Tea Forte

I got a sample of this from JennyFur in a swap. Unfortunately I got distracted placing Black Friday orders and this tea ended up getting super cold. Luckily, it was not bad cold. It had a strong apple presence combined with cinnamon and other spices. It is sort of similar to a weak mulled apple cider.

I did, however, manage to get a few sips in prior to it cooling. As a hot tea, the spices have a far more prominent role in the cup. Perhaps there us even a bit too much spice in the hot cup. There is a bit of sweetness from the apple but rather than the flavors complimenting one another, they just seem to conflict.

I think I will enjoy the sample I have but I don’t think I will be ordering this in the future. Thank you JennyFur for sharing!

Cinnamon, Clove, Cardamom, Ginger, with a not so subtle peppery note.
I cannot taste the vanilla , which is really disappointing…
This is not nearly as good as I imagined it would be, but not awful…
Next time I will try it with some cream.

I have been trying to drink more herbal blends and lessen my caffeine intake. This tea was an attempt to do that. I will cut to the chase, it didn’t work. I will say that I did taste berry and citrus notes in this. As for hibiscus, when brewed I could smell it, and I guess now I can say I tasted it because I can’t say I had hibiscus flavor before this. So, I thought, what can I do with this tea to improve it. Well after a trip to Teavana not so long ago, I realized how much they blend different teas together. I thought, I could do that at home. So, I took this tea bag and added it to a batch of green tea I was brewing. Low and behold, it helped me enjoy both teas more. I have sinced continued to mix teas together, so I learned something from all this. In short however, I am not a big wild berry hisiscus fan.

Sipdown #34

Hmm, this pretty much just tastes like coconut oil. Upon opening the sample, there was some weird golden fuzz on the outside of the teabag. I’m not sure what that’s about. This tea has a slight acrid aftertaste, and each successive sip grows more astringent than the last.

It’s not going to become one of my favorites, but I’m happy I got the chance to try something new. I had higher expectations of something named ambrosia. Sadly, that’s just a fancy name for a mediocre coconut tea.

Ooo… this is so tasty cold brewed overnight. I totally forgot I had a pouch of this stashed away in the tertiary tea cupboard… :) I really, really like peach and apricot black teas cold. This one follows the last of my Peach & Apricot India Black from New Mexico Tea Co. I like both of them a lot, as well as Harney’s Apricot. Guess I’ll use this until it’s gone and then whoever has one of the three on sale I’ll restock with that one. :)

So… yeah… this is gone. Man, was it good. Peachy, sweet, smooth, creamy, lightly coconutty. Now I have to work on the Orchid Vanilla so I can have a bigger reason to make a restocking order!

I need to take something like this into work. The hub has an employee appreciation/workshop type thing coming up in May. They are sending employee +guest to Vail for a week. So… I have to be the mingling and socializing spouse. I’ve never had to do this before really. I mean, yeah, at a bar in blue jeans and a nice shirt with drunk people from Missouri. You know – my people. :) But this is international and I know none of the spouses/sig others already. I’m really not a mingling person by nature and I’m certainly not a Vail/Aspen/ski/shop person by nature. I am excited about going but I kind of feel like I need to at least make an effort to not look like a total slob… so I’ve been really trying to be good. Plus, I have to get down in weight if I want to think about riding horses while I’m out there! I wanted Ho-Hos soooo bad today at work. And it’s only the first week of being good – well, better, anyway. :(

I need to take some dessert tea in to help me!

Damn. Hoisted by my cut and paste. I don’t know how to make that accent mark on the keyboard so I couldn’t find this by typing in the name. Had to search for Tea Forte and look through their teas. That’s what I get for entering the tea info via cut and paste from the Tea Forte site. :)

Had this with dinner tonight. Mom came up to take me delayed Christmas present clothes shopping and we had a very substandard turkey & rice soup – it’s always so disappointing when soups don’t turn out and I can’t think of anything to improve them – with some fresh oatmeal bread. The bread was AH-MAZING though so that made up for the bread. And this tea is very, very good. Probably not the most fitting match for the dinner but excellent nonetheless.

I get tons of peach. Probably mango, though I’m still not sure that I could pick out a mango flavor from other tropical fruity things. I’ve never thought that marigold blossoms added anything to teas other than making the dry leaves prettier so I don’t really get any floral here. I don’t get much coconut until it cools down then I think that is what I’m tasting. This probably isn’t for someone who doesn’t like coconut at all, but if you just don’t like it a little, the rest of the taste may make up for the coconut.

It might be good iced, but as it cools, a bit of bitterness creeps in. Possibly I oversteeped or maybe the black base is just a little bitter. Dunno. I prefer it hot at this point and that’s a rarity. I generally prefer my fruit blacks cold. (Usually something about warm fruit… blech. I am not a hot cobbler & ice cream fan.)

Bottom line is: This is really tasty and it smells amazing. I would probably like to keep this around but I need to compare it with New Mexico Tea’s Peach & Apricot India Black, which I also lurve. Regardless, this was totally worth adding to my order to get to free shipping level. :)

i made this last week, and apparently forgot to log it. It was a pretty average, every day iced tea. On sale, i’d buy it again but otherwise i have other loose teas i prefer iced. :)

I’m quite fond of this one. It’s light and sweet; the taste of the vanilla and, to a lesser extent, the berries comes through without being overwhelming. It’s just a lovely, well-balanced tea that I find especially suited to curling up with a good book on a lazy afternoon.

