Naked Teas Galore

This smells horrible. Something bitter and tart and… yuck. Steeped I got little smell out of it, and drinking it is okay. Just okay. Almond, yes. That’s about it. I needed to sweeten this to drink it, and it’s better now. More almond cookie kinda sorta, and I’m okay with that. Won’t re-order.

The dry leaves of this smell really lovely- I could instantly detect the notes of peppermint, rooibos, and rose. As stated before, I’m not the biggest drinker of rooibos tea, but I will always try something once.

Steeped, the taste remains very similar to the dry nose scent. The peppermint was much milder than I had expected, so I kind of feel like the title of this tea is misleading. I definitely did not feel like I was drinking a candy cane. Nevertheless, I was impressed with how well the rooibos and peppermint and floral notes blended together. Overall, I wouldn’t buy this for myself personally, but it is a nice tea. Just not a personal “must have.” Thanks to MissB for sending a sample my way.

I’m hesitant to try this tea, only because I’ve had little luck with anything so far from Naked Teas Galore. Yet in my super-obsession, I’ve decided making room is more important – and thus when this fell down, it was my choice for the evening. Oh yeah, and a green/rooibos blend, which should be interesting for sleep this evening.

In the bag this did smell like a creamy candy cane, with a hint of floral notes. Steeped, it tastes mildly minty for the first cup or so. Slowly it evolved into something a bit creamier and decadent, but it really wasn’t great until I added some Truvia. Then, it really did become a minty, creamy candy cane, and likely better if I was willing to add some cream/milk/soy to it.

Steeping parameters were interesting: 3-4 min on the bag (2-3 min on their website) and 176F (my kettle went to 175F), and 1 tsp/6oz, so I overleafed slightly at 1.5 tsp per 8 oz.

I doubt I’ll restock this, however I’m sure I’ll manage to drink it down.

Thank you MissB for sharing this tea with me! I decided to try it out because I assumed it was caffeine free and thus a good tea to try at night. Although this tea is sweet and sort of cake-y, I am really not getting Red Velvet. This tea is sort of just a sweet rooibos – nothing special and kind of nondescript. It is a pleasant enough cup but once the sample is gone, I doubt I will miss it, or even really remember it all too much.

On a different, but sort of related note: Out of the three teas I tried today sent to me from MissB, I managed to somehow spill two of them on my crotch while sitting cross-legged on my bed. The first tea, Eight Candles, ended up spilling out when the cup turned sideways and I did not notice until it spread over a fair bit of my bed and got really warm on my legs. So I ended up washing all of my sheets and my mattress cover. I then put the clean sheets on my bed and sat down to enjoy some more tea and do some more readings (code for procrastinate by watching Supernatural on Netflix). When I went to pour this tea from my timolino to my mug, something weird happened, I still am not sure what, and I again got tea on my crotch and my freshly cleaned sheets :(. At least this time I was able to put a towel between the sheet and the mattress protector before it soaked through. Nonetheless, today has not been a good day for having my mug near my bed it seems.

This one is odd. I was kind of expecting something akin to Forever Nuts, and it is like it in some ways, but there is a strange taste I’m getting. I wonder if it is the chocolate. I’m actually getting almost a licorice like taste, but I’m not sure where from.

This tea is alright, but I have to say, it is not my favourite. I prefer Forever Nuts or Nut and Honeybush Crunch over this.

I do thank MissB for the chance to try this one.

thanks very much to MissB for this sample.

this blend baffles me a bit. the smell when dry is fresh blueberries, all the way. freshly picked, sitting in a bowl on my counter….

once the water is added it just becomes a tea. nothing special. except every now and then i got a whiff of fresh blueberries. the cooler it gets the more blueberry it becomes. curiouser and curiouser.

very nice as cool, just there as hot. hmmmm. no numbers, could have been operator error.

This smells exactly like an orange creamsicle out of the bag. Delicious! Steeped it smells less so, and it’s just an okay cup of tea. I mean, okay in that it’s nice and comforting and yummy. Some sweetener brings out the orange a bit more, and peps it up a bit. Will I reorder this? Likely not, only because there are so many other unusual or amazing teas that I adore or want to try. This is nice though, and I’ll have zero issue drinking it down or sharing some with friends.

I received this in a swap from MissB. Based on her tasting note I really didn’t have much hope for it, but if she was generous enough to send it to me, I’m game to try it.
I’ve drank a lot of chai recently. This isn’t my favorite, but it certainly isn’t the worst. Smooth, mildly spicy, but I’m not getting any chocolate at all. There is a strange spice in here that I can’t quite identify. Read the ingredient list and all that sounds like chai, but there is something in here that is a little strange. I’ve been drinking it for most of the evening, it’s ok, it’s fine, just not special.
Thanks MissB for the sample – I’m not getting the chemical ewww that you found offensive – I think it’s just odd, but not really offensive.

