Tea Forte

The rose flavor was very overpowering and extremely artificial in both taste and smell. The chocolate flavor was almost non-existent. I would definitely NOT recommend this flavor.

The Rose flavors and aroma were too overpowering for me. I let the tea steep for about five minutes as I generally enjoy a stronger cup, but perhaps it was too long as the tea ended up tasting artificial and much too strongly of roses.

I’m not really into flavored tea, but this tea was surprisingly good. Very promising, since a friend gave me a gift box of Tea Forte teas for an anniversary gift, all flavored. Hoping they’re all this good!

Happily, this is one of those teas that tastes like it’s name, and even resteeps very well, for 2 more steeps at least. Creamy and peachy, this tea is good!

Soko’s was handing out little bagged samples of this. I haven’t had much luck with Tea Forte, but it was free, so what can you say.

It SMELLS fruity and sweet/vanilla—both dry and brewed; the blend was quite colourful, with purply petals and little dried berries.

Not getting too much fruit in the taste. Mostly vanilla and rooibos, but it’s not bad. I think the problem I’ve had with past Tea Forte teas was too much flavouring going on at the same time (so the end result was almost sharp, or chemically?), but this is mellow while still tasty.

Getting a bit more fruit while it cools. Berry. Might just be from the rooibos, though. I see it has rosehip as well.

This came from the Here’s Hoping traveling teabox – Round 3 – completely forgot to log it though.

I did my own version of cold brewing with this. For pretty much all of my iced teas, I brew them regularly (per the hot instructions – including amount of “leaf” temp and so on) and then I stick them in the fridge. This allows me to use the least amount of leaf and still get some of the flavors that don’t usually make an appearance unless cold brewed. Anyway, this was yummy. It was just sweet enough on its own iced to not add sweetener, but once again, I actually like hibiscus.

Today I had a bit of a clean out of my tea cupboard since I realized that my tea obsession started in July of 2013 and I like to make sure that everything in my cupboard is a year old or less. Well, this led to me labeling all of my teas with the dates of purchase. In my less tea-educated days, I bought so much of individual teas and there are way too many of them that are still kicking around. Let’s just say I have a lot of drinking to do! And I am now on a self-imposed hiatus from teas that I’ve bought recently (like the mammoth purchase I just made from River Teas) except for samples and traveling tea boxes.

Anyway, back to Blueberry Merlot. I like this, just not quite as much as Teavana Blueberry Kona Pop.

Augh! Sneaky rooibus strikes again. There’s a mixed box of Tea Forte bags in the breakroom at work, and I thought Kiwi Lime Ginger sounded just the thing for my scratchy throat. Brewed it up, sat down and took a sniff. Nice, very fruity… not really a tea smell… hey wait, is this not a green? I brought it up here, and saw the dreaded Word. Rooibus. Grabbed the little box each bag comes in… it just says “organic herbal tea / naturally caffeine free” D’oh! dumps tea Dangit :( I don’t know why I assumed it would be a green.

Without Steepster to save me, I would have drank it and had an unpleasant surprise when the stomach cramps set in! Thanks Steepster!

Not rating it, since it might be a perfectly lovely tea – I actually like the taste of rooibus, just not its effects on my stomach!

TTBC Rd2

I wasn’t quite sure what to expect from this tea – I know I enjoy pear and ginger separately, but I’d never tried the two of them together. This unlikely pairing is unexpectedly delicious, though, and one I’ll happily drink.

The base layer of white tea doesn’t really shine through, but I’m remarkably okay with that since it acts as a perfect vehicle for the crisp pear flavour in the forefront and gentle ginger heat in the background. There’s something delightful about the way the two go together and I can’t help but keep stealing sips out of the mug between sentences.

Two thumbs up. Definitely will be having this one in the future…

Favorite hiking tea! Best blended down. A bit too overpowering straight, but wonderful if you blend down by half with a base tea like a simple breakfast tea or Assam. The spice is well balanced with the orange peel and cloves.

Here’s Hoping traveling teabox – Round 3

So, I recently discovered that I love cinnamon tea, but there was something slightly off about this one. I was getting an almost sour tangy taste around the sides of my mouth which I didn’t enjoy. Maybe that was the brief hint of orange? Regardless, there are other cinnamon teas I prefer.

From all the teas that I’ve tried from Tea Forte, all of them are very aromatic but are very dull and lackluster in taste. The tea smells absolutely divine, but the taste doesn’t compare.

TTBC R2
Okay, not much else. Fruity but no real peach or rhubarb. OK but I wouldn’t buy it. Maybe others would like it as a fruity tea but I’ve had much better.

additional notes: From TreeGal a while ago!  Thanks very much.  I must have been inspired subconsciously to drink a tea from “TreeGal” because I had a dream about a giant tree last night.  It looks like I tried this one a while ago from a teabox and thought it was only ok.  I like it much better now.  Raising the rating from a 65. Dark, deep CTC leaves.  The flavor is like raisin bread and root beer.  Sweet and spicy.  There was one tiny piece of anise that was JUST enough.  Probably steeped it much better now than I did before. 