Sipdown #35

This isn’t a bad jasmine green tea, but it’s not among the best I’ve tried (I’m looking at you, Verdant & Teavivre). The jasmine is strong and flavorful in the first steep and quieter in the second. The end of the sip leans towards bitterness, so I probably should have used a little cooler water.

I’m also not sure if the bitterness is originating from the jasmine flavoring or the green base. I brewed the second infusion at 180 degrees for four minutes and the bitterness was noticeably less apparent. So, I think it’s safe to say that 185 degrees is just too hot for this particular tea.

This is similar to Tea Forte’s Earl Grey. There’s a harshness to the flavoring that dulls the overall flavor profile, making it flat and one dimensional in the second steep. It doesn’t dance across the tongue. Like I said, overall it’s not bad. But I think I’ll stick to the other jasmine teas I’ve found.

Sipdown #37

This tea is definitely all it claims to be. It’s naturally sweet and a tad spicy. I’ve been sick in bed all day and thought this might be gentle on my tummy. Well, I was right! This is an alluring citrusy herbal blend perfect for the evenings, and it’s really hitting the spot nicely.

Sipdown #38

Sadly, this tea is not that special. It tastes one dimensional and flat and sits thickly on my tongue. I’m sure it doesn’t help that my night has been pretty awful. I’m throwing in the towel. :(

Tea #8 from Traveling Tea Box C

I was going to hot brew this, until I noticed the other note saying that this was extremely hibiscusy. I decided to cold brew it instead to hopefully tame the hibiscus a bit. It doesn’t seem to have worked too much however. The main flavor here is hibiscus, with a bit of a generic sweet fruit flavor in there somewhere.

Sipdown #39

I had two sample teabags, so I made them two different ways. The first was 175 degrees for 4 minutes. This produced a cup with very little in the way of mango or peach. If I had to say one of them was in there, I’d pick mango. But mostly, it was really lacking in flavor. This tea may be called Green Mango Peach, but I think it would be more appropriate to name it Green Ginger Mint, as these were the only flavors I could easily identify.

With the second teabag, I tried boiling water for 3 minutes. This produced a much more flavorful cup. I got more mango and peach flavors, while the mint and ginger were still apparent. However, the boiling water turned the tea bitter and astringent. So, I can’t recommend this brewing technique.

Overall, I can’t say I’m impressed with this tea. I tried it two ways and both were underwhelming to me. Oh well. Can’t say I didn’t try!

Sipdown #40

Second tea from my Tea Forte sampler pack! This is a really delicious fruity tea, even sans additions. The black base is mild and smooth and complements the black currant very well. There’s no hint of bitterness, which is awesome. The black currant flavoring is light but flavorful. The notes vary from grape candy to a generic fruity sweetness that reminds me of blueberries.

Overall, I am really enjoying this! I thought for sure that I’d have to add some milk and sweetener, but I was wrong. This is great just the way it is! And as if my day couldn’t get any better, I GOT A PROMOTION TODAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The first time I made this, I steeped for 3 minutes. Ugh. It came out astringent and thoroughly unpleasant. I didn’t even want to drink it again, but I needed the sipdown. So I brewed up some fresh leaf (which includes stems and fannings as well as leaf, not cool) at 180 F for about 1 minute. Big improvement! No astringency or bitterness. Light and vegetal. Two solid steeps. Rather mediocre though. A year ago, I thought Tea Forte was the best out there. Now that I’ve really gotten into tea, I find myself less impressed. Oh, well. Sipdown!

Steep Information:
Amount: 2 packets
Water: 750ml at 212°F
Tool: Breville One-Touch Tea Maker BTM800XL
Steep Time: 3 minutes
Served: Hot

Tasting Notes:
Dry Leaf Smell: alcohol, chocolate, savory, hints floral
Steeped Tea Smell: chocolate, rose, slight bakey background
Flavor: bakey, sweet, savory rose, then a tangy finish
Body: Medium
Aftertaste: tangy, perfumy
Liquor: translucent dark brown

the finish kills it

Post-Steep Additives:
sugar
reduces the after tang

Rating: 2/4 leaves

Blog: http://amazonv.blogspot.com/2013/11/tea-forte-loose-leaf-black-tea.html

Sipdown #41

My dad gave me this sampler pack for Christmas a couple years ago. I’m ashamed to say that I’m only now making it a priority to drink. Luckily for me though, it was shrink-wrapped and marked “best before July 2014.” So, I think it’ll still taste fine despite its age. It is definitely an impressive looking sampler! Check out a photo here: http://instagram.com/p/gUPj9Hl-ge/

First up, Chamomile Citron! I think my tastes are changing. I used to gag at the mere aroma of chamomile, but now I’m starting to like it. I like this bagged version in particular because it’s blended with a small amount of lemongrass and mint. These three flavors meld into a delicious and soothing cuppa better than I would have thought possible. It’s still primarily chamomile, but the other undertones add depth to the flavor. Color me impressed! I am thoroughly enjoying this! :)

Tea #11 from Traveling Tea Box C

We seem to be on a roll tonight! My husband did hog the first cup of this – he loved it so much he wouldn’t share! – so this is actually a re-steep. With that in mind, this is absolutely delightful. The fruit and citrus blend wonderfully, and there’s just a perfect bite of ginger.

This tea has also come to the end of its travels, and will be making one last trip into our cupboard!

This has become one of my favorite teas ♡
The balance between the coconut and mango
is truly lovely…I enjoy this tea more and more with every cup.