more tea.   I really liked my sample I bought a couple years ago and this new harvest seems the same.  How could I not love this one?  Assam, Keemun and Yunnan are some of my favorite black tea types and when they combine with Darjeeling 2nd flush, they all just really mingle in a really unique flavor combination.   And the name is perfect for this blend!  Glad I bought another two ounces.

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85

I’ve always wanted to try this one because I thought the name was interesting for a tea!   The four horsemen… isn’t the first name you’d think of for a tea, but it’s quite evocative.   The idea here is four different black teas in this blend!  I like it already… I hardly meet a black tea I don’t like… AND none of the four are Ceylon, so it’s probably going to be a winner for me.  The four:  Assam Fine Tippy Golden Flower Orange Pekoe,  Keemun,  Yunnan, and Darjeeling second flush.  I can definitely see the darjeeling leaf in there – it isn’t much, just a speckle here and there.  And the Darjeeling definitely adds an extra fragrant element to the flavor!  If I had to pick a “four horsemen” of the black teas it could probably very well include assam, keemun, and yunnan and I’m not sure on the fourth tea I’d pick but the Darjeeling works here.  The flavor is great — definitely a strong, rich breakfast tea but not really astringent.  It has a sweetness to it.  I can definitely taste the keemun, but overall it’s a nice balance. Also a great solid second steep. I hope Maya keeps this one around, as I’m a fan.
Steep #1 // 1 1/2 teaspoons for a big mug // 25 minutes after boiling // 2 minute steep
Steep #2 // 2 minutes after boiling // 3 minute steep

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64

Hot and plain, I found this a bit boring, but I added some almond milk, and that improved it slightly. The vanilla needs to be amped way up. And it might need something else to make it more exciting too. It’s just sort of a flat, boring cup. It’s mostly rooibos, and I enjoy rooibos, but this particular one isn’t tasty enough.

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77

This doesn’t taste how I expected. It has somewhat of a cider thing going on with tart fruit and mild spice. I drink it cold, and it’s decently complex and enjoyable. Sometimes it has a sparkly sort of soda quality. I don’t like the scent of this one, and the resteep is weird too, but the flavor is pretty nice! I guess I’d call the flavor spiced cranberry soda.

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