Ah, Guayaki Yerba Mate. College kids love it, adults love it, and tweens love it even more than those other two groups, plus a secret third group combined (believe me, I was a camp counselor once upon a time and amongst the campers this stuff was currency). And while everyone seems to love Guayaki Yerba Mate, most people love it because they have a go-to flavor horse to which they’ve hitched their proverbial caffeine-powered wagon. But what’s the best of all the Guayaki Yerba Mate flavors, horses and wagons aside?
We here at Sporked also have our go-to flavors we already know we love, but we know that isn’t good enough for you all. You deserve to know everything. So we did it. We tried every single yerb that Guayaki has to offer—sparkling and still, canned and bottled—and found the best Guayaki Yerba Mate flavor of them all. Here are 15 flavors, ranked from Guayucky to Guayummy (spoiler alert: the vast majority of them are pretty Guayummy).
The following article contains affiliate links that may generate a small commission to us when you make a purchase through the link. Learn more about how we work with affiliates here.
- Guayaki Tropical Uprising
-
I won’t bury the lede here: We didn’t like this Guayaki Yerba Mate flavor very much. It reminded a few of us of chewable amoxicillin (not the Anton Ego Ratatouille moment you hope for, but still, it took me back). It’s vaguely fruity and very medicinal tasting. Also, not that this really matters, but of the Guayaki bevs that are sweetened with stevia, this is higher calorie for the same volume compared to the other low cal options. Not sure why this is, but if you need a low-sugar option for health reasons, go with one of the other two. Both are pretty solid/actively good Guayaki flavors and happen to have even fewer calories.
- Guayaki Passion Tereré
-
If you are one of those freaks who always wished you could drink a fig newton, boy do we have some good news for you. If this was supposed to taste like passionfruit, the passion flavor is fairly weak. This is not a bad drink, but it also doesn’t taste like anything specific except maybe fig newtons, so fig newton fans eat (drink?) your heart out, I guess?
- Guayaki Sparkling Grapefruit Ginger
-
This Guayaki flavor smells like a cross between grapefruit and gasoline—but the flavor is pretty standard. The grapefruit is not super strong but the ginger is definitely present. It was better cold, but even then it was not the best of the bubblies. If you want strong ginger flavor that comes with bubbles, I would go with the Guayaki Classic Gold, and if you want citrus I would go for the Orange one.
- Guayaki Lemon Elation
-
Guayaki Lemon Elation smells a lot like the frozen lemon ice you get at baseball games…and a little like floor cleaner. Not gonna lie, this one tasted a bit chemical-y, and was less in the lemonade camp and more in the vicinity of lemon cough drop. It’s worth noting that when this can of yerba mate was super cold, a lot of the chemical notes went away and it tasted like a good lemon cough drop (the pleasant kind, not the weird ones with eucalyptus all up in there), but still more cough drop than lemonade so do with that info what you will.
- Guayaki Berry Lemonade
-
The Berry Lemonade Yerb smells and tastes a lot like Welch’s fruit snacks. As one of the low cal options, it does have a bit of a stevia aftertaste, but it’s not terrible. Plus, that alternative sweetener aftertaste is way less strong when it is served cold. In a second weird Anton Ego at the end of Ratatouille reliving my childhood moment, this Guayaki flavor reminded me a little of the red Trident Layers gum flavor.
- Guayaki Revel Berry
-
If I had to place this flavor (which I suppose I do), I’d say Revel Berry lands somewhere between Ocean Spray cranberry juice and Hawaiian Punch, except way more subtle and watered down. It has a slight chemical smell, but otherwise this Guayaki Yerba Mate flavor is fairly inoffensive and tastes like “red,” if that makes sense.
- Guayaki Raspberry Tereré
-
Raspberry Tereré is what she says she is. She smells like raspberry jam, tastes like watery raspberry jam mixed with deliciously complex tea, and is overall pleasant, refreshing, and…well…jammy. This one comes in a glass bottle as well. We’re starting to get into the best Guayaki flavors here (as you may have noticed).
