Tea Forte

I personally didn’t like this tea, heavy on the bergamot. I handed it off to a friend of mine, who loves it.

From the HHTTB2

So this should be called Sweet Cinnamon instead of Sweet Orange, but I still like it. The smell reminds me of Christmas and is unmistakably cinnamon. In fact, this tea reminds me a lot of Harney and Sons Hot Cinnamon Spice although there is less clove here. The base tea is strong and carries the spice flavor well. Nice.

I can see how this would be disappointing to people who wanted orange but are not big on strong cinnamon teas, but since I love cinnamon teas this is just a happy turn of events. I might snag one more teaspoon of it before moving on to the other teas in the box.

This is a nice surprise after the moderate disappointment of the last few Tea Forte teas I tried. It has a mild, pleasant aroma, and unlike many tea blends with citrus, doesn’t become too tart in the cup. The core of this is a strong and fairly good black tea.The orange is definitely there, and it goes well with the tea without overwhelming it. It’s a natural, orange-peel zest, and doesn’t taste like an added flavor. As a plus, I could see some of the orange peel pieces in the tea sachet.

It seems like with some of these flavored teas with fancy names, it’s high praise to say that I can taste the tea itself! Maybe it’s time to go back to pure teas for a while…

At first whiff, this has a bit of that dreaded cherry cough syrup aroma, which fortunately isn’t present once you taste it. It’s a very strong black tea, and the vanilla and other notes help mellow that out a bit. The cherry, again, isn’t really there, more of a subdued sweet almond.

With all the Tea Forte flavored teas I’ve tried, the flavor in the actual name of the tea is consistently the weakest one, once the tea is actually brewed. Maybe they just pick the most appealing-sounding one?

I don’t know how I feel about this one. I do know that it is the first tea with ginger that I have been able to drink. It was drinkable, I just don’t know if I will order it in the future. I have one more sample from when I ordered my Kati Cup from Tea Forte. I wan’t to try it cold. I don’t have any thing for cold brewing, yet. I think, since it’s my long day at work, that I will put it in my (boyfriend’s) PerfecTea maker and put it in the fridge for the duration of my shift. It’s an herbal so I would be able to try it right after work.

“Unusual” is probably the best thing I can say about this one. Upon brewing, it smelled burnt and even greasy, which fortunately did not carry over into the taste. The chocolate and rose flavors don’t harmonize well, and the chocolate is deeply bitter, so much so that the brew almost tastes (and looks!) like a cup of coffee. The rose is inoffensive and lingers on for a bit longer, which is the one saving grace here.

As for what the tea leaves themselves are like in this blend…I have no idea.

Peaches and cream. On second steep, the peaches have departed for regions unknown. What you are left with is what restaurants serve as “tropical iced tea” (except hot), with a lingering aroma of coconut/vanilla cream.

Basically, I shouldn’t like this as much as I do.

Thanks, ashleyelizabeth, for including this as a random sample in our swap! I have to apologize to you, because in my rush to get the tea packaged and to the post office before it closed, I forgot to include any random samples, just the tea we’d agreed on… T_T Sorry!

Anyway, I made this over at my sister’s while I was visiting the other day. Her kids can be kind of rambunctious, and it can get overwhelming, so we were feeling like we needed a pick-me-up. She went for her Keurig, and I pulled this out, glad I’d brought it.

It’s a bit inconsistent with the flavor, to be honest, although I’m not quite sure how that works. Some sips are quite coconutty, while some sips are spicy, and still other sips are, unfortunately, neither. I’d be willing to give this another shot, though, so perhaps I’ll get some down the line.

I saw this when I was looking through my tea bags eariler today. I took it out and set it aside for my evening tea. I love a good blueberry tea, so I’m surprised this one has escaped my attention until now.