’Here’s Hoping’ traveling teabox Round #2 // Tea #33
Wooee I have never seen tinier black tea leaves! The spices seem tiny too. One teaspoon steeped for two minutes seems really brisk, so I wouldn’t recommend longer steep times. This one could definitely be mixed with milk. I don’t usually like adding milk to my chai – the brisker the better for me. This wasn’t bad for me then, but it certainly wasn’t as delicious as the ’Kim’s homemade chai’ I tried the other day. I like the lingering flavor though.

’Here’s Hoping’ traveling teabox Round #2 // Tea #31
Super super sweet cinnamon here. I think I’ve had this blend before. It was called Marketspice or something. It also reminds me of Harney’s Hot Cinnamon Sunset but that stuff is supreme. This one seems like the flavor is a little off and the cinnamon is a little too sweet. Definitely doesn’t seem like orange to me, but the ‘sweet’ in the name certainly fits! Nice to try it though!

Tea #10 from Traveling Tea Box C Round 2
One of the two white teas that I picked to try (the other is Cotton Candy and I may pass on that one in the end) mainly because I’m, well, I don’t exactly dislike white teas. I’ve just never found them to be strong enough flavor wise. They’re too delicate for my heavy handed palate apparently. Lol.
This tea had a mostly ginger scent in the bag with a light pear-ness.
Steeped I get more pear than ginger from the scent. It’s pretty balanced between the two with the taste. Pear in the forefront with a pleasant poke from the ginger. Though honestly the one reason I can tell this is a white tea is just from a lack of any sort of characteristic of another type, I can’t really tell any sort of particular nuance from the white tea specifically.
It’s not bad unsweetened, but sweetening it doesn’t really do too much to it. Lol. I’d bet this would be pretty good as iced tea, though I don’t really have any intention of buying myself some to put that to the test. Lol!

I had a Single Steep pouch of this. I think there was about 1 tsp of tea in it.

The dry leaf smells nice, primarily of clove with a cardamom undertone. The leaf is extremely fine. The brew is an opaque orange-brown. The taste is blegh. Bitter? This is definitely not a chai that can be drunk without some version of milk & sweetener.

I was able to improve it substantially with almond milk and honey. The optimal ratio seems to be 2 parts almond milk to 1 part chai. I also added about a tablespoon of honey. It’s still not great, but it’s decent now. Heavy on the clove. Some ginger comes through, along with a hint of something minty – maybe that’s the star anise?

This leaves a dry, clove-tingly aftertaste. The sweetness of my additions comes through but doesn’t linger. Even with loads of almond milk and honey, though, this is meh at best.

I really like this mug! It has a wide infuser that fits on the rim of the cup and has a fine enough mesh to keep your tea relatively sediment-free. It also has a top to keep your tea hot while brewing and that also functions as an infuser rest. The cup is quite heavy ceramic and despite not having a handle is comfortable to hold even after you’ve just poured boiling water in it, except in one small vertical line down one side of the cup. There must be a seam there on the inside because it’s hotter than the rest of the cup. Clean up is a snap! The designs are not stickers and seem like they will last. Plus they are soooooo cute!! At least I think so! I got mine for $15 with free shipping from amazon prime. Bargain!

’Here’s Hoping’ traveling teabox Round #2 // Tea #3

Steep #1 // just boiled // 3 min
I used two teaspoons of leaves. There is cacao in this, which I think every chocolate tea should have! I like it for the dusty chocolatiness of it… it does taste like a truffle. But oh if only this one didn’t have the sour coconut in it, it would be so much better. The coconut gives it an off scent that isn’t very appealing. But I like it anyway, so I kind of ignore the coconut.

Steep #2 // just boiled // 5 min
I added some of Zen’s Peppermint to the second steep since I had a headache and I’m pretty sure the peppermint made my headache disappear. But this cup was nice – chocolate & mint! The ingredient list is well thought out, but I’m cutting a few points in the rating for that coconut. I will probably remove some or all of this one from the teabox, as I’d love a cacao tea in my collection, but I’d also love it if others could see how nice cacao chocolate teas can be.

It’s really good. This was a part of a three flavor Coconut variety pack. It’s really light, yet still flavorful. No sweetener is required. It’s yummy as is!

From the HHTTB2

This tea is unsweetened dark chocolate and hazelnut. The tea itself smells like a box of chocolates, and each sip very much hazelnut truffle. As the tea cools it does have a fair amount of bitterness, so if I were to have this again I’d make a point of drinking it while it’s very warm.

This tea is making me wish that the Naked Chocolate Cafe in Philadelphia was still open. They had amazing truffles and drinking chocolate!

Snagged from a box in the breakroom at work, because I was curious. Not generally a big fan of tisanes, but this wasn’t bad. Strong flavor, I liked the sage. Wouldn’t refuse an offered cup.