Mayan Mist

The first time I tried this blend, I chai’d it up1. Yes, didn’t you know? It’s a Thing. So I chai’d it up, and it was incredible. But I hadn’t yet tried it on its own, so didn’t feel right giving it a rating. Since today is Diwali2, I wanted to try something I’ve been eagerly anticipating, so I waited for Mum to get here and chose this.

Mayan Mist’s dry leaf fragrance is very sharp. To be honest, it can be a little off-putting. But really, if you’re put off by it, just ignore it, or you’ll miss out on a pretty lovely experience. The brewed tea loses all of that sharpness and just smells really orangey. If flavours of the “orange spice” ilk are your thing, you should really enjoy this.

Except for the coconut, the taste is exactly what you might expect. I say “except” because I can’t smell or taste any coconut. Maybe it’s just there to take the edge off, provide balance, something. I dunno. But although I do like coconut, I’m fine with it not playing a starring role here; orange spice is more than good enough for me. It’s really orangey and it’s pretty spicy, but if it were just a little more spicy, I wouldn’t complain.

I have enough of the sample left for one more cup. Eep! This is definitely a blend I want to keep around all the time. As far as I can tell, it’s as versatile as Samovar’s Ocean of Wisdom3, which is awesome. If I had to choose a preparation method, it would be the chai version, which was so good all I could do was sip and “mmmmm…” until I reached the bottom of the cup. Steeped normally, it’s still really good, but it doesn’t cause the temporary loss of speech.

I’ve got to branch out more! So far, my Happy Place resident teas are all Della Terra blends (save for one, Samovar’s Ocean of Wisdom).

Tea amount: 1 tsp/~4.75g
Water amount: 6oz/~175mL
Additives: Fresh, grated ginger; ½ tsp/~2.4g Demerara sugar.

1 http://steepster.com/bleepnik/posts/137647

2 दिवाली मुबारक! Happy Diwali to my Steepster family! =) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diwali

3 http://steepster.com/bleepnik/posts/57991

This is really much better than I expected it to be. I don’t know really what I expected … I think it’s more of a case of my automatic response when it comes to oxidized rooibos. I always think I’m not going to like a rooibos blend … but more often than not, I end up enjoying the cup.

The woody and nutty flavors of the rooibos come through strong in this blend, but they meld quite nicely with the flavor of juicy orange and cinnamon. I taste a hint of the chili pepper at first, and the flavor seems to develop as I continue to sip. The aftertaste has a slight “burn” sensation on my palate – not really an uncomfortable feeling, but more like that enjoyable sensation you might experience after eating something spicy. (Well, it’s enjoyable for me anyway)

I don’t taste much from the coconut, but there is a slight (very slight) creaminess toward the tail end of the sip that I attribute to the coconut. As I continue to sip, the creaminess builds, but it never becomes a very strong flavor.

Overall, this is really quite an enjoyable tisane: it isn’t overly spicy, but has an interesting balance between spice and sweet. Nice.

Happy early thanksgiving for the Canadians out there!! So this tea, the dry smell was not exactly what I was expecting..I’m not a huge fan of oranges, and this one was bursting with citrus scent! Couldn’t really smell anything but the oranges, but I thought hey, I won’t be too quick to judge this tea. Good thing, as this tea surprised me in a good way!

The wet smell was still orange, though not quite as potent. Also caught a whiff of cinnamon, which also isn’t really my favourite. But I held out..and the taste is quite enjoyable! The woodiness of the rooibos complements the citrus very well, and as for the chilis/peppercorns, they are there in the aftertaste! A nice warming at the back of the throat :) unfortunately didn’t get much coconut out of this cup, maybe a bit of the smoothness from it?

Overall, this tea was surprisingly tasty, after my initial worry due to the smell. I really want to drink this quite often this fall, the warming sensation along with the woody flavors just matches this time of year in my opinion! Another win for Della Terra in my books :D

Hmmm…too much orange peel in this for my liking, but I’m glad I had a chance to try this in my mix it up try me pack. I wouldn’t repurchase this tisane, but I really love the idea of these try me packs.

I’m not going to try to describe this citrus spice concoction. It isn’t half bad with some cream though.

I wish I’d tried this back when there were still sunny fall afternoons. It would’ve been perfect. It warms you up and freshens things out.

I have no idea what enticed me to pick this tea out. I would not normally seek out anything with this list of ingredients combined. But I’m glad I did it because I’m really enjoying it!

It’s citrusy and spicy. Spicy in a definite chili way, as it cools it gets even spicier. It works so well with the rooibos!

I let it get too cool and I wasn’t really paying attention, so I’ll have more to say next time I drink it.

I won a sample of this a while back from their facebook page.
the first time I had this (which I forgot to log), I really really didn’t like it.

this time around is much better. I really dislike the smell of this tea once it’s steeped, smells way too rooibos & something else off putting.
the taste is mostly citrus, I’m not getting the other individual flavours, but somehow they all work together to create something pretty good.

It seemed like a weird combination of ingredients, but turned out to be a nice surprise. I can’t really taste any of the listed ingredients separately at all, but they combine nicely into a unique cup.

I like chili teas but apparently not with orange so much. Was just.. wrong.

This tea had a scent of orange, cream, pepper, spice and dried orange peel combined with a faint woodiness that reminds me of myrh. The creaminess may come from the coconut. It tastes creamy orange woodiness followed by spice and a reference to sandalwood. The aftertaste is slightly powdery. This is a warming tea. Pleasant.