Snarky Tea

I’ve had this one close to two years ago at a local cafe for a short time, and was surprised it was a coconut pineapple rooibos blend that works. Actually, it works really, really well. I decided to get this one for myself online in combo with Fierce B**ch, the latter being a gift for a beloved no-nonsense co-worker.

Roswell already nailed it, but like she writes, the smell of flavoring is a little bit off putting. Then drinking it, it’s extremely naturalistic and naturally sweet. It leans more into the pineapple than the coconut, but it’s still there and personally satisfying. I’m just happy that it’s a successful green rooibos blend that can replace the Republic of Teas coconut plaintain blend I used to love. Rooibos can make teas too woody, so I’m happy that was not the case here. The honeybush may have had something to do with that with the flavouring. I might rate it more in the 90s if it weren’t for price, but it hits most of my check marks for what makes a good pineapple coconut blend.

In the meantime, I’m gonna back log the other Snarky Teas I’ve had.

Sipdown! (64 | 268)

Another single swap teabag! The name makes me chuckle every time.

This sounds good to me in concept – a raspberry and orange green tea. But I’m not enjoying the flavoring, it’s very chalky and candylike, almost like a raspberry Tums or something. I only get a hint of orange, but it seems pleasant enough. The green tea is very mild and I also kept the steep short to minimize any bitterness, so possibly understeeped.

But mostly it’s berry chalk to me. >.<

This one was interesting. The turmeric really calmed the cinnamon and ginger taste. The yerba mate was a good base and I couldn’t really taste the matcha.

Had this a few days ago and it was better than I’d remembered it being. Smooth and just a bit creamy with a very aromatic, fresh rose flavour. Not complex or anything, but just a solid rose black tea that fit my mood pretty well!

Sipdown (718)!

For a tea that’s supposed to be a rose flavoured black tea I found that this tasted an awfully lot like bergamot. I mean, rose too – but more of a bergamot than anything else. I was really disappointed because I love rose teas, and especially with black tea as the base but this was so incredibly different than what I’d expected. It also had a metallic kind of finish to it that was very weird.

Whatever was happening here was just not what I would have expected given the branding. I mean, there’s roses EVERYWHERE on all of the packaging – so that should be the main flavour, surely. I guess if I’m evaluating as an Earl Grey with rose then it’s pretty nice – good body, solid aromatics. That’s just simply not what I wanted. I also don’t know definitively that this does have bergamot in it – but if it doesn’t then the quality of the rose flavouring must just be really low…

Boo.

Sipdown (720)!

Finished off with honey because it complimented quite well. However, ultimately this is just a lemon and ginger green tea. Is it a bad one? No. However, there wasn’t anything very memorable or distinct about it and similarly to Snarky Tea’s Namaste Motherf**ker blend I thought the quality of the green tea itself was pretty choppy/low quality grass clipping tasting. I’d drink this again – but it’s not worthy of seeking out.

I forgot how busy this blend is when I pulled it out of my stash to bring to work on Monday morning, and then I opened up the bag and it was not the simple blend of black tea and cinnamon I was remembering. It was still good though with a cinnamon-forward flavour, but also notes of peppery ginger and earthy yerba mate and a really slick, coating and sweet finish of licorice root. Just different from what I’d been craving but close enough to the same wheelhouse.

First tea of 2023.

Again, no particular intention for why this specific tea as my first of the year. Though, if I was going to read into subconscious symbolism I feel like there’s a ton of it just ripe for the picking. Solid tea though. Full bodied and brisk with clear cinnamon notes and a hint of a earthy grassiness from the yerba mate that makes this feel a step apart from your typical cinnamon black tea blend. The licorice root adds a soft sweetness, though I did find it built up over the coarse of the mug to a place I wasn’t totally sure I loved. Didn’t hate it either, though!

(Short tasting notes today because I have a killer migraine.)

Apparently I’ve had this one before and, based on my rating, liked it a lot. I don’t remember that though. This cup was nice and I enjoyed how it was cinnamon forward but not too much of that red hot type of cinnamon. The licorice root was a lot though and by the end of the mug I found it way past my personal limit. Too cloying.

Sipdown (721)!

Finishing this tea off right now while I catch up on some TV shows from the week. Of the different teas carried by Snarky Tea, I think this is actually the most interesting conceptually. It’s got a couple interesting ingredients in it, like the Gotu Kola, and having part of the mix of base teas be Yerba Mate seems very smart to me. I like the idea of an “early morning kick in the ass” kind of Chai a lot.

Taste wise, it’s basically just a standard type of chai profile – ginger, cardamom, clove are prominent spices and I get cinnamon warmth as well. There’s even almost a citrus type note, which I suppose is likely the cardamom!? It’s smooth and warming, and has a pleasant but mild sweetness. Nothing here is exceptionally unique or out of the ordinary which is fine considering how well balanced the profile is.