There is a nice blueberry flavor, but I don’t smell or taste the sage which is disappointing. There is quite a bit of tartness from the hibiscus which I’m guessing is supposed to lend the Merlot flavor, but it misses the mark. Oh well. As a blueberry herbal this is ok, but it doesn’t knock my socks off.

I want to like this. Cucumber and mint sound like an excellent combo, but what is coming through is chemical like. It smells a little like perfume and some of that comes through in the taste. It is flat, the flavors don’t seem to dance well, there is a walnut aftertaste and my skin doesn’t feel any smarter (advertised as a skin smart tea). I just can’t get over the gross. Mmmm, and dry mouth to top it off. Nice. : [

Ehhhhhh…. Tastes a little of honey, I guess. Leaves my mouth dry. That is about it. Bummer.

I was so glad this was in Another TTB! I’ve been wanting to taste it and I loved it. Normally I don’t like green teas, but the citrus in here made it a delicious offering. I may have to buy some of this myself.

Had a little bit of a headache when I woke up, sometimes it means that I need caffeine. I wasn’t in the mood for coffee so I rustled through my box of tea to find something black. This was the first one I stumbled on and it sounded tasty. I received single steeps with my order of a Kati Cup so, that’s what I did this morning . A single steep in the Kati Cup for about four minutes.

After the addition of splenda, this became more drinkable. It seems creamy. At first I really liked the idea of chocolate-flavored teas. However, most that I have tried are just plain, “yuck”. This seems like it would satisfy a sweet-tooth well without the “yuck” factor. I can’t see keeping this in stock as I feel there are better blacks out there. I just need to find the ones I like.

Backlog.

One of my coworkers gave me a bag of this tea to try, saying it was one of his favorites. The bag was intended to make iced tea, so I used it to brew up a pot for myself. It tasted … weird to me. Maybe it’s the ginger. I kept thinking this was a peach-ginger tea, and did get some fruitiness in the first few sips. Once the tea cooled down, however, I lost the fruitiness to a weird taste that I can only assume was the ginger.

This isn’t bad, but I don’t think I’ll seek out any more ginger teas.

Very well balanced tea between the cherry and raspberries. You would think it could be overpowering or too sour, but I did not find that to be the case. Very nice finish and lingering flavor on the palate

Sipdown #21

Ewwww, I am not a red rooibos fan. This is medicinal and gross. I’m sure if you like rooibos, this is probably just fine. But this is not my tea at all. Blech. Under 10 and down the drain it goes. :/

And with that, I’ve finished the Tea Forte sampler from my dad before it expired! He only gave it to me two years ago. ;) I got to try a lot of different teas, and I feel confident that I know what my favorite is. And the winner is…drumroll please…a tie between Black Currant and Chamomile Citron! Those were my definite favorites by far. And I have to say, all the teas held up very well considering how long they were shelved. Thumbs up for Tea Forte’s sampler pack!

Sipdown #23

My husband stole my other sample of this one, so I have one shot to get this right. The dry leaf aroma is super raspberry! I know lots of people enjoy this iced, but I’m going to drink it hot because that’s how I enjoy tea 95% of the time. The brewed tea aroma is very sweet and intense. Wow, this brews up dark!

First sip…the flavor is tart and sweet. Hibiscus and raspberry are the predominant flavors. There’s definitely some other things going on in here too: apple, blackberry, and maybe a tiny bit of orange. But it’s primarily hibiscus and raspberry, which I guess makes this tea a success for what it set out to be! As far as a success at becoming one of my preferred teas, I’m not so sure. It’s okay. I can definitely drink it. But it is quite sour. I wouldn’t seek it out again. I suppose I’m not mad now that my husband stole the other teabag.

Well, I’m one more tea closer to my goal! I decided I’m going to finish out this sipdown extravaganza even though the goal won’t be quite as meaningful anymore. I’m not a quitter, and I feel like starting over with a new series of numbers is giving up. So, I will persevere! I’m almost finished anyhow. :)

I received a sample of this tea a while back, but right now I don’t remember exactly who it was from. Sorry! All I knew was that something different sounded wonderful this morning, as I’ve been sipping down a lot of my teas lately, trying to bring order to the chaos taking over my tiny kitchen.

