Featuring Chicago Tea Garden’s Bi Luo!

Guayusa plant in the wild

Guayusa is a rather unique “tea.”  I say “tea” because it is in reality a tisane, a plant not from the true Camellia sinensis plant, but rather a special plant (a holly plant, in fact) from the depths of the Amazon rainforest.  Native tribes praise the plants’ leaves for its energy enducing properties, effectively “steeping” it in boiling water and drinking it just like the rest of the world does.  In my opinion, it’s fascinating that humans from all around the world had the similar idea of boiling water (or at least making it very warm) and putting some type of leaf in it in order to enhance and add incredible flavors.

Anyway, I digress.  This plant contains about 1.75% caffeine, as well as the chemical called guanidine.  This chemical compound adds an extra boost, much like caffeine, but does not have the crashing feeling, and also makes it easier to fall asleep when you want to do so.  In fact, these leaves are so potent that the aboriginees use these leaves multiple times, with a surprisingly similar punch as the last infusion did.

One such company, RunaNation (@RunaNation),  has taken the plunge into the mysterious Amazonian rainforest in Ecuador and hired local farmers to harvest Guayusa exclusively.  With this team of young entrepreneurs, this brew is taking off, with their excellent debut at the World Tea Expo this June.  I am not sure of what it tastes like or anything like that (trust me, I plan to try), but from what I can gather, it gives you quite a boost!  But that’s stating the obvious .

• It’s BITTER:  My god is it bitter.  It’s almost past the scale of bitter to downright stale in my opinion.  Whenever I get that slightly vegetal taste (the “undertones” of tea flavor), I am hit by the obscene, awful taste.  It’s like I’m on a fun rollercoaster, We’re past the best part of the ride, and you’re like “oh man, that was badass!” Then out of nowhere the coaster goes off the rails and it’s a 9 o clock news story.  Of course nobody’s hurt, but it certainly puts a damper on the rest of the day (or in this case, the drink).
• It’s COLD:  Yes yes I KNOW it’s supposed to be cold.  I’m not a moron.  Every time I drink iced tea I think “this is like leftovers of a once fresh tea.”  It’s like when you go to Olive Garden and order some delicious meal, then you take the rest of it home.  When you eat it later, it still might be good, but it’s not “fresh.”  Tea should be hot, not cold.  Ever accidentally take a sip of your once-hot tea?  It’s disgusting.
• Lo-Qual:  Lipton.  Snapple.  The two big offenders of iced tea.  These brands make iced tea so artificial that it cannot be enjoyable to this teacaster.  They try to make it really sweet by adding high fructose corn syrup, but no matter how much they put into it, the drink is bitter!  I’m not sure how they do it, it’s quite baffling.  The flavors are fake, and it tastes like it was made out of powder.  It’s like a combination of Kool-Aid and lukewarm black tea.  The secret’s out:  that’s the formula!

There it is.  Now, I’m not hating on anyone that loves iced tea, heck my Father drinks it all the time.  It’s just so “commercial,” that it has lost the essence of tea and has turned into a “better” soft drink.  People also like to throw whole fruit pieces in it too, which, although tasty, just homogenizes the tea and the fruit.  I guess I’m just a bit of a purist.  The only iced tea I actually drank and didn’t absolutely hate was Adagio’s Anteadote.  I could tolerate it.

…Enjoy!

Also, thanks to Adagio for a birthday surprise, including some great Chai samples as well as a new IngenuiTEA infuser!  You guys are the best .

One more thing, in addition to probably checking out Episode #31 (even in it’s bad streched out form), I’d like to point you to my first article for my college’s newspaper, The Campus!  Tried to write an informal, rather simple argument of loose leaf vs. bagged teas.  Let me know what you think!

BLAHHHHH

Not sure if you want to call this “episode 31″ or “episode 32″ but either way, it’s something to watch

Like I said, I really wanted to like this tea, but I just cannot find myself getting into it. I expected to taste green tea, but all I got was HEY HERE’S SOME MINT, TRY IT. And it wasn’t even like “oh it’s minty, but it’s pretty good,” more like this came from my grandpa’s candy dish from the Post-WWII era. In essence, this tastes like a STRONG mint leaf with a mix of random other small flavors, like it’s been sitting in the dish w/ other minty stuff (remember those little white chalky mints?) and red hot fireballs. Bad combo.

Just doesn’t CUT IT for me.