Jungle Ju Ju

Picked this one up on a whim while doing some birthday shopping (Hey, it’ll be my birthday too eventually!) I’m rather glad I did.

As an ex-coffee drinker I miss being riddled with caffiene. There’s just something about that energetic, tingly, watch the boyfriend evaluate my crazy eyes and get out of the house as fast as he can, feeling that a nice cup of green or black can’t quite match. This comes the closest yet though.

Honestly, in the store I wasn’t much of a fan of the dry smell. Slightly fruity, very smooth and earthy, but not something I would pick up and sigh over. Since I had decided to buy it before even entering the store to cut down on “sampling” other teas, I just bought and ran.

As this one is an herbal I wasn’t as picky about brewing as usual. Went with 6 minutes but also didn’t strain the teapot so my second cup was a 20 minute infusion, which caused it to darken a lot and gave a touch of a bitter edge.

I agree that it’s smooth, baby bottom smooth, creamy without the cream smooth. Flavour reminded me of when I was young and we’d try to make wheat gum out of green wheat, earthy and heavier though. There was a touch of fruit from the papaya, but more towards the end of the sip.

I’m willing to try this one cold, even though I don’t tend to enjoy my teas chilled. And that caffiene kick I was looking for was very much there, but still not as much as that first cup of coffee used to be.

I was fairly unfamiliar with the Guayusa herb but I heard it can be compared to mate in terms of taste as well as the kick of energy. This tea is fairly sweet think of it as a sweeter mate but with a flavor not nearly as complex. Not that it is a knock against as it is quite nice and refreshing. I drink lots of Mate and Black tea so I don’t really think I’m too caffeine sensitive but damn this tea really got me going. I am more of an earthy guy but I’ll be drinking this one when I have one of those horrific mornings where I wake up with blood shot eyes going through a mild depression when I realize that yes I am this tired and yes I do have a long day ahead of me. Cheers!

Disappointing cuppa. I got a lot of jungle and not a whole lot of ju ju. The guayusa was very strong – not really bitter, because it doesn’t get bitter, but just mildly unpleasant. No sweet kick from the fruit. Sad. Not a great cuppa.

I tried this hot and iced but did not like it.

A musky fruity blend with plenty of exotic notes. It tastes like many different gourds and jungle fruits got together in a rich concoction that goes down strong. This is not your typical light, zesty fruit tea. A bit too exotic for my taste, but not an unpleasant tea at all.
Part of the DAVIDsTEA permanent collection.

Just another in a (long) line of great teas axed by David.

I have half a tin left. Tragedy.

Great tropical-y, fruit-y morning mate blend to enjoy over ice.

Uh-oh.

So I picked up some of this a couple weeks ago ’cause I had sipped down Main Squeeze, which has been a cupboard staple of mine for daily use a little over a year now, and I wanted to switch things up a little bit because drinking too much of the same thing can definitely get boring or begin to feel too routine. Well, I think I may have spent a year missing out because this was really, really good.

Overall I tend to prefer guayusa over mate; I like the wet, mossy, earthy flavour of guayusa a lot because it makes me think of petrichor so this tea already had that edge over Main Squeeze; dry it smells very fresh with a more raw, unrefined peach flavour. It’s not a soft, creamy peach: it’s peach fresh from the garden with the skin and a bit of dirt. The papaya comes through in the scent as well, but it’s definitely not the focus despite the surplus of very large candied pa paya pieces in the leaf.

And the taste was awesome; the guayusa was everything I could have asked it to be and the peach I got to experience in the dry smell translated perfectly into the taste. The papaya is stronger in the taste as well, and adds this lovely roundness to the flavour that highlights the peach, petrichor, and plush earthy notes. And it tastes so fresh! It’s sweet enough that I can’t ever see why you’d add anything to it but it’s still got a mellowness to it too. The mouthfeel was very full as well. I’m totally picturing myself drinking this on the walk to work and I think that’s an A+ idea. Really, I have zero complaints about this one other than my own idiocy for drinking it at 6PM and now being way too wide awake.

This could easily, and I predict will easily, make its way into my cupboard staples so long as it proves to provide a consistent brew. It’s not one of the fanciest/highest quality teas I own – but for every day drinking and that extra caffeine boost before going to work I think it’s perfect! Plus, it’s a totally fun summer kind of flavour!

I didn’t drink this myself sorry. my manfriend drank this sample at a dinner party. he loves mate and I brought my sample box as a dinner offering. he enjoyed it!
I’ll be sure to have a cup myself someday in the future.
at this point I really just need to get this tea drank haha!
thanks jump62359!!

My second favorite of the David’s Teas i’ve tried. The flavor is obviously very tropical and sweet, with heavy papaya and mango flavors. Excellent summer tea, another flavor I personally prefer iced over hot.

I’m a bit leery of guayusa due to the high caffeine content so I only did the minimum recommended steeping time from the package. There are huge chunks of papaya and peach in there and the smell of the dry tea is an interesting mix of fruity and herbal. I get some pretty good flavour from the papaya and peaches – I’m not sure if it’s those or the guayusa itself that are giving the tea a slightly sweet undertone. There’s a slightly herbal taste but not as strong as I would have expected from the smell.

The caffeine amount turned put just right – I’d only had a few hours of sleep last night and was super groggy, but this woke me up without making me jittery and gave me just the right amount of energy to go about my day.