Tea Forte

My office manager gave me a few bags of this, and I’m finally trying it. The flavor in this is a bit weird. The mango and peach are faint, with the strongest flavor actually being peppermint.

I don’t hate it but I wouldn’t have bought this for myself, and won’t in the future.

Tea #6 from Traveling Tea Box C

I’m still slowly converting my hand-written notes to tasting notes.

Kiwi and lime flavors were quite prominent, but I didn’t taste any ginger at all. While it didn’t live up to what the name promised, I still found this to be an enjoyable tisane. I liked it enough to take a few bags out to enjoy later. I think I’ll try it out iced next time.

The last time I made a note about this tea, Tabby commented that it is great iced. So I thought I better try it iced before I decided to get rid of it. I don’t really have much left anyway, I sent most of it out on the GCTTB.

I brewed this one up 2 tsp for 1 cup water for 2 minutes. Then poured over a 20oz mug filled with ice. Added 1.5tsp of white sugar and then cooled in the fridge.

I actually wasn’t as horrible iced as it was hot. (This one is not good when you brew it hot, then let it cool). So whatever it is about the chemical reaction, or whatever, when it is made from more of a concentrate, it is better. Still get a very strong floral, perfumey and chemical taste, but it is very blunted. Drinkable as a flavoured tea.

After I drank some down, I filled the top 1/3 of the mug with carbonated water and voila! Even better. The carbonated water either blunts or hides some of the perfumey taste. I probably have enough of this left to make a full pitcher of iced tea. I think I will be able to drink it down that way.

Made this one again because I was going through my tea cupboard(s) and was debating whether or not I should get rid of this one. I had only had it once before and to be honest, it was gross. So I thought I better try it again to see if I would keep it or not. I did end up sending half of this one out in the Canadian Travelling Tea Box, but that still leaves me with a lot. (Long story but I bought a 100g tin without trying it because I wanted it so bad based on the other Tea Fort Coconut teas I have tried).

I made sure to use a lower water temp and much shorter steep this time. It is actually not as horrible this time around. Still definitely more perfume/chemical tasting lychee flavour, but it is not terrible. I feel like I am getting much more coconut flavour and am getting a bit of cocoa flavour (even though that is not an ingredient). Will probably be able to finish this tea now that I found the right parameters.

Edit: You also have to drink it right away when it is hot, because it gets less desirable again when as it cools.

I finally found some of this! I splurged an bought a whole 3.5oz tin, even without trying it because I wanted it so badly and couldn’t find it anywhere. The tin is all the store had. I had come across this in bagged form quite a while ago but chose to try a different blend of Tea Forte’s coconut line of teas. Then of course when I got home I regretted my decision, but it was gone by the time I got back.

Anyway, excited to have found this tea, but now not so excited that I have tried it.

I don’t mind coconut teas, but am not a huge fan – they have to be done right!. But I have discovered that I love, love, LOVE lychee.

The dry tea smells very artificial, perfume-y. Not quite lychee, smells like fake coconut perfume. Hmmm. The dry leaf is also cut so small it is almost crusher dust. There are a few large pieces of maybe flower petals, some kind of leaf?

The brewed tea smells quite roasty. Sweet artificial coconut scent. Another sweet floral type perfumey scent which I assumed was to be the lychee.

The brewed tea tastes not horrible, but in comparison to the other coconut blends from Tea Forte I have tried, not very good. There is an artificial coconut flavour. You can taste a white tea base but it is quite a roasty flavour, reminding me of a dark oolong. For a brief second, I think I get taste of perfumey lychee but I think if I had not known what a real lychee tasted like, I wouldn’t be able to place the taste.

Its drinkable. Disappointed I splurged on such a big tin now.

Mastress Alita’s sipdown challenge Saturday, August 21st: World Honey Bee Day Tea #3

Finally finishing this one!  Never really a favorite.   The name is so misleading and disappointing!  I want Honey Fig!   Really this is a muddled cup of anything but honey or fig.
2021 sipdowns: 113

Thanks again Nicole for that awesome tea package! I’m gradually trying the teas you sent, but I’m working on tea boxes! What an odd list of ingredients this has. It sounded good though! Sadly, it doesn’t actually taste like figs or honey. But the flavor that is here isn’t bad. Mostly mint, a little lemon myrtle and then something savory… but not really basil. I’m a HUGE lover of basil and I didn’t really detect any. Not bad as a blend, but it seems there should be something more here. The mint is probably masking the flavors. My rating for this one would be higher if this one weren’t supposedly honey fig.

This is a decent enough tea to me. It’s smooth and has a pleasant flavor, but it was a bit astringent at the end. I steeped for 4 mins. I’ll definitely give it another try, with less steeping time.

Did up a pot of this at work today for our tea group. Half 2% milk, half water, some sugar. I tasted it at about 4 minutes and then just left the infuser in the pot for the rest of the time it took for us to drink it.

It was very, very gingery. The other spices were noticeable, but ginger was the obvious and over the top star. Not one I’ll keep on hand but this will be enjoyed to the finish of the bag. :)

Tea #17 Great Canadian Traveling Tea Box

I pulled one of these bags out of the tea box to try later. Having it this morning (or is it afternoon already?).
Pleasantly surprised. While I’m not getting much Mango, there is lots of colada here. Really nice coconut, creamy flavor. This is a nice coconut green tea. I’m not getting any bitterness from the green base.
I see Tea Forte in several stores around here and have always passed on them. This is making me rethink that. May have to pick some up and try more someday.

sipdown and well, i don’t have much to say about this one because i’m tired but i actually LIKE this one. I have a few more cups worth in the fridge to drink up and i’ll enjoy them all! it’s a tart rasberry drink that i might think about purchasing again next summer to have around. this plus a little lemonade would be super yummy~!

