Amoda Tea

ashmanra’s monthly sipdown challenge
February 2023 → National Latte Day

I missed National Latte Day yesterday, so I had to start this morning with a latte. I’d been looking forward to having this matcha again, using Half Baked Harvest’s recipe for an Iced Strawberry Milk Matcha Latte. It’s a new favorite treat!

I’ve learned since I first tried this matcha that I’m not a fan of matcha on its own. I do, however, enjoy it sometimes flavored or mixed with other things. I’m mixing it today, using a recipe from Half Baked Harvest for an Iced Strawberry Milk Matcha Latte – https://www.halfbakedharvest.com/strawberry-milk-matcha-latte/.

I’m a little worried about the amount of matcha in this for one serving (2 tsp) since matcha does tend to make me jittery (even though everything I’ve read says it won’t make you feel jittery in the same way that coffee does). I’m also probably more sensitive to caffeine than a lot of people, so maybe that’s why. But of course I had to follow the recipe so two teaspoons it is. And I have to say, it’s really tasty. The main flavor is the strawberry but the matcha sort of lingers at the end. My head does sort of feel like it’s floating above my body at the moment, so I might need to do light caffeine for the rest of the day. Overall, this was delicious!

Mastress Alita’s Monthly Sipdown Challenge
January 2022 → A latte

Made a matcha latte using this recipe: https://www.instagram.com/p/BbPf5RUHUsz/. Of course, there are so many other ingredients in this that I’m hesitant to even call it a matcha latte. It’s certainly green in color and flavor though. It’s also a little bitter, but I’m guessing that’s the ashwagandha and not the matcha. I used homemade coconut butter and I don’t think I blended it as well as I should have because I keep getting flecks of coconut in my mouth. It’s not bad or anything, just not texturally pleasing. I’m halfway in and I’m thinking I should have cut the recipe in half for this one because 16 ounces carries a whole lot of caffeine. I’m a bit sensitive. Overall, the flavor’s not bad and I can definitely taste the matcha. Probably not something I’d drink often, but it’s a nice change on occasion.

Aside from spilling over a quarter of my container of this very expensive matcha and making a huge mess, thereby turning my desk a faint shade of green, this cup is a great success. I mixed 1/2 a cup of water, 1/2 a cup of full-fat coconut milk, and a tablespoon of maple syrup in a mason jar and heated in the microwave until boiling. I then used a couple of teaspoons to make a paste with 1 teaspoon of matcha powder. After mixing, I added the remaining liquid which frothed up beautifully. This was perfectly sweet and the flavor is wonderful – spot-on toasted marshmallow in both the taste and smell. My only complaint would be that even after making a paste with the matcha, it didn’t blend well with the liquid and I still have chunks of it settled in the bottom of my mug.

Using this recipe today: http://nutritionstripped.com/matcha-tea-latte/

I was so excited to open my Amoda box this month to see matcha! I’ve been wanting to try it for a while so it’s the first one I tore into. I have to say, it smells much more savory than I expected. It’s almost like seaweed or something you might find on a sushi platter. I pushed ahead though and made the matcha latte posted on Amoda’s website: milk, ice, vanilla, sifted matcha powder, and sugar syrup to sweeten. I accidentally put too much ice in my mason jar so when I shook to mix everything together the matcha mostly just stayed on top or floated around in small clumps. I ended up putting it in the fridge for a couple of hours to let the ice melt just a bit then I shook it again, strained out the ice, and stuck it back in the fridge for breakfast the next morning.

And here we are. I did have a couple of sips yesterday and it was very creamy but still quite savory so I’m not sure yet what I think. With the vanilla, it almost reminds me of the smell of tapioca pudding. It’s pretty close actually. The ice watered it down some before I strained which I think I appreciate. It still tastes a little powdery even after shaking, but the website did say that it would only suspend itself in the liquid so I’m guessing it never fully dissolves. I think this is something I could learn to enjoy but I’m not quite there yet.

1 tbsp

Slight dull bitter note. Bouquet of flowers floral note- very full. Bright sweetness near middle-end of the sip. Apricot-like note.

I have to warn everyone in advance that this review is a little biased—I can’t help but compare this to GM’s Coconut Pouchong. It feels like that natural coconut flavor is what the tea is trying for, but it doesn’t quite make it there.

It’s a nice mellow green with some fresh coconut flavor up front, but the aftertaste falls flat for me; it’s like sugared, dry coconut you’d find on a cake or pie instead of the fresh stuff. The taste comes close to GM’s version, but in the end it’s no contest for me. I guess that’s a misleading statement because there’s nothing offensive about this at all and I’ll have no problem getting through it, but it’s definitely not a restock when it’s gone.

Boredom is setting in now and I just don’t know what to do with myself. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_RZAGnFcI4
Had to listen to that after I typed that first sentence. :)

I’m not up for anything thick or rich at the moment and thought a herbal tea blend would be great. So through my drawer I route and pull this one out. Not usually a fan of chamomile but love lemongrass and mint and orange so it could go either way. Still I have to try this at some point.

The raw blend consists of large ingredients for the most part with some finely chopped/dust looking herbal pieces too at the bottom.

It smells like sweet orange with a hint of mint. Very citrusy, waxy, sweet and delicious. Totally not what I was expecting but delighted by it.

Once steeped this tea is yellow in colour with fresh and very minty with a hint of lemongrass citrus.

Flavour is strong but smooth and the first flavours I can taste are mint and lemongrass. It has a little sweetness and floralness to it in the after taste. Not as much orange as I was hoping for, like the raw blends smell promised, but non the less it’s a pleasant drink. Very relaxing and calming.

