Naked Teas Galore

Wow! This is pretty tasty! Absolutely surprising because I dug this out of a long neglected Project Sipdown basket. I saw coconut—uh oh. But wow.

Butter coconut first, a blast of tart berry, and then more coconut carried on a reasonable black base. The combination is a bit pastry-like: a raspberry black currant danish sprinkled with fat lashings of toasted coconut.

I had a date with a longtime friend for an extended nature walk, a good visit, maybe some wandering through shops and a snack, and I cancelled. Feeling under the weather, well under the weather. A good day to stay in bed with tea and a book.

And it’s a sipdown!

(I wish I were still properly keeping up with my numbers. It would good to know where I am.)

#tiffanys2021sipdown Tea #188 overall / Tea #12 for May
Fri 5/7 188/12 naked teas galore lemon meringue tulsi. I have a lot of this tea from Amoda, was in a sub box and then ended up buying a bunch. It’s definitely unique (maybe from tulsi?). first day at my new job and I sipped this hot and plain (silver metal basket in my trusty 20 DT dark blue tumbler steeped boiling water for at least an hour). It was a nice soothing cuppa for the afternoon.
#tiffanydrinkstea #tiffanys2021 #tiffanysfaves #tiffanyinthe614 #tiffanysteasipdown

Welp, lost my tasting note. Classic mistake. Let’s see if I can’t retype this from memory.

I don’t see mint black teas very often, so I snapped this sample up when I saw it at the till. Smell-wise, it’s peppermint heavy, no tea aroma, and you have to squint for the chocolate. Maybe a faint creamyness. That carries into the taste. The peppermint is dominant, but not overbearing. Chocolate comes through if you squint for in, mostly on the breath out after each sip.

This would have benefited maybe from a bit of vanilla to add a creamy note… I wonder also if chocolate mint would have worked.

What’s this? Two days in a row? Don’t expect a sudden Commitment. I still have a blog post to write. When I checked out they had some even tinier sample pouches (2g) for free at the till, so I grabbed this and Chocolate Mint Black.

Smell is that same ovaltine chocolate, with a faint overtone of cherry and rose. Taste is definitely more rose. It’s pretty mild, but it was also a little sample pouch and sometimes those end up being a bit more stale.

Very mild, floral rose with a smooth milk chocolate taste. As I sip it I basically lose any semblance of cherry I thought I’d tasted before.

I had to head down this way to run some errands for work (unfortunately a COVID19 complication means I’ll have to run down there AGAIN tomorrow). Thought I’d hit this place up again. I wasn’t in love the first time, but they offer everything in sample sizes as well and I DO like samples. Unfortunately! Their sample board was straight up bare today. Still, grabbed what interested me and picked up a 25g of this one.

Dry: The smell is definitely ovaltine-malt-chocolate and that kind of caramel/syrup I associate with fancy alcoholic chocolates, specifically.

Taste wise, I get more chocolate and a sort of ‘salted’ note that makes me think of salted caramels. The cocoa nibs definitely add a taste, more than the flavouring I think. The cinnamon doesn’t come through at all in the flavour, which is what I was hoping for. Never was a fan of abundant cinnamon in teas.

Been sipping this with pistachio cookies on the side. As it cools, there’s an astringent malt kind of note. Maybe from the tea (I did oversteep it a bit), maybe from the cocoa nibs.

It’s nice enough. I’ve got an ounce to play with too. Surprisingly pleasant cold, though I don’t think I’ll try an iced tea out of it.

The leaves I noticed are also a whole OP rather than a BOP, not something I see often in flavoured teas. I can’t remember if that was the case for the original batch of samples I bought from them. Huh.

Picked this up from Amoda recently, because I had to pick up a bigger bag of that chocolate orange cannoli tea from 52teas, and also nabbed 50g of another one of the teas (I didn’t think about the caffeine-free box also being curated by Anne!)

[Note: I just remembered that the 12 teas of Christmas should be going up soon, and lo and behold, they were posted 45 minutes ago, and now I can rest easy as I have purchased 2x earl grey cupcake, which I have been longing for every since I heard the name.]

Anyways, I picked this up on a whim, really, and actually am very pleased with it. It truly tastes like lovely maple walnut fudge, and the bonus is that the base is not finicky and astringent, so you can actually taste the delicious flavouring, unlike the majority of mapley blacks I’ve tried.

Iced Tea Sipdown (550)!

