Guayaki

I picked this one up from the grocery store a little while back – it seems like maybe it’s one of the newer flavours of sparkling yerba mate? Derk pointed out in a recent tasting note for a different tea that Guayaki went through a recent rebrand/name change, but I double checked the cans I have that were recently purchased and they still all have “Guayaki” on them. Without doing any digging at all on my end, I wonder if the name change was specific to the US and they’re still being sold as Guayaki here in Canada!?

Was definitely bummed to hear about the local fulfillment they shut down, though. In general I really like the taste/quality of this brand’s products but that definitely doesn’t sound like the type of business practices I want to actively support either…

This was so fresh and juicy tasting, though! The grapefruit flavour really reminded me of the bright, fresh and sweet pink grapefruit taste of something like a Fresca, but balanced by a subtle earthy sweetness and a touch of ginger heat as well. Definitely very well balanced, and so summery feeling.

As I mentioned relatively recently, I’ve been drinking a lot of yerba mate based RTDs as part of my morning commute the last few weeks. This is one that I really loved the last time I had it, so I made sure to buy a few more last time I was at the grocery store. It’s such a refreshingly different flavour with a very strong balance of the smokier, grassy taste of the mate itself and a sweet, bright and almost cola gummy candy type of flavour. Lighter and less intense than a regular coke, though.

I think this is the best drink I’ve ever had from Guayaki! The carbonation level isn’t too intense at all, and the flavour is pronounced without over taking the more subtly smoky, sweet and grassy flavour of the guayusa. It makes me think of ginger beer crossed with, like, a cola gummy candy?! Definitely spiced, but in a sweet and soda-like kind of way. A fantastic option, IMO, when it comes to RTD with a bit of an energy boost.

This is rather plain. A big MEH. Not-very-carbonated caffeine delivery that doesn’t taste like yerba mate. The person who bought it for me shook the can to make it bubblier. I’m not sure that improved anything.

Looks like maybe the formula has changed since Roswell Strange reviewed Enlighten Mint 9 years ago. It has peppermint instead of spearmint now. I do wonder if spearmint is part of the ‘natural flavors’, though.

I like this one better than Tropical Uprising. In general, this is mostly sweet with a grassy-earthy base note and a cool, mild generic mint taste without any menthol feel.

I like other flavors better – this one’s flat tasting – but at 60 calories per can with only 11g added sugar vs the high 20s of other flavors, Tropical Uprising is my most frequent choice for demanding work days. In comparison, Peach Revival, which is another lower-calorie flavor, only has 3g added sugar but I can definitely taste the stevia in that one.

I bought this tea when I was doing 120 hour work weeks. I would’ve drunk anything to survive that time in my life. Just poured a cup and got a strong nauseous feeling from both the aroma and the flavor. Out it goes.

So a pretty huge part of my job is keeping up to date on new product launches/releases of all different kinds of food/beverage segments – not just tea. Every now and then we’ll spend a day doing what was call ‘on the groundwork trending’ where I basically just go look at the products in different grocery stores for a whole day…

It’s interesting and helpful for a whole bunch of reasons, but every time I can’t help but shake that kind of back of the mind feeling that I’m essentially being paid to go grocery shopping.

Anyway, the point is that I was doing that today and I ended up buying a whole bunch of new things to try – including this and many other tea related RTDs. Not that this is a new product from Guayuki – it’s actually been around for years. However, yerba mate is sort of seeing a revitalization within North America right now for its wellness benefits and as such a ton of yerba mate products are being released and ones that have existed for a while in specialty markets are becoming more of a mainstay in your average big box grocery store. This was the first time I’d seen this particular flavour, apart from online, offered here in Canada…

It’s actually really good, too! I could see it maybe being too sweet for someone used to drinking a more traditional kind of yerba mate. However, if you’re an RTD consumer and your normal drink of choice is something like Brisk it’s much less sweet than that! I get the subtle smoky undertones and grassier/autumnal leaf notes of the yerba mate itself in the undertones but most of the flavout is a pretty juicy blueberry/elderberry blend with a little bit of a floral undertone.

Historically I have not had a lot of success with canned yerba mate drinks but this is one I would absolutely buy again for myself!

Huh, this tastes just like eating a roll of Necco wafers with some of that yerba maté in the background. Too bad it has so much sugar – this would be my go-to carbonated flavor.

I drink this sometimes at work since we sell it. I can’t taste the leafy, earthy yerba maté much which is nice since it’s a flavor I don’t much care for. In my opinion it’s perfectly sweetened and the blueberry and elderberry walk the line between jammy and tangy. Probably my favorite of the varieties we carry. Clean and clear energy. A full can makes my left eye twitch, though, and sometimes leaves me too aggressive. But this is worlds beyond any other energy drink out there.

