Tea Battle – Pixie Organic Dark Roast Mate versus Canarias Yerba Mate

This is tea review number 3 from the CRFA show.

Yerba mate tea from the yerba mate plant contains a wealth of health benefits.  According to the Yerba Mate Association of the Americas, some of the health benefits of this amazing cited were:

• Yerba mate is a central nervous system stimulant that provides a unique sustaining energy due to its complex combination of xanthine alkaloids including caffeine, theophylline (also found in green tea) and theobromine (the “euphoriant” also found in chocolate), as well as pantothenic acid – which prevents over-stimulation of the central nervous system.
• Yerba mate is also a rich source of magnesium, which has been proven to ease anxiety without over-stimulating.
• Yerba mate quickens the mind and increases alertness and acuity.
• The yerba mate plant contains a number of powerful phytochemicals called saponins.  These important phytochemicals, along with the many antioxidants found in yerba mate, stimulate the immune system and help the body fight disease.
• Yerba mate can reduce the severity of some allergies and hay fever.

pixie mate on left

Yerba mate tastes amazing.  I’ll be reviewing Pixie Mate’s Organic Dark Roast Mate and Canarias Yerba Mate from Brazil.  I wanted to see how an instant yerba mate would compare to the real thing.  Canarias Yerba Mate is one of the most popular brands of yerba mate in the world and one of the first yerba mate’s I tried.  I apologize in advance though as I do not have the traditional bombilla and gourd for drinking yerba mate.

Pixie mate first.  The ingredients listed are: organic yerba mate, organic Black Tea, organic roasted chicory root, organic roasted ramon nut.  The smell of the tea reminds of a stronger version of the Chinese gunpowder tea.  This tea is very clean and light; the taste reminds me of Chinese gunpowder too, but with a nuttier hazelnut finish.  Side note: Chicory root is a very popular natural substitute for coffee.  If you’re looking to kick the coffee habit you can transition using a chicory root based coffee such as Teeccino or Inka.  You can generally find this substitute in any supermarket or health food store. The brew is medium bodied, and I think it would make a fantastic iced tea with some honey and ice cubes in the summer.  Overall as a dark roast mate, it doesn’t work.  It’s too weak and doesn’t taste like yerba mate much, but as a regular tea I would get this again because I like the nutty flavour.  I would love to have this iced cold after hot yoga.  Yum!

canarias yerba mate close up shot

The Canarias Yerba Mate only has leaves, and does not contains twigs.  A yerba mate with twigs would have more bitter characteristics than a blend without.  The body is heavier than the pixie mate.  The smell of yerba mate is very earthy, bold and complex; it’s almost like smelling boiled dirt.  If you love nature and the smell of the outdoors, then you will appreciate this drink.  The color of the brew reminds me of muddy water that’s been conjured up after you accidentally step into a still puddle.  Everyone in South America consumes this drink.  It’s even common for people to pass it around family style while sharing the brew from one gourd.  The Canarias yerba mate is sweet and woody when you first drink it and finishes with bitter notes.  if you haven’t tried this, I high encourage you and a group of friends to get together and brew this.  I just used a small teapot with a built in infuser to brew it.  1 kg cost me $4 Cdn at a local supermarket.

Phew.  Too much yerba mate though will make you feel very very lightheaded.  My friend J. describes the feeling to akin to being high.  I think I need to go lie down.

I just wanted to add the Bali’s Best Tea Candy that I got from the CRFA show was really really good.  I tried the classic iced tea, the green tea latte and the citrus green tea.  The classic iced tea was my favourite.  It’s a great little candy to pop when you need something to pick you up.

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The Canadian Restaurant and Foodservices Association (CRFA) 2009 Trade Show Review March 8-10 Direct Energy Center

CRFA swag

My friend Liz gets tickets to the CRFA show every year and invited me to go. Not knowing what to expect, I agreed thinking I might be able to get some ideas for my The Kingdom of Tea.  I anticipated 2-3 hours max of food industry people talking about their products.  Boy was I wrong.  We got there around 10am and the first booth I walked by was giving away chocolate brownies and cheesecakes.  What the heck?  I opted against the desserts and selected a lighter fare of goat cheese on a cracker.  Oh this was going to be good.  The CFRA show was held at the Direct Energy Center inside the Canadian National Exhibition Center.  There were almost 300 1100 exhibitors!  1100!  *Diana’s Note. This morning I woke up and I realized I was estimating exhibitors from the addendum last night when I wrote this post.  These were exhibitors who were not included in the already published CFRA Show guide which had around 750 exhibitors.  Including the ones in the addendum this totals the tally to about 1100 exhibitors or so.  Holy cow.  Next year I’m going at least 2 days in a row or for a full day.