This one smelled super good – like those syrupy, sweet candied cocktail pineapples. Not the sort of thing that you’d want to eat/drink a lot of, but good in a small quantity. I’m counting on the tea to actually taste sweet and pineapple heavy like it smells because I really don’t want to taste the green tea base…

No such luck, though.

Not only is this extremely grassy tasting but it’s also INCREDIBLY bitter/harsh. I can tell that there’s still a fair amount of pineapple taste to the tea, but it’s buried under such a cluster fuck of gross that I’m just not going to put myself through. No amount of sweetener could save this tea; so understandably I tossed it out…

Huge disappointment.

Sipdown (605)!

Finished this one off yesterday at work; it was a nice enough final mug of it as well. Not terribly strong orange notes, but defined – and a smooth, mild roast coming through. Maybe even a bit buttery? It felt toasty and comforting, and for once I didn’t find there to be a weird juxtaposition of flavours.

I’m still not sure I get why this one is “Blood Orange” – but I will say that I do really enjoy it. The orange note is very sweet, bright, and juicy and overall just quite authentic and well defined. I’ve been eating a lot of Valencia Oranges lately – and this tasted eerily similar. Also a roasted oolong, mineral-y undertone from the tea base. The two don’t connect together perfectly but they definitely still work together.

My morning cuppa.

I don’t know what makes this ‘blood orange’ over regular orange. It’s delightfully smooth and flavourful with a brilliant degree of roastiness from the oolong base and a juicy, sweet orange note that radiates from the top of the sip into the body and then lingering into the aftertaste long after swallowing. I’m really enjoying the flavour and how there’s a simplicity to it while still having this nice contrast between the fruit and the charred, nutty oolong. Thing is, it just tastes like regular orange – not ‘blood orange’.

Sipdown (557)!

This one is actually a lot better as an iced tea; the tartness of the cranberry feels like it’s a little bit more in check and I like the sweetness/juice like vibe it gives off. It’s definitely not all juice though; the cinnamon still adds a nice layer of flavour to break up that otherwise monotone fruity element. Not sad about this sipdown though because it’s still so similar to Cranberry Purifier and I still find that tea better overall.

Drinking a cup of this one right now before bed.

It’s nice, but it’s not a sort of ‘wow’ flavour. I definitely get cranberry, and tart apple, orange, and hibiscus. I know there’s also cinnamon in the blend but I don’t think there’s a lot because it’s hard to detect without concentrating on those notes. It reminds me, in a lot of ways, of Cranberry Purifier from Tea Squared but I think it’s less sweet overall and has more of a generic tartness to it rather than a more distinctly cranberry flavoured tartness. I like Cranberry Purifier better.

But really solid cup otherwise; and nice to have before bed.

This is so spicy! Lots of maple syrup and honey notes from the rooibos, some woody and rooibosy notes too. Lots of potent spices that remind me a lot of gingerbread loaf or eggnog flavoured cookies. Cinnamon, spicy ginger, pumpkin flavour (delicious!!), clove, orange zest. Really tasty as a hot tea, but I might try it as a coldbrew latte on a hot day.

Coincidentally, I’ve been sipping on this while watching Jimmy Fallon x Good Mythical Morning’s “Will it S’more?” sketch. Totally not planned, I swear. By the way, I definitely recommend Good Mythical Morning to anyone and everyone. They’re hilarious and even after two years of watching them, I haven’t gotten tired of them.

This tea hit the wrong nerve for me. It does taste sort of like what I’d imagine s’mores to taste like (still haven’t tried one), as it has a honey- and grainy-like graham nuance to it, but the chocolate and marshmallow are muddled and turn into a vaguely cloying mess on the palate. Maybe a touch artificial? Glad I only got a 10g sample because I wasn’t entirely thrilled drinking both mugs I’ve made over the past couple days. The base was rather dull, too. I was hoping for something a little more robust. I forgot that I was drinking tea.

Bingo, not quite what I was expecting (oh boy, silly Matrix reference). The upside is the cherry here isn’t medicinal. It’s extremely similar to the maraschino note found in DF’s Easter blend. Sweet and syrupy, melting into the base. The coconut, on the other hand, is mellow, nutty, and buttery. No soap, but not like fresh or (unsweetened or sweetened) shredded coconut. All the rose haters ought to calm down because I didn’t get any rose in here whatsoever. I’m surprised it’s even supposed to be in here.