I did use more leaves than I intended, but I didn’t want to put one teaspoon aside for later, only to have it shuffle around in my collection for who knows how long. I don’t know if it was the extra leaves or the tea itself, but this is a bracingly brisk cup, with enough astringency to make me hunt for my water bottle. There’s also a smoky note that haunts the cup, and paired with the aroma of freshly fallen leaves, it hearkens back to cool autumn mornings.

Not my favorite from the tea forte family I have tried. A little too bitter for my taste. For me the orange was challenging to pull out from the blend, mostly overpowered by a more bitter pomegranate or cranberry flavor.

I really want to say something positive about this tea. So I’ll start with the opinion of my co-worker “smells yummy!”.
I don’t agree on that point but taste is so subjective.
I wanted to love this tea. But to me the mix of chocolate and rose was so startling that Im still not sue what to think. My first impression was disgust. But after brewing the tea aroma began to temper the perfumy, overbearing rose, and I found myself willing to try a little harder to find positive things to say.
The tea is listed as “black tea” but seems to be a ceylon. Its light, non-astringent, forgetable and inoffensive. As tea goes it just could not stsnd up to the powerful floral flavor of this blend. A malty assam might have been kess harmonious with the florals but would have peeked through better too and might have enhanced the chocolate flavor that nearly hides under layers of grandmas perfume.
I cant say thus is bad tea. In fact it seems to be blended with the sole purpose of wide appeal. Unfortunately, the tea, while described as “roasted” has no noticable roasted flavor. The tea seems to be simply a convenient vehicle for the other flavors and is almost an aside.
This could, however, be a tea that non-tea drinkers would enjoy simply for its lack of “teaishness”.
I was not able to smell or taste the tea before purchase but I love experimenting so I was up for the adventure. However, I would have passed this by and cheated myself out of an interesting experience.
I decided that I just dont like roses with my chocolate or with my tea.
I havce a hard time using the sliders with my tablet so prep was as directed on the package. 1 tsp for 8oz water at 212f.

Absolutely delightful! One of the tastiest teas I’ve ever had, hands down. It has a nice aroma and taste of fruit, – I get more of a peach taste than pear though, but I like that-, and the ginger was very subtle while still being present. I took it with some honey.
Highly, highly recommended.

I’m glad that this is an organic tea from Tea Forte (Thanks Suziqzer!) I was worried because when I smelled it, it smelled very strongly of cinnamon, but thankfully once sipped it’s actually more balanced. It is a bit misleading to call it a “chai” since it is actually a caffeine-free rooibis and the only spice I really tasted was cinnamon. It was a good tea to sip, but I wouldn’t reach for it again.

Mixed this with peppermint tonight. Decided that I should probably work on drinking up the remaining single steeps I have of this to make room for everything I just picked up from a local tea shop.

I turned to tea in my effort to become healthier. I was starting to turn to pop for caffeine or a pick me up, especially while studying. I LOVE all the options with tea. I knew very little before last month and I am learning as much as I can. I have used chamomile tea bags on and off for quite some time. Sleeping becomes an issue for me once in a while, ever since starting school. I look forward to trying different “bed time teas” once these single steeps are gone. I enjoy the flavor these provide. However, due to the immense number of options, I would like to try a few more before deciding on a favorite.

I have decided that my next step in becoming healthier, is to curb my snacking. I have been looking for tasty alternatives. Today I happened upon a company called Graze. Upon signing up I was provided with this link, https://www.graze.com/us/p/KAYLAS29U . This allows anyone to sign up and get their first box, and if you stay with the company, your fifth box free. Neat thing is, you can cancel at any time. I do not mean to promote the company, nor do I have any ties with the company. I just believe in sharing good stuff!