Dark, Loose-leaf
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Commercial Description
The taste of the Dark Cat Spring Yaupon Tea has been described as a fine tasting, roasted flavor with a very complex, smoky, fermented taste of aged white pepper, Phellodendron bark, and a faint background hint of burnt ginseng. Reminiscent of both roasted yerba maté and Hojicha, the Japanese roasted tea.
Ratings & Reviews
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80 Aroma: 8/10 Flavor: 5/5 Value: 3/5Alex Zorach (1453 reviews) on Aug. 22nd, 2013
I finally got to try Yaupon, and this was the first one I tried! I was excited! I liked it, and I thought this batch was on par with some of the better examples of mate, and the only batch of guayusa that I've tried (the closest thing I have to compare it to).
Aroma of the dry leaf and brewed cup is vaguely reminiscent of Yerba Mate or Guayusa, probably more like Guayusa, but there is a strange, dark, herbaceous quality that I find is unique...it reminds me almost of the quality in the aroma of Australian Lemon Myrtle other than the lemon scent.
Brews a surprisingly clear cup. I sense that the roast on this is pretty light--I've had much darker mate, and it's nowhere near as roasty as coffee or hojicha (roasted green tea). It's more like an oolong with a medium roast.
Much less sweet than typical Yerba mate, and I like that, but I find it has a surprisingly sweet, honey-like finish. The overall character of the cup is oolong-like, with a mild roast and honey-like sweetness. There's a pleasant fruitiness in the aroma that is completely un tea-like.
A lot like mate, I found I needed to acquire a taste for this. I enjoyed it much more after setting it aside and coming back to it a few days later than I did the first time I tried it. I also noticed that I felt hungry after drinking it. It did not seem very strongly caffeinated to me...I'd be curious what the actual content is if anyone measures it.
The leaves are very slow to infuse. I liked steeping it for 3 minutes (any less and it's too weak) and I was able to get a second cup out of it easily. People who like very strong tea or black coffee will probably want to use more leaf and a longer steeping time.
I look forward to trying and reviewing the green version!
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