Come to think of it, these Naked teas tend to remind me of DF blends, but with weaker flavouring. I feel bad saying it, but it only makes me want to place a DF order rather than reorder any Naked teas.

And on that note, I randomly placed a 52teas order! I probably haven’t in in four years at least? Time sure flies. Seems like I missed out on quite a few good ones, but I figured I might as well treat myself and try out a bunch of them.

I really ought to write about teas when I drink them rather than go by memory, but it’s been an odd last month. That promotion even my manager thought I’d get? It went to someone else who has been with the company longer, which is understandable. I think they did me a favour anyway because I found out afterwards that it would have only been a 40 cent raise, plus I still wouldn’t have gotten FT hours or health benefits after three months. Why did they do me a favour? Because it prompted me to look elsewhere and within not even two weeks, I scored a FT management position, which pays quite a bit more and will give me health benefits too. I start in about a week!

So I drank both cups of this earlier in the week. The first time I had it, I was a little distracted going online apartment hunting. As a side note, my mom finally sold the house in the middle of nowhere, where all of my stuff from the West Coast has been since moving back, and the owners take possession at the end of April, meaning I now have/get to look for my own place, finally! The new job could not have come at a better time. With that said, I’ve been neglecting this whole tea thing.

In any case, cup #1 slightly grabbed my attention because it vaguely reminded me of something I had before but couldn’t put my finger on it. There’s coconut in here, so surely it must remind me of a coconut tea I’ve had in the past? Yet it doesn’t taste like coconut. Hmm.

The next day, I had the final cup. Paying more attention to each sip, this conjured up memories of DF. Which DF tea could this possibly be because none of the ones I’ve had contained coconut? Another sip, ok, I’m detecting a hint of orange in this, and maybe some chocolate. Huh, chocolate orange? Not quite. Then bingo! I taste… almond. Chocolate almond with a hint of orange. Velours Nacré! Unnecessarily long story short, this is so that. Maybe not as nutty but the coconut is definitely leaning more on actual almond-like nuts than coconut. Go figure. I went into this tea not expecting much, quite frankly, because I recall trying a couple of their teas at the Victoria Tea Festival years ago and not being impressed with anything. This is pretty darn good, however. I may consider scoring more if it’s still around next time I place an Amoda order.

Here’s Hoping TTB.

This is a wierd one. The loose tea smells very pleasantly nutty, but it tastes oddly sour, and the nutty flavor isn’t all that strong. I don’t like it nearly as much as I first hoped I would

Has a light, creamy, vanilla taste. Can tell it’s a green tea, but it’s very mild flavor.

The leaf is really pretty with what appear to be rose petals and floral dry bits.

A bit of a citrus scent to the brew, but a sort of generic mixed sweet spice flavour. The woody rooibos tails behind despite me having steeped it with cooled water.

I’ll drink what I have, but I don’t need to seek out more. More doesn’t appear to be available anyway on the site. I tried to find the tea information to enter in Steepster, but it is all gone without a trace.

This is probably the most disappointing thing in my cupboard. I’m not huge on rooibos, but I wanted to find a good decaf drink, and I love red velvet cake, so I thought this would be great.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t taste like red velvet cake at all. I steeped this according to the instructions on the package (and even overleafed a bit) but it still doesn’t taste like much of anything. I’m kind of irritated that I can’t even use it in baking because the flavour is so minimal that I might as well be using plain water anyway.

Edit: I tried again with 2tbsp/1 cup for 10 minutes and it mostly just tastes like plain rooibos and irritatingly tart hibiscus.

Backlog:

This is the first tea that I tried from Amoda Tea’s “holiday tasting set”. And it’s not at all what I would have expected from a tea called “Candy Cane”! Not at all! And I mean that in a very good way!

This is not your average candy cane tea. It’s minty (like a candy cane) but that’s where the comparisons end. The mint is balanced out with notes raspberry, hints of cinnamon, and notes of jasmine and rose. I know … not your average candy cane! This is more like a candy cane you might find in a gourmet, artistic candy shop.

The mint isn’t overpowering (the way it often is in a candy cane blend), and the cinnamon contrasts with the minty flavor just enough to keep it from tasting mouthwashy. The floral notes are subtle but keep things interesting. The green tea base is soft and fresh, and there is a hint of nutty flavor from the rooibos.

Here’s my full-length review of this tea – it’s really quite an interesting tea! http://sororiteasisters.com/2015/01/04/candy-cane-tea-from-naked-teas/