This is my 5th and final review in a series of six Skin Smart Beauty Tea Samples
Experience buying from Tea Forté: Good. Website is very colorful and easy to navigate. Sent free samples after responding to an invitation on Steepster. Package came in reasonable amount of time. Other than sending my address, no e-mail or phone contact.
Age of leaf: Unknown. Steeped within weeks of receiving.
Packaging: Colorful: each tea came attached to a colorful paper backing labeled as a "Skin Smart” sampler. Each tea bag comes in standard tea bag packaging, with a picture of the flavors that the tea replicates prominently displayed on it. The tea bags themselves look like standard paper teabags with a small Tea Forté label and string attached to the bag by a staple.
Dry leaf in the bag: coconut, tropical, fun!
Brewing guidelines: in a ceramic cup with a touch of Stevia.
……………1st (and only): 170, 4’
Aroma: not anything strong or discernable.
Color of liquor: light honey color.
Flavor: It was hard to nail down the flavors, but I definitely tasted coconut in there. I have had a lychee scented/flavored tea once (and I have eaten the canned version of this fruit), and I think I tasted the lychee in it.
Value: I am grateful for the free sample (thank you Cindy at Tea Forté!), but their price on their website is more than I would be willing to pay if I purchased it.
Overall: This one was probably the most interesting flavor of the series. I am not certain that it had the best flavor, though. I liked the tropical flavor to it, and I liked that it was different than anything I have tasted before. On thing both my wife and I noticed (I also noticed this about the Honey Yuzu): it has a strange aftertaste, which felt like a dry sensation in my mouth, almost like a very gentle pull inward; it wasn’t strong, or unpleasant, it was simply unexpected; I don’t know if it’s due to it being a white tea, and so needing a little cooler temperature, or less steeping time, or what. Still, I did enjoy this tea.
A final note on the teabags in this series: to get the proper flavor they probably need to be steeped only once for at least 4 minutes (with the possible exception of the Lychee coconut, which may need shorter time).