OM OM OM!

Most of the booths had samples and many of the companies such as McCain’s and Cedar were serving multiple items.  Okay I don’t eat meat, but here is a sample of the food that was there (meat and all included) lobster, sashimi, bacon, sausages, eggs, fresh steak, prime rib, muffins, tons of cookies, cakes, gelato, Greek food (dolmades, spanakopita), Italian food (pasta, pizza), slushies, ice cream, endless coffee stops, waffles, beer, hard liquor, cheese, chocolate fountains, condiments galore…etc.etc.  It was insane.  I’m a huge huge foodie, so I had lots and lots of fun.  I want to highlight all the tea exhibitors I came across there.

Ceylon's finest bagged tea?

The first tea I encountered was actually Dilmah Tea.  Their rep was bouncing off the wall telling me how fantastic their Ceylon tea was and encouraged me to leave my teabag for more than 10 minutes in my tiny sample cup filled with hot water saying it wouldn’t be bitter.  It was disgusting!  I had to chuck it out.  It was way too concentrated.  I proceeded to take one sample of each tea he was offering and review them in the comfort of my own home.  Next I encountered The Tea Emporium.  They were there pushing their new tea company Wabi Tea.  I got some samples so I will definitely be reviewing those for the website as well.  The next tea company I came across among the tons of food I was sampling, was actually Numi!  I’ve always wanted to try Numi.  Numi was kind enough to give me a full sized box of Chocolate Puerh Tea (oh course they’ve heard of Rocking the Republic!) so I will be sampling that as well.  I also got Morning Rise breakfast blend and Aged Earl Grey from them.

I heart yerba mate!

Numi was being pushed by their distributor who was also displaying Pixie Mate.  Which is… Yerba Mate in a bag!  Love it!  I’m a huge fan of yerba mate.  So I love the idea.  I got some samples of the tea so I will have to be reviewing that.  At the booth I sampled their instant yerba mate chai from a tetrapak type box and it was super yummy!  Oh yes I also sampled from Rooibos tea in a bottle.  It was phenomenal.  Too bad the company was new and hasn’t been picked up by a distributor yet.  Hopefully someone will carry their product soon.  Other tea samples I snagged were Yama Moto Yama’s Gyokuro green tea.  Tea candy by Bali’s Best.  An an instant chai tea latte mix by Oregon Chai.  Japanese sencha from supposedly the best sencha tea producer in Japan.  It was good!  They also had sencha cookies.  Oh and Stratford Tea Leaves was at the show which came as a surprise to me.  They were doing tea tastings and promoting their program for restaurants and cafes.

Tabasco smoke and fire!

I also tried various bottled Japanese and Chinese teas throughout the day.  Nothing new that I haven’t tried before.  My camera was buried at the bottom of my purse under all the food samples that I didn’t take that many pictures!  I will definitely definitely go to the show again next year.  It was like the Auto Show but MORE FUN!  Every booth had something unique to offer.  The Tabasco company had a fire erupt from the top of their booth occasionally and there was smoke that SMELLED like Tabasco sauce.  How cool is that.  Go with a starving stomach.  You will leave like you just visited the greatest buffet $30 could buy (a cost of a ticket).  We were there from 10am, left around 3pm and there was still lots to see!  When we were leaving Chef Michael Smith was on stage doing a demo.  I love him!  You know Chef at Home on the Food Network?

Oh I just want to add that if you clicked on the picture at the top, there is a picture of two McDonald’s Big Mac hamburgers in the picture.  This is because we bumped into Liz’s neighbour who works at McDonald’s head office and that was his business card.  Not because McDonald’s was there.  His business card entitles you to a free burger of choice.  Pretty cool eh?  He gave me two.  Even though I would never eat that disgusting crap again.  Okay maybe.  I do love being a vegetarian though.  Anyways, I cannot wait till the next show!  Jeni from the CRFA also brought to my attention that there is a CFRA Blog.  Which allows you to follow the show.

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