Oh my goodness. This smelled lovely, so I put some in a swap package that I’m mailing out shortly, and now feel badly that I did.

It tastes horrible. Like, bitter angry tart horrible. I erred on the side of the bag instructions (3-5 min, boiling) when I thought I should leave this at just below boiling and 3 minutes… and maybe I should have. There’s an ugly chemical-y taste coming from the caocao chunks, and that’s all I can taste.

Trying to save this cup, I added Truvia. I’ll have to wait a bit since the horrible taste is stuck in there now… however it did smooth things out considerably. Going to let this sit and see if it improves after cooling and brushing my teeth and tongue. >.<

Backlog:

I really liked this tisane … it was one of my favorite tisanes that I’ve received from my Amoda tea box. My only complaint is that more chocolate is always better, so I think that Naked Teas Galore should have added a couple of extra handfuls of the cocoa nibs to the tea as they were blending.

But then again, it was delicious as it was … nutty, sweet, delicious. I liked the way the apple and cinnamon gave it sort of a nutty, apple cider-y kind of taste.

Really tasty … needs more chocolate.

Backlog:

Not a bad version of Earl Grey. I liked this quite a bit. I like how this tea really focuses on the citrus-y notes of the bergamot (yes, I am aware that it is a citrus fruit, but its one of the more complex citrus fruits out there, wouldn’t you agree?) The combination of bergamot, lemongrass, and orange peel give this a sort of “citrus punch” kind of taste … so it softens the bergamot somewhat … it doesn’t have that same punch from the bergamot that I often want from an Earl Grey. But I did like this approach … it’s a tasty blend.

It’s a delicious, mellow, fruity, bergamot-y tea. Nice.

Backlog:

I was happily surprised to find Matcha in the April Amoda box (yeah, I know I’m behind on my tea logs!) I wish that this Matcha was a little less sweet. It wasn’t too much, but, I prefer to decide if I want to sweeten a tea and not have that decision made for me. You know?

The flavor reminds me of peach jolly ranchers. Sweet, peachy, but almost an artificial peachy taste. Not my favorite flavored Matcha, but still a good one, and glad that Amoda put Matcha in the box!

Basically anything I chose tonight was going to be not Cantaloupe Cream enough so I chose this nutty tea that I was kinda shrug about trying. But I quite liked it. A lot better than Forever Nuts and the Della Terra Honey Nut Crunch (?)because the apple is not as pronounced and it’s not oversweet (I have a Almond Marzipan rooibos that I like because it’s nuttish, but it’s also sweet so I’m rarely in the mood for it)… I like the foggy look of it, too. And Brazil nuts! Anyway, not a tea that I need in my cupboard, but a good one to try – thanks cavocorax! Gonna try for a long resteep.

eta – resteep was GREAT until I forgot it, wandering off

This is pretty tasty matcha. I was not too happy that it was already sweetened I like being able to be in control of the amount of sweetener in my tea. Oh well this is pretty good. Very sweet but tasty. I like that the peach flavor doesn’t taste fake peachy and it is not overwhelming the matcha. Not one I would necessarily buy but definitely worth a try. :-)

I am not a huge Earl Grey person but I do find one I enjoy here and there. This is one I enjoy. I like citrus blends with earl grey. Bergamot tends to work perfectly with citrus. This is a very smooth earl grey no bitterness at all. I even got some creaminess from it without having to add milk which was a definite plus!

I really love this tea. The smell of the tea is delicious. I wanted to eat it. The steeped smell is just as good. The flavor is really mild but nutty and sweet. Which has made it perfect for an evening tea the last couple nights. I am definitely going to order a full amount from Naked Teas Galore since I really want to have this in my stash now :-)

I keep drinking this as a cold latte. I guess I’m too afraid to prepare it as hot tea?

Yes it’s a bit sweet, and a bit astringent, but it makes me want to experiment with matcha! Some day I will do a Red Leaf Tea order. (Just not today… Even with the sale on the new products…)

I decided to just go ahead and make this as a latte instead of using water because I’m so new to matchas. I took 6oz of milk, and added in the powder, stirred vigorously with a fork, and then used my latte frother thing to poof it up. The bubbles deflated fairly quickly, and some of the power clumped at the bottom so I guess I didn’t do it right. Maybe I should have used the water bottle method.

Anyway this tastes like sweet sweet matcha, and peaches and sugar. I don’t mind it though. I rarely have sweetened tea so this is a nice change, and I downed my cup before I knew it. I didn’t notice any bitterness, but maybe that’s bc the sweetener hid it all.