SIPDOWN! and thank goodness because i’m going to be back over 200 again in a few hours thanks to a visit from cavocorax This one is a little bitter but it’s not too shabby. it’s a lot more pomegrante than blackberry. I added a bit of honey to this isntead of sugar and it’s blended nicely with the taste of the tea. not too bad!

So this evening while waiting for my dinner to finish baking I am reviewing a tea that has one of my favorite fruits ever in it, the glorious fig. As a child I was lucky enough to have grandparents that had a fig tree so my summer visits usually consisted of me eating a lot of them, I still get giddy when I see the local stores with them in stock and usually eat my purchase in one sitting.

Tupelo Honey Fig is a blend of Lemon Myrtle, Peppermint Leaves, Fennel, White Tea, Basil, Licorice Root, Blackberry Leaves, Honey Flavor, and Fig Pieces (all organic.) The first thing I notice while examining the leaves is the aroma, I notice no fig or honey at all. The most potent aroma is that of dried leaves, not tea or a specific spice, just dried leaves. The same aroma you get from a tree branch whose leaves dried out due to drought or being knocked off the tree, it is slightly sweet and earthy mixed with an unmistakable scent of something that was once green that is no longer. After the initial leaf smell you start to get little hints of the fennel and maybe an idea of the basil. It is not at all a bad aroma, just certainly not what I was expecting from a tea that is fig and honey themed.

After brewing the aroma becomes significantly sweeter and you get to really smell the honey! The leaf aroma is still very strong but it is accompanied by basil and more fennel. I do not really smell the mint and I am assuming the leafy smell is from the Lemon Myrtle, but I am not sure since it is a plant I am unfamiliar with. The aroma of the liquid smells very mild and herbal with notes of honey.

The taste is odd. You first get a tingly mouthfeel from the mint and a sweet aftertaste with the anise taste of fennel, but other than that the flavor seems muddied. I can detect hints of the basil and white tea, but no fig and no honey. The more I drink this tea though the more it grows on me, it is like a puzzle in my mouth that I am trying to figure out…or maybe a treasure hunt for fig? I am a little disappointed by the lack of fig taste, but due to the combination of mint and fennel I think this tea would be an amazing digestion aid after a heavy meal. Plus it acts as a wonderful palette cleanser, because that is what fennel is amazing for (also making your mouth smell good, woohoo!)

Oh no! I cannot rate this one! I didnt even try it.
My boyfriend had breakfast with me this morning, and, of course,I offered him his choice of teas. He picked out this one, and so I have no review for you.
I will say that he added milk, and didnt finish it all.
Gah, worst Steepster review in the history of the world!
Thanks again to Fuzzy_Peachkin who sent this my way, even if my boyfriend was the one to drink it.

Many thanks to OMGsrsly for passing down a bag of this! I could always have more iced tea in my life. I’ve pretty much been drinking it in place of water over the past few months. Yikes. At least I never add any sweetener to mine.

This tastes a lot like raspberry leaves to me, or some sort of berry leaf, combined with a bright pomegranate note. The base is mild and allows the other flavours to shine. Behind the other flavours, I can taste blueberry after a while.

Already down to my last glass and here I just started drinking the two litres when I got home three hours ago.

Made this one as a hot latte with 2% milk. Is not as good as I had expected. It is mostly coconut flavoured, minimal chai taste. The coconut is quite acidic. I think this one would be better hot brewed with just milk added to it. Will keep experimenting.

Quite a while ago I picked up the coconut mango colada, and it was surprising really good. I had the chance to try more of these coconut teas, so I picked up this one.

It is quite good. You can taste the cool, smooth, sweet coconut, but it is balanced with slightly bitter black tea. You can taste light chai spices. It is creamy.

It is recommended to try this as a milk latte, but I tried it straight this time and it was pretty good.

Sweet & tart to the same measure as rhubarb pie. Like having a morbidly obese Hawaiian man strum you a lovely serenade as gaggles of awful tourists caw on the beach around you. I hope they frickin’ choke on the pig at the luau tonight.

Unlike my father, this tea keeps it’s promises. The cherry, also unlike my father, is very present. The almond flavour is a great finishing note, the sweet flavour a perfect facsimile of the marzipan icing on the New Year’s Cake me and my mother ate in our little flat on New Year’s, 1986, knowing my father would never came back. We both knew it, we never said it. Words would’ve made it too real.

10.6/10 Would drink again.

I believe this came from Ellen. I apologize if I am wrong.

When I first opened the little sample package, it was just rooibos. I was a bit disappointed but I went through and tried it anyway.

It was pretty good. I initially thought it was a great, high quality rooibos, it was sweet, slightly spicey. Astringent in the aftertaste.

Then I came here to do the review and found out that there was much more than rooibos in the blend. I didn’t have any little berries or flowers in the sample packet I had. Now that I know what is in it, I think the sweetness is vanilla and the spiceyness is the berries.

The blend was good, but no flavour really distinct from the other. Reminds me very slightly of rooibos de provence.

I left this to cold steep in the fridge for over an entire day so I’m expecting this to be heavy on the ginger.

And it is! I actually like the ginger aspect of it. It’s like fresh ginger root, and/or non-alcoholic ginger beer without the carbonation.

The pear is a little wonky for me, on the artificial side, but perhaps leaving it to steep that long might have done that. I kept meaning to try this a little earlier but yesterday’s rain, and this cold basement, made me slack in that department and reach for hot tea instead.

At the beginning of every sip, right before the ginger takes over, I’m also hit with something leafy that reminds me of raspberry leaf. I looked it up and lo and behold, it’s blackberry leaves. Close enough!

Many thanks to OMGsrsly for this iced tea sample!