I have another pots worth of this blend that I will save as my bedtime tea. I could do with the help sleeping this week.

I really like this tea. The scent of lychee fruit when you open the package and smell the dry leaves is strong and heavenly – just fabulous, and just like lychee fruit.

The Chinese black tea base has a nice mild smokiness. For someone like me, who is still looking for a ‘way in’ to appreciating black teas, this one was nicely smooth and gentle. But what makes it for me is definitely the lychee. Oh, man, the lychee!

I really like that the tea is NOT dicked around with, by the inclusion of other fruit flavours that could/may detract from the lychee. (Can you tell I like lychee?)

Maybe even this tea is a tiny bit bitter for someone like me, who isn’t (yet) a black-tea lover – but next time I will try steeping for 3 or 3.5 minutes, instead of 4.

I had it with a little sugar (less than 1/2 tsp) and a little milk.

I am finding that I like honeybush far more than rooibos. This is a really nice tea with excellent apple crumb cake like flavor. Not so sure about the apricot but that is okay this is a nice yummy cup. I would order this to have around for those late night tea cravings when I really should not have more tea.

Another sample from Sil, thanks!

This definitely didn’t smell like any honeybush blend I’d had before, so naturally I nabbed a sample to try, and I’m glad I did! This is quite interesting: nutty and fruity, kind of like… an apple muesli? Or… nutty apple oatmeal? I’m getting a bit of spice alongside the flavour as well, which is quite nice, and as I can’t say that I’ve tried green honeybush or green rooibos straight, I can’t define exactly what they are contributing. But certainly nothing negative.

This is a pretty good, tasty caffeine-free blend! Due to the apple crumble/pie/oatmeal flavouring it makes me think it’s a great blend for autumn evenings. A tea I’d happily drink again (although, I cleverly also only picked up a cup’s worth of this one so it’s a SIPDOWN!!!!!)

ETA: Second infusion is much like the first, and in half the water I can’t really say that it has even lost much flavour! What’s driving me bonkers though is that there’s something about it that tastes ridiculously familiar, and I can’t place it. Like, the skin of a baked apple with brown sugar/margarine in the core. But, I swear said thing I’m imagining also has nuts in it (which I find confusing as I don’t often eat food with nuts in it, not for any reason except that other people are often not fond of such things). Ok, I’m rambling, perhaps someday I’ll figure this mystery out…

Been meaning to add a tasting note on this for awhile. It’s magnificent, especially for a caffeine-free offering, which I don’t do often. Very similar to a rooibos in flavor, but sweeter. Honeybush is really an area of tea I need to explore more, especially after liking this one so much, and I’m sad there’s not much left in the packet.

This is one of my first “true” (unflavored) sencha tastings, and it’s quite interesting. Very grassy/vegetal, but has a sweet almost creamy after taste. I can see it growing on me, as it’s so fresh and clean tasting. Feels healthy!

Sip down! Put your mind to something and you can do it! Managed to get myself to under 160 this weekend so now I just have to aim for 9 more before Saturday :) I think I can I think I can! Hahaha even if I don’t manage I’m still pretty proud of myself for getting it this low after how high it was when I got back from china. And! For the most part I haven’t made too many orders in march, which was also a mini goal of mine.

Anyway this was a really interesting blend to have and it was nice to try out the Amoda tea box. I may just need to pick it up again now that my cupboard is a little more manageable.

I am a fan of this honeybush! Having a cup of this tonight in an effort to drink up some of my close to being finished teas! 166 teas left to go! I’m stupidly aiming for getting down to 150 by next weekend before the girls and the tea shows up, but i’m betting that won’t happen. At least I know my cupboard is getting to a more manageable point :)

This tea is pretty nice as far as non black teas are concerned. I wouldn’t drink it every day but the flavours that are blending together here create a nice sweet, creamy tea that would be fantastic throughout the fall.

Bumped the rating on this one a bit. Steeped this for about 6 mins. While the tea now leaves my mouth a little dry, there’s much more interesting flavour things happening. There’s a sweetness to this, and almost an appley taste….and almost a caramel taste. Really interesting to say the least. This might be good with a bit of milk later.

(backlog)
Finally got a chance to crack open another of my teas from the Amoda box! This is a really interesting tea. I’ve never had green rooibos before so I wasn’t quite sure what to expect.

What i got was a unique blend of sweet. I don’t know that I’d agree with the apricot flavour but then I did drink this last night and forget to log it. I’m glad I’ll be able to have another go at this because I’d like to be able to get a better sense of what exactly i was tasting :)

Just got this amazing tea in the mail today. Let’s start this off by saying that it smells like a dream come true. It smells the way that you feel when you hold armfuls upon armfuls of fluffy kittens. I passed this beauty to everyone on my dorm’s floor to sniff.
Now for drinking, it’s so good. It’s sweet at first, followed by a gorgeous nutty after taste and a happy feeling in one’s throat.
Really dig this tea.
Like, a lot.

The November Amoda box came today! (Well, technically … yesterday, since it’s now after midnight) I was so excited to see that all three teas were from companies I hadn’t tried teas from previously … including this one which was blended by the people at Amoda!

This smells amazing. It really smells like warm apple crumble! And it tastes like it too. Sweet, apple-y, and nutty. I love that they used green honeybush and rooibos in this blend – it gives a slight nutty flavor but more of a fruity tone – although the oxidized leaves might have created an interesting flavor too. Overall, it tastes sweet, light and yummy! Very dessert-y.

Edited to add: Correction … this tea wasn’t blended by Amoda, but, chosen by a Tea Sommelier based upon the company’s personality. It’s still an amazing tea!