- Guayaki Unsweetened Tereré
-
This is pure, unadulterated Yerba Mate flavor (and is also one of the glass bottle offerings). It has a subtle, earthy, green tea-like flavor along with some deep, caramelly, prune juice notes. The combo of the green tea and prune reminded me of Rooibos tea, and it’s honestly super pleasant. If you don’t want your yerb sweet, this is the best of the Guayaki flavors for you.
- Guayaki Classic Gold Sparkling
-
You can really taste ginger, dried fruit, and spices in this Guayaki flavor, and while at first we thought this one smelled a bit weird, it sort of grew on us. The flavor is really pleasant. It reminds me a lot of Coca-Cola with its warm spices and abundant bubbles, and, much like Coke, it’s absolutely amazing when it’s ice cold.
- Guayaki Peach Revival
-
Peach Revival tastes and smells like peach rings or those fruit cocktail cups with the pear, peach, and inexplicable but welcome maraschino cherries. The stevia flavor is definitely present here, but not super off-putting. This was hands down the best of the lower calorie, Stevia-sweetened options for sure. It tastes a little like Trident Tropical gum, but not in a bad way.
- Guayaki Bluephoria
-
This one smells like blueberry muffins and tastes a bit like blue Gushers or those Kellogg’s blueberry gummies that everyone use to eat at the community pool. Supposedly, it is blueberry and elderberry flavored. We liked it a lot—it tastes exactly like what one would imagine “Bluephoria” tastes like, so Guayaki pretty much hit the nail on the head with this flavor.
- Guayaki Enlighten Mint
-
I know I know, “Why is Enlighten Mint so low!?!?” “You call yourselves food journalists?!?” “WEEOO WEEOO Somebody call the taste police!”
In the immortal and recent words of Lonely Island, hear us out. Enlighten Mint is an extremely solid mint flavor that almost tastes like it has a bit of lime to it, especially when it is cold. But the smell is stronger and slightly more chemical-leaning than the glass bottle Mint Tereré, and when we did a room-temp taste test of this one (we had to be thorough), it tasted a bit like spearmint gum, while the other mint did not. This one is very sweet and very minty and if you like those things, you will like this tea. Enlighten Mint is great; it’s still one of the best Guayaki flavors. We know this. We just think y’all are sleeping on the Mint Tereré, that’s all.
- Guayaki Sparkling Cranberry Pomegranate
-
This Guayaki variety has that classic “mixed berry” flavor. It is really pleasant, and the bubbles are fun. For some reason it smells almost like guava paste when it was at room temp (don’t worry, we tried it cold too), but it has no off taste and reminded us a lot of Cranberry Martinelli’s. Yum.
- Guayaki Orange Exuberance
-
Orange Exuberance tastes amazing and exactly (and we do mean exactly) like Hi-C, which was lucky for us because we here at Sporked (much like pirates) love the Hi-C. This Guayaki flavor could use the teensiest bit more citric acid for tang, but honestly that’s being super nit-picky. This stuff is pretty great.
Fun fact: One time I drank a whole can of this in college after getting only three or four hours of sleep, proceeded to read (and comprehend) an entire scientific research paper in five minutes (still not sure how that was possible, but I swear it happened), passed a test on that paper a half hour later, and I can’t remember the rest of that day. What a time to be alive.
- Guayaki Mint Tereré
-
The minty aroma that emanates from this bottle is stronger than the taste. It tastes like sweet-but-not-too-sweet, perfectly minty tea, mixed with some of the deeper, duskier flavors of the unsweetened tereré yerba mate we also love. This is super balanced and has a delicious, calming, refreshing mint flavor. This is an ideal mint tea that truly isn’t trying to be anything but mint tea. It does one thing and does it well. No notes. If Enlighten Mint is your go-to Yerb, you have to give this one a try and see if you agree that it’s the best of all the Guayaki yerba mate flavors.
Guayaki!
Guayaki!
Guayaki!
Guayaki!
GuayakI!
Guayaki!
Guayaki!
Guayaki!
Guayaki!
Guayaki!
Guayaki!
Guayaki!
GuayakI!
Guayaki!
Best of the Best
Thoughts? Questions? Complete disagreement? Leave a comment!