Good execution – and I’m enjoying this cup a lot!

Cold Brew!

I used to think that this was coconut and guava flavoured, but as I was drinking this cold brew I was less sure of that. It’s still very unmistakably coconut flavoured and that very fresh, true coconut note is really enjoyable chilled. However, the fruity note that accompanies it was reading less tropically to me this time around and was a little more like a general red fruit taste. Regardless, still quite pleasant!

Snarky is a company I would love to order from more because they put out a lot of interesting sounding seasonal blends – however their Canadian shipping is brutal. Gotta hate international shipping craziness.

Cold Brew!

Sipping on this one now and it’s enjoyable, but my mind is boggling trying to nail down what the tropical flavour in the blend is aside from coconut. It does taste a bit like pineapple, but feels like there’s more on top of that. I would know a straight pina colada flavour if I was sipping one – there’s “extra” here. I want to say guava but hard to say for sure. Regardless, I like the combo of creamy coconut and refreshing and not acidic tropicals.

Iced Tea Sipdown (719)!

Had this one iced on like Thursday? Which was this MASSIVE storm/rainfall in the city where it rained for like nine straight hours – I don’t own an umbrella so between walking to the metro and then walking from the metro to the office I arrive just drenched! I normally wouldn’t mind being caught out in the rain – I fucking love the rain. That’s a huge part of why I don’t own an umbrella – but I’m not used to being able to change into fresh clothing after spending my glorious moments in the middle of a storm, spinning around in the rain like a lunatic…

So the work day kind of sucked, until I dried out anyway.

So why did I choose to make an iced tea then? And of such a tropical flavour? Because I though I’d initially grabbed a different Snarky Tea sample flavour from my stash in the morning to try out, but since I only took like two samples to work that day I just rolled with it anyway despite it feeling like a weird pick for the day. I mean, it feels like a weird flavor to fit the name of the tea regardless, right? Pineapple/Coconut for something that comes off as a sort of “Hey, don’t stress out!” type of blend/usage!? That’s weird. Until you read the copy writing anyway – which is more ‘Rest, relax w/ a cocktain on the beach!" kind of vibes. It’s still a stretch, but less of one… I guess…

The dry aroma smells very good – really sweet/juicy pineapple and hints of coconut. It’s like an overripe pineapple kind of pineapple smell. The coconut smells like it might be a bit of that lotiony coconut, but not so strongly to think it couldn’t be fine when steeped. And it is fine – brewed up I don’t find this lotion-y tasting at all and that’s a huge relief. In fact, it’s pretty great! It’s not overly sweet, which is good, more just the natural sweetness of the coconut in combination with that really fresh pineapple taste, which I’m sure is actually coming from flavouring and not the pineapple itself. It’s bright though, and very lively like the tangy/fresh taste you would get from just slightly overripe pineapple. With the coconut it’s incredible pina colada like in terms of taste – but doesn’t have the more dense creaminess I would typically associate with something pina colada flavoured.

Overall, this is a winner in my books!

Sipdown (719)!

Sadly the most interesting this about this particular blend is it’s highly memorable name. As far as the tea goes, it’s a mix of lemongrass/lavender/chamomile and while that pairing doesn’t taste bad generally speaking – I don’t love it in particular because I hate chamomile, but that’s a personal thing, it’s very played out and this blend does nothing to differentiate itself from the probably half a dozen (if not more) tisanes I’ve had with the exact same ingredient list. It’s boring/bland.

Sipdown (721)!

Picked up this sampler from Snarky Tea because I had a coupon code for a free one – just had to pay shipping. It seemed like a good excuse to quickly sample some new teas from a new company, and I’m admittedly a sucker for this company’s branding/marketing! The concepts of the teas themselves don’t seem wildly unique, so I’m hoping the execution of the flavours is – but we’ll see!

This one is a raspberry/orange green tea – right now my golden standard for that flavour combination is the Raspberry Mimosa from Camellia Sinensis, so that was what I was mentally comparing this blend to. I was really surprised with how much I enjoyed this tea – the intensity and juiciness of the flavours was so much richer than I’d have expected from the dry leaf aroma. I think the green tea itself is lower quality than what CS is using since this was more noticeably astringent and had hints of that “lawn clipping green tea” quality, but the raspberry flavour is sweet, juicy and divine! The little burst of citrus is nice too, and really compliments everything else happening with this one.

Would I buy this? No – I have easier/cheaper access to CS’s Raspberry Mimosa blend which is very similar. However, I liked this a lot and would very happily drink it again.