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Samuari TTB Tasting note #1

I thought this was a herbal blend (today is a caffeine free day). The name is misleading, since yerba mate is heavily caffeinated and not what I associate with “calm”. More like “energetic and awake”. I should have checked the ingredients xD I like to come up with tasting notes without knowing the ingredients so that I’m not influenced to taste something that I wouldn’t have picked up on.

Anyway, it has the typical roasty mate flavour (minerals, citrus, coffee grounds) in combination with medicinal herbs. I can’t find a complete ingredient list, but it seems this is unroasted mate(?) I can taste peppermint and citrus. Google says this might have tulsi/holy basil in it, but I’m not sure if it is the mint or the basil that has a slight peppery flavour. It isn’t a bad cup, but offers nothing interesting or unique. I mostly taste plain peppermint and mate.

Just what I needed on this dreary, wet, almost-autumn day. My city thinks it is October apparently. I’m not ready yet!!

I was delighted to share this with my grandmother today. She is a very picky British (has never actually lived in England) woman who is particular about which teas she likes. She almost always drinks straight black teas. She read something about teabags containing harmful micro plastics and now she doesn’t want to drink any tea bags. The problem is that she is not computer savvy and doesn’t like to buy anything online, but is trying not to be in stores right now.

I can say this blend has passed the “picky grandmother” test! She liked it so much she actually let me give her the rest of my sample pouch (I believe this is from a previous TTB). Norm,ally she will not let me leave until I agree to take every bit of food I brought with me + all of the leftovers and a bunch of things from her pantry that she thinks I will like. xD She expresses love be feeding us. Anyway, she seems happy to be able to drink this for a while since she has been a bit limited in her black tea options. I don’t drink a lot of breakfast teas, but it fills me with love that I could share this one with her.

We steeped it quite strong (2 tsp for ~8 minutes, boiling water, ~400 mL teapot) and it was a bit too strong for me plain so I added some soy milk (she took hers with milk, as usual). It is strong/lots of tannin (steeps a deep orange colour), rich, thick. Delicious. If you like strong teas, this one is a good choice for you.

A sad sipdown on one of my favourite blends. This fruity/floral has delicious lychee and rose notes with stone fruits and a smooth decaf black tea base. I’m going to miss this one.

This makes an amazing iced tea. Super fruity and lots of great stone fruit and champagne flavours. Extremely flavourful, resteeps well several times (cold brewed 3 times and all three steeps were great).

Lots of dried fruit (def. distinctly cranberry) and not a lot of almond. I think this blend has not aged as well as could be hoped. It is tasty, but I’m happy to have finished this sample off.

This is a really solid genmaicha, but I didn’t taste any cotton candy/fruit/sugar notes.