El Moncayo Compuesta Original

First look

Nose

The aroma of El Moncayo Compuesta Original is absolutely divine. Blended herbs enrich inherent yerba mate earthiness with their own subtle medicinal notes. I get chamomile, camphory notes of boldo, bright citrusy notes of lemon verbena, spicy and sweet notes of horseweed and a slight minty smell. Apart from those herbal notes of the compuesta, this yerba mate smells quite similar to the majority of other Uruguayan brands — slightly woodsy and earthy, naturally sweet, malty and doughy, with strong notes of grass and hay. I must admit that I haven’t had experienced many of the other herbs that are present in El Moncayo Compuesta Original, so it is hard for me to dissect the nose of this yerba mate beyond what I already described, but all together they create a very sweet, herbal and pleasant aroma that reminds me of those herbal medicinal teas that are used in traditional medicine.

Cut

Brace yourselves, we have a lot to cover here! El Moncayo Compuesta Original, as it is obviously stated in its name, is blended with some South American herbs that improve its taste and medicinal properties. In total, there are 10 herbs that are blended in this yerba mate:

• Mint, which promotes the flow of bile and acts as digestive tonic
• Lemon verbena, that has antispasmodic and tonic properties
• Chamomile, which also has antispasmodic and tonic properties
• Boldo, that acts as digestive and is beneficial in liver and gallbladder conditions
• Tilo, which is sedative and lowers blood pressure
• Horseweed, that eliminates uric acid and acts as a liver decongestant
• Carqueja, which is tonic and has antiparasitic effect
• Sarandí blanco, that lowers blood sugar and is beneficial for diabetes
• Chilean myrtle, which helps with stomach and digestive problems and acts as a stimulating tonic
• Sombra de toro, that fights indigestion and dysentery, and helps against alcoholism

For 1 kg bag of El Moncayo Compuesta Original a total of 35 grams of herbs is used. I don’t see any visible indication of those herbs in the cut of this yerba mate, and it looks generally well blended which is important to achieve a uniform taste across multiple brews. If I didn’t know that this yerba mate is a compuesta, I would never have guessed it — to me, it looks like a pretty standard and fine P.U.1 cut. As you would expect from a Uruguayan yerba mate, there is lots of powder, and leaves with stems are ground quite fine. I also noticed few seeds here and there in the cut of El Moncayo Compuesta Original. Overall, it looks like a very balanced Uruguayan yerba mate with a fluffy cut that is surprisingly even in color and pleasantly saturated for an aged yerba mate.

Preparation

Since El Moncayo Compuesta Original is a Uruguayan yerba mate, I expected its preparation to be quite tricky, especially for novice materos. However, in practice I was surprised by how relatively easy it was to make and drink, compared to an average P.U.1 yerba mate. I still used a spoon bombilla​ with El Moncayo Compuesta Original and molded a mountain of yerba, but in my experience this yerba mate is much more tolerant to not having a proper mountain. It clogged my bombilla much more rarely than a typical Uruguayan yerba mate, and if my mountain fell apart I was still able to refill and sip on this mate without struggles, in a same way that you may sip on an Argentine or Paraguayan mate.

Temperature-wise, El Moncayo Compuesta Original is pretty forgiving — I enjoyed its taste no matter if I prepared it with 60° C / 140° F or 85° C / 185° F water. The thing that water temperature affects, in my experience, is the durability of this mate. I find that it suffers the most at both ends of the temperature range — this mate is at its shortest at either 60° C / 140° F or at 85° C / 185° F . Therefore, the Goldilocks temperature for El Moncayo Compuesta Original is somewhere between 70° C and 75° C / 160° F and 165° F , which will yield in a most balanced and durable mate.

Most convenient way to get ideal water temperature is to use an electric kettle​ or a stovetop kettle​ with temperature control. If you prefer traditional kettle you can use a infrared thermometer​ or a food thermometer​ .

Taste

The addition of various herbs takes the taste of this mate to a whole new level and make the flavor of El Moncayo Compuesta Original really unique. It’s hard to pinpoint the exact herbs that stick out in the flavor profile of this mate, somehow, they work together in unison with each other and yerba mate base, creating a pleasant “comforting” taste, for the lack of a better term. After a few refills, I can definitely distinguish a smooth and non-overpowering mint, pleasant bitterness and sweetness of chamomile and spicy camphory notes of other herbs present in this compuesta. As I mentioned earlier, I never had some of the herbs from this compuesta before, such as carqueja, sarandí blanco or sombra de toro, so it is hard for me to identify them in the taste profile of this mate. Also, surprising to me, lemon verbena is very quite and almost completely absent in the taste of El Moncayo Compuesta Original — I don’t get those bright citrusy notes that popped in its nose.

The yerba mate itself seems to be of a good quality, providing a delicious earthy grassy flavor base to this compuesta. It tastes recognizably Uruguayan — full-bodied, smooth, malty, syrupy, with feint milky chocolate notes, pleasantly bitter and naturally sweet. This yerba is not smoky or leathery, like Canarias Tradicional, and reminding me more of Del Cebador Clásica and Sara Tradicional. Herbs don’t mask the yerba mate in El Moncayo Compuesta Original, but create this extra layer, add depth and dimension to an already pretty complex and interesting Uruguayan profile.

Finish

The herbal theme continues in the aftertaste of this compuesta. The grassy and milky taste of the yerba mate doesn’t last long in the finish of El Moncayo Compuesta Original, giving place to added herbs, most noticeably mint, chamomile and boldo. The lingering flavors of these herbs are light and sweet, making this mate very drinkable and allowing you to enjoy it even at the fast cadence. In fact, the aftertaste is so herbal and light that sometimes I caught myself thinking that it feels more like drinking a medicinal herbal tea, not the mate!

Durability

As I said before, with water that is either too cold ( 60° C / 140° F ) or too hot ( 85° C / 185° F ), El Moncayo Compuesta Original will give you a shorter, yet still moderate mate — on average I was able to get anywhere from 18 to 23 refills. 70° C to 75° C / 160° F to 165° F water on the other hand will yield in a much longer mate, from 26 to 30 refills. As you can see, the variability in number of refills within the same temperature range is common for this yerba mate, and it tends to behave differently each time I make it. I didn’t notice any evolution of flavors throughout the duration of drinking, and the taste of El Moncayo Compuesta Original was pretty much the same no matter if it was first refills or last. Speaking of last refills — this mate washed out quite gradually, and I definitely enjoyed sipping on it even when it became lavado.

The last thing you want while drinking mate is to constantly re-heat your water or add more ice to it. No matter if it's hot mate or cold tereré, use a vacuum bottle​ or a very popular in South America mate thermos​ with spout.

Effect

One of the main selling points of El Moncayo Compuesta Original is the extra effects that added herbs supposed to have on your body. I already listed the claimed effects that all of those 10 herbs should have when I talked about the cut of this yerba mate, but personally, it was hard for me to see if it really helps with issues such as blood sugar, digestive problems or blood pressure. I am in a pretty good health already and don’t have the aforementioned problems that these herbs should help with, but I noticed an increased relaxing effect that chamomile and tilo provided. Not only did it have a calming effect, but it also felt quite sedative and made me sleepy. I would definitely not recommend to drink El Moncayo Compuesta Original in the morning, but instead enjoy it as an evening mate, that will help you unwind after a long day and lull you to sleep.

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What are your thoughts on El Moncayo Compuesta Original? Comment below!