#mate tea

Coffee with a variety of lemon mate blends and fennel tea + lemon juice

Could have done without the lemon juice, but was sick, so I tried getting more vitamin c

Fennel tea from a paprika was pretty boring, just normal tea flavour, a little more acidic i guess

Mate: South American tea. Has a reasonable amount of caffeine, and a longer brew time. I tried it loose leaf in a tea bag but didn’t taste quite right. Found out it is traditionally drunk with the tea leaves free floating, and with a straw that has a filter. Got myself the filter straw and the quality of the tea is way higher this way. 9/10 would recommend. I do not know how ethically the tea is sourced but I did get it from a company that has a good track record with other imports.

Cascara: tea made from coffee bean shells. Moderate caffeine, and good taste. I would mistake it for generic herbal tea if I didn’t know. Pretty forgiving brewing times, hard to get wrong. Was hard to locate but the place I found ethically sources so that’s good. 9/10 would recommend (wish it was a bit stronger in caffeine) I tried drinking it the way Mate is done with the straw and that has increased the flavor in a nice way.

Matcha: complicated but good. Higher caffeine when you get the proper stuff. Unfortunately there are a lot of knock offs on the market that have a much weaker caffeine. The knock offs taste alright, the proper stuff tastes amazing. There are some tools and steps required in making matcha. Once you’re used to the steps it becomes routine. But the effort to make could be a barrier for some. 7/10 because the good stuff is hard to find and the effort to make. (There is a 20 day period where the plant needs to be shaded prior to harvesting. Many companies don’t want to wait that time period and thus a lower quality product)

Black Tea: mixed opinion. Low quality cheap black tea ends up bitter and needs a second ingredient to make it more palpable, such as ginger. In order to have reasonable caffeine I need to double to amount of tea leaves which doubles the bitterness. High quality loose leaf black tea has lower bitterness but higher cost so it’s a trade off. It is an easy option for low caffeine and low effort and easy to obtain. 7/10 overall 9/10 for the high quality stuff

Masala Chai: a variation on the Black Tea. It needs several ingredients and is made on the stovetop but it completely overrides the bitterness of cheap black tea, and is perfect for cold weather. Out of the options it has the most effort, but a delightful flavor that you can personalize. 8/10 for taste wish it had higher caffeine. I haven’t tried to make it with high quality black tea but I’m sure it’s amazing.

Summary: Mate and Cascara are going to be my go to. They aren’t quite at the point where they replace coffee but they are digestible and not too burdensome to make. I’m looking into obtaining genuine Matcha but for my region that means importing from Japan. We will see about cost/benefit. I’ll end up using all these options in different situations and I’m happy that I can at least stay awake all day now which is a good baseline for me. I’m always open to more suggestions if people have any.

Yerba Mate Amanda en Argentina es una empresa líder en yerba mate y arroz, con productos que reúnen estándares elevados de calidad, basados en la capacidad y profesionalismo de su gente.