Really, though, I went on a date today at the park. We shared a few cans of Bluephoria. It was a nice afternoon :)

I’m cleaning out the kitchen at my new place. This is a teabag of unknown age and the only one so I figured why not?

Brewed hot, 14oz, 205F, 10min. It tastes more like a mint tea than yerba maté. Spearmint > peppermint > maté. Clean, a little sweet from the spearmint, some light menthol from the peppermint, not very earthy, no stewed mint flavor. Tastes a lot like the Guayakí Enlighten Mint in cans but more cooling and unsweetened.

Update: The maté fooled me. It lured me in, chewed me up and spit me out. I woke up at 5am a nervous wreck. I really should avoid this plant. 74 for taste minus 40 for not working with my constitution.

Prior to 2013, I had only tried mate mixed into cocktails, but over that summer, a friend from Brazil let me try this straight, and I have been hooked ever since. So much energy.

I actually bought yerba mate because I saw it mentioned in Animal Crossing. I’m not sure if I like it yet.

Butter green tea flavor. A little earthy/grassy.

I had to force this down, and actually couldn’t finish it. I tried adding cream, which might have made it worse. Maybe it’s better iced?

2 tea bags for 14 oz hot, not boiling, water. Steeped for 10 minutes this time for richer flavor. Did not add milk this time, though it would probably be good with a splash. Smooth, vanilla-y chai.

Used two 2.5 g tea bags per 14 oz water. Said to steep from 5-10 minutes, so I opted for 7. No sweetener necessary as the blend includes stevia leaf and licorice, both of which add sweetness. I added too much milk to mine, at least for my taste. Decent chai taste, though not spicy enough for me.

This is my first Mate, and I lean towards the roasted variety because of it. On it’s own, it’s got a weird, butter taste to it with lots of wet grass. Like others have mentioned, it’s also got a pungency a lot like cannabis. I’ve made it with hot chocolate, and on it’s own with coconut oil blended that tastes really unusual, sweet, buttery and herbaceous. I’ve also had the cocoa version and chai version of it, which I prefer.

This tisane is really best suited as a blend ingredient, not a main tea itself. I honestly bough too much of this because of the health benefits, and as a possible coffee replacement, but I wish I didn’t. Worth trying, but not great.

I have close to a pound of it right now that I need to give away, or it will go bad soon. Message me if you want to swap for it or if you need a blend in the next few weeks. Otherwise, I might have to dispose of it.

This is an interesting mix of Yerba Mate, green tea and lemongrass. The green tea and lemongrass mix comes close to overpowering the yerba Mate which depending upon your perspective may or may not be a good thing. Overall I find this one good enough to finish the box but I doubt I will be buying it again as I enjoy the plain traditional yerba mate more.

A mix of Yerba Mate, peppermint and spearmint which I brewed for 10 minutes. The mint is so strong you can barely taste the Yerba Mate.

Couldn’t remember if I had tried this flavour before so I picked one up the same time as I got the Bluephoria earlier this week…

Turns out I have tried it about seven years ago, but I’m glad I got it again because past Roswell had strong and negative feelings about this tea. Current Roswell!? Current Roswell was pretty underwhelmed by it, but definitely didn’t think it was off putting or too intensely yerba mate heavy by any stretch. I will say, it’s much more of a noticeable taste of the mate than what was present in the Bluephoria I had earlier this week and it’s got a little bit of a metallic undertone to it, but mostly it was just a really standard RTD style of lemon flavouring. Really kind of just… fine.

So, I guess that’s palate growth!?

Sipdown (110)!

I was excited about this one; one of my favourite mate blends is a citrus based one so out of the three flavours I thought that this was the one that would be my favourite. Obviously I should have read the ingredients though; had I I’m sure I would have had much different preconceptions. Instead I got to taste the ingredients first – and it was definitely a shock.

Apparently this uses roasted mate and, of all things, ginger. Now, ginger and lemon is a pretty common pairing so I know I’m in the minority for disliking it – ultimately that boils down to my own personal distaste for anything with a strong ginger flavour. And man was it strong; arguably stronger than the lemon for which the drink was named after! As well, I don’t like the pairing of roasted mate with lemon; for me a green pairing with a brighter grassier earth tone is more preferable. The lemon also tasted kind of like furniture cleaner to me – I was very turned off.

That said, I shared the portion of the can which I could not finish with a friend who, while never having tried yerba mate before, absolutely loves lemon and ginger and she really enjoyed the whole thing; which again goes to point out that it’s not that this is a bad tea it’s just that it’s composed of ingredients that I personally do not really like at all.

As a whole (out of the three flavors I purchased), I think that Revel Berry was my favourite and the one that would most widely appeal to people. I’m happy I took the time to explore these tisanes though, and I hope that if these become more widely available that will lead to a more mainstream knowledge of yerba mate. Because let’s face it, as a ‘hardcore’ tea nerd there’s never enough people to talk tea with.

Not rating because of my own personal bias.