Would I order this? Idk. It’s about $12.80 for 127g which sounds like it’s a good deal, but I don’t know how many cups that would actually make, and if I would get sick of the cane sugar. Does anyone know?

I had a cup of this last night and I just wanted to add that this tea is not as good cold. It’s mostly nutty – goodbye apple-cinnamon notes!

This is my second tea from the Amoda tea box. I think the only thing I can really compare it to is Della Terra Tea’s Nut & Honey Crunch (which I enjoyed because it was like granola).

Anyways I think I like this more. When you smell it you get a whomp of cinnamon, but the cinnamon mingles with the apple when you actually sip it. And the nuts are strong but tasty!

This is actually making crazy. The apple-cinnamon, mixed with the almonds etc make me think of some kind of freshly baked treat but I can’t figure out what it is for the life of me. It’s warm, and sweet and very reminiscent of comfort food like “Mom’s Apple Pie”™. Or Apple Crumble.

Someone come here and bake me some treats so I can compare. FOR SCIENCE.

So, looks like I’m 2/2 so far on the box. Tomorrow I will try the Peach Matcha! (maybe steeped in milk as Kittena wasn’t impressed with it in water…)

Trying to use up some old matcha, and discovered something one should never do – mix flavoured, sweetened matcha with sweet protein powder. Holy overly sweetened-ness! I mixed a bunch of this in skim milk with some soft-serve vanilla Promasil… yikes. I still drank it, but it was too much. I think plain matcha would have been a better idea. It also doesn’t help that I am not overly fond of this particular matcha, especially because it’s sweetened.

Final April Amoda Tea Box tea. This matcha is pre-sweetened, which works for lazy me; otherwise I probably wouldn’t have tried it until another day. Laziness, etc.

Anyhow, the matcha smells somewhat peachy, but it’s not a terribly authentic flavour. I haven’t had peach-flavoured matcha from Red Leaf, although I do recall it garnering some less-than-stellar reviews due to tasting a bit chemically. This one perhaps leans a bit toward chemically/flavouring-esque smells, but isn’t too bad.

I used probably about 1.5 tsp of the powder for 8oz. of water, and just stirred it in… if there are clumps, I don’t care a great deal. Less clumpy than my lattes usually are, anyhow.

So yes. This tea is definitely sweet. My initial thought was “too sweet”, but now that I’ve had a few sips, I think the sweet is needed to mask some of the matcha bitterness. Yeah, this stuff is kind of bitter, underneath the flavouring. To be honest though, I haven’t ever had matcha in non-latte form to my knowledge, so perhaps this is just how it is supposed to be.

Anyhow, I’m not really getting peach at all here, just a sweetened cup of tea with some bitterness and “matcha flavour”, plus some sort of vague fruitiness that I can’t place. Kind of unfortunate. I think I’ll try this one as a latte sometime later; perhaps that will reduce the bitterness and astringency I’m tasting. I may also drop the water temp and see if that helps.

Oh well, interesting to try regardless!

This was TERRIBLE in a travel mug. Tasted like cleaner. I’m going to have to dump it and thoroughly scrub the mug. Massive soapy flavours. Ick.

Second tea from the April Amoda Tea Box.

Like Cavocorax, I’m not the hugest fan of earl greys. Without cream, that is :P That’s how I drank my Tetley EG with my oldest friend way back when (plus unbelievable amounts of sugar), and I loved it. Still holds a place in my heart, as do the earl grey creams that I’ve recently discovered I like, but this one? Has no cream. And a lot of lemongrass, which is hit or miss for me. So, I’m a bit apprehensive.

The aroma is reminiscent of, but not quite like earl greys that I’m used to. Definitely more citrus, particularly lemon, and less bergamot, as was mentioned in the tea description. I only gave this a ~2.5 minute infusion to make sure the base stayed drinkable without additions, which worked fairly well. The flavor is lemony with a background of bergamot and a solid but unremarkable black tea base. The lemon here is toeing the line of tasting cleaner-y, but isn’t quite there, which is good, but consequently I’m not super sure I like it. I am noticing, as Cavocorax also did, that there does seem to be a sort of creaminess at the end of the sip, but it’s not quite enough for me :P

Anyways, I think this one would be better sweetened and with milk. It’s not a bad EG at all, and for those who love EGs and lemongrass, it would probably be a big hit! I, however, would like a big dose of cream in here to bring it more into line with my preferences.

ETA: I did re-infuse this one, and it was alright. Drank it too quickly to notice a great deal about it, except that there was still flavour. I preferred the first infusion, but perhaps #2 would be just fine with additions.