Dark Roast (Organic)

This is sold as a healthy substitute for coffee. It looks exactly like coffee and it smells and tastes almost to coffee. Before I go any further I should let you know that I really don’t like coffee at all, that is why I drink tea.

Dark Roast Yerba Mate tastes much better than coffee. However, since I don’t like coffee I am not crazy about it because it tastes a bit too much like coffee, but by the bottom of my cup the taste was already starting to grow on me a bit. I made 2 cups of and I gave the other one to my wife who normally drinks coffee. She could tell the difference when tasting it black but after she added a bit of milk she said it really did taste like coffee.

I steeped it for 8 minutes in 75C/170F water. I understand that this is about the ideal temperature for Yerba Mate. The package says to steep it for 6-8 minutes but it doesn’t give you a temperature so I research it on line first. There seems to be many different opinions on the temperature ranging from 65C/150F to 98C/210F but I settled on 75C/170F based on the bulk of the advice and how reliable the advice seemed to be. I just got a big order of Yerba Mate so I am sure that I will try experimenting with the temperature to make sure I am getting the best result possible.

I recommend this but only for coffee drinkers. My coffee hating taste buds would rate this at 75/100 but I am rating it a bit higher because the intended audience for this (coffee drinkers who is looking for a healthier option) should really like it.
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Warning: Dark Roast Yerba Mate could be a gateway beverage for people who are not coffee junkies. Since this is healthier and more palatable than coffee it would be easy to start drinking this recreationally then once hooked on the caffeine and the taste it could become a gateway beverage leading to more hard core beverages like coffee.