Tea Forte

Someone left these at work for others to drink and I decided to take one. I rarely drink teabags but I like to try apple teas so here I am. I don’t understand what chocolate is doing in this tea but I am giving it the old college try. I don’t see any chocolate in the bag, mostly rooibos with an overwhelming aroma of cinnamon and some dust. Presumably cinnamon dust.

Steeped, it smells kinda sour. It’s gross, but almost like vomit. It’s very pungent. This does not smell good. I have had a couple roobois blends to tails up on me that way in terms of smell. I’ll just give myself a few minutes before I try it.

Once I got the guts, it’s not too bad. I don’t taste anything like that sour note and I don’t get anything chocolate either. Mostly just cinnamon/spice and rooibos with a hint of apple. Certainly nothing to write home about. Honestly, I’d give it away too. I’m not finishing the mug. Kinda blechy without being outright disagreeable.

This was the last of the iced tea sampler I bought at the beginning of the summer. I purposed saved this one for last because I guessed I wouldn’t like it.

I brewed as per package instructions and then added ice, white sugar, and chilled overnight. The lavender is very strong. It is not sweet lavender though. There is a bit of an orange rind spice flavour at the end of the sip. The lavender blends well with the white tea, but I am not really a lavender fan. I would have preferred for this one to have been citrus with lavender, but it was lavender with citrus.

Poured myself a to go cup of this one when I realized how thirsty I was this morning.

FYI, the flavours don’t go so well with the bitter tang that club soda has…

Once I corrected that mistake, I really enjoyed this “juice” type tea!

I actually really like this one. It’s like raspberry-berry candy! Not tart to me at all, but I preemptively added a tbsp of honey to the mix.

Steeped 5 minutes in 2 cups boiling water, added to 4 cups cold water (6 cups total), poured over ice.

Delicious. If I see this around, I’ll have to pick up some more. I’m gonna see about getting a second steeping out of the stuff, as well.

I forgot to pack tea to drink at work this morning! Luckily I have a few bagged teas in my desk for emergencies, so it is time to try this one.

WOW, this will teach me to forget to bring tasty tea! Bleh! Super bitter, vague fakey citrus taste…count me out! The only thing pleasurable about it is the scent. Also HURRAY I can smell things again! Glad I only had the one bag of this though.

SIPDOWN! thank you nicole for sending this my way to try. I think i prefer the H&S version but this one is a close second. I like that it’s not astringent and yet still tasty! thank you!

sipdown! (220) gotta love working from home occasionally…super busy but i made time for lots of tea drinking! plus the bathroom is ever so much closer at home than at work haha Another sample from nicole :)

I have to say this tea smells phenomenal! I just wish it tasted as delicious. There’s a good vanilla taste here, but sadly the coconut ruins it for me. There was an after taste in the sips that just made me have to frown a little. If you don’t mind coconut though, i can see how this might appeal to more folks. not a bad tea, but nothing i’d want to keep in my cupboard as a vanilla black staple. :) thanks nicole!

I iced up my last two triangles of this today. It’s not bad. More pear than ginger, and what with not being a fan of the ripe pear taste, I’m not sure why I thought I liked this so much.

It’s pretty good, especially if you like very flavoured teas, and you find it on sale at Chapters. :) 1 triangle does about 1 litre of final iced tea product to my taste, they say it makes 24oz. But drink what you prefer.

I made up a package of the iced tea last night. Steeped for 4 minutes in 2 cups of water, then added it to another 4 cups of water and stuck it in the fridge overnight.

It’s not bad, although the flavouring is a little fake. It’s really sweet, but the flavourings are better with a little sugar from what I can remember.

I’ll save my other two packets of this for the summer. It’s pretty good, and it’s nice to have an easy iced tea to make.

I have the iced version: Steep for 5 minutes or longer, 175°F. Flash chill by pouring over ice. (On the box they recommend making 24oz tea and chilling it, then serving cold over ice.)

Surprisingly I actually quite like this one! It’s very pear-y, which is a flavour I generally can’t stand. I mean, pear flavoured jelly beans? Ugh.

