Taragüi Cítricos Del Litoral

First look

Nose

The aroma of Taragüi Cítricos Del Litoral is very pleasant and sweet. It smells nice and fragrant, like you would expect a solid aged Argentine yerba mate to smell. My only gripe is that I don’t get any citrusy notes in the nose of this yerba mate. After all, it is advertised to be enhanced with natural orange, tangerine and grapefruit flavorings, which are known for their bright, fresh and zesty aroma. But no matter how hard I sniffed on Taragüi Cítricos Del Litoral, I wasn’t able to pick up any of these notes — just hay, woodsy, almost floral and candy-like sweet smells.

Cut

The cut on the other hand had no surprises under its sleeve. Even though it is a compuesta, I learned not to expect any visible indicators in a mass-produced yerba from big manufacturers like Taragüi, so don’t go looking for dried orange peel or anything like that. What Taragüi Cítricos Del Litoral looks like is a cookie-cutter con palo yerba mate, with a good balance between leaves, stems and powder. The size and amount of palos is very reasonable for Argentine yerba mate; polvo is present but not to the extent of Uruguayan yerbas, and hojas are quite even in size with no visible abnormally giant chunks.

The color of the cut of Taragüi Cítricos Del Litoral is also quite pleasant to look at, with a darker green hue of an aged yerba mate, no overly pale and “lifeless” leaves, but quite a few brownish toasted ones, which is nothing out of ordinary for Taragüi, indicating the standard drying method with quick fire exposure, same as for their traditional con palo and sin palo yerba mates.

Preparation

Brewing Taragüi Cítricos Del Litoral should not pose any problems even to a beginner matero. Con palo cut, especially that balanced and even, makes it trivial to prepare a good mate from this yerba. Feel free to use those spring bombillas​ that usually clog with finer-ground yerbas — you won’t struggle with sipping on Taragüi Cítricos Del Litoral. Mountain is also optional with this mate, unless you want to extract as many refills as possible.

When it comes to temperature of water, I found that anything in the range between 70° C and 85° C / 160° F and 185° F is perfectly fine for Taragüi Cítricos Del Litoral. It takes hot water surprisingly well, and even at higher ranges this mate does not become overly bitter nor “burnt”. Colder water, however, from 60° C to 65° C / 140° F to 150° F , in my experience is not enough to bring everything that Taragüi Cítricos Del Litoral has to offer, both in terms of flavor and durability. If you care about durability though, be careful with water that is too hot — even at 85° C / 185° F , which is still safe to consume, this mate becomes much shorter and ends very abruptly. Therefore, I recommend to drink Taragüi Cítricos Del Litoral with water that is around 70° C - 75° C / 160° F - 165° F .

Last thing I want to mention is whether this yerba mate works in a tereré form. As always with compuestas, especially fruity ones, I imagine them being quite refreshing and delicious with ice-cold water on a hot summer day. Unfortunately, Taragüi Cítricos Del Litoral is an exception to this rule — the flavors are so subtle and bleak, that it felt like I was sipping on a lavado tereré.

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

After taking first few sips of this mate I finally found those citrusy notes that were missing in the nose of Taragüi Cítricos Del Litoral, and they are quite bright and pungent, in a good way. The taste of citrus flavorings is natural, and feels more like a dried citrus peel rather than a candy with that artificial citrus flavor. Grapefruit flavoring gives a touch extra zest to inherent yerba mate bitterness; tangerine flavoring gives the taste an extra sweetness and festivity; and orange adds that balanced signature citrusy motif. The first sip is the most citrusy one, but subsequent refills become increasingly less and less flavorful. I still get those orange, grapefruit and tangerine notes, however they quickly shift to the background. By the time I reached the middle of the drinking session those citrusy notes were almost completely gone. What’s left is the pretty simple and plain yerba mate. I get some earthy notes, very little bitterness, slight sweetness, but nothing outstanding and memorable. Even with flavorings present, Taragüi Cítricos Del Litoral is still a simple yet somewhat interesting fruity light-bodied mate, but when they are gone it becomes too boring for my liking. There are more alluring citrusy compuestas out there, like Sinceridad Naranja, that offer more layers of taste than just a citrus flavoring.

Finish

With simple flavors and quickly vanishing citrusy notes you would expect a pretty much nonexistent aftertaste. Luckily for us, this is not the case — even after disappearing in the taste, citrus flavorings are still echoing in the finish of Taragüi Cítricos Del Litoral. This echo is quite long and reminds you about the citrusy additives even during the final third of the drinking session. Outside of that, there is nothing much to say about the aftertaste of this mate — it is as simple and plain as the initial taste notes during the sip.

Durability

If you decided to stick with my recommended temperature range — 70° C to 75° C / 160° F to 165° F  — you can expect a fairly solid moderate mate from Taragüi Cítricos Del Litoral. On average, I was consistently getting around 18 refills with that water, which is pretty impressive considering the simple taste profile and quickly vanishing citrus flavorings. As I mentioned earlier, the taste of Taragüi Cítricos Del Litoral is not ruined by extra hot water, but if you want to have a hotter mate, be prepared to sacrifice some durability — at 80° C to 85° C / 175° F to 185° F I was getting a much lower number of refills, around 13 on average. No matter the temperature of the water, there was no evolution of taste to speak of, and transition to lavado from those simple flavors was quite gradual and logical, albeit it felt more abrupt with hotter water due to a sooner ending.

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

When I initially tried Taragüi Cítricos Del Litoral during the day, I enjoyed the clarity and focus provided by this mate, which helped me with productivity during work hours. However, I did not feel any buzz from it, which I would normally get after a big cup of coffee. Trying this mate again in the morning reaffirmed my initial experiences with Taragüi Cítricos Del Litoral — it was definitely not a pick-me-up kind of mate, so don’t expect it to counteract a sleepless night. What it offered though, is that smooth level of mental awakening, that is meant to benefit an already well-rested and well-nourished mind and body.

In the evening, when I already started to feel a bit tired and wanted to wind down, drinking Taragüi Cítricos Del Litoral gave me a bit of energy and instead wound me up, which was unexpected after experiencing its effects in the morning and during the day. This mate is definitely not sedative nor relaxing, but I still had no issues with falling asleep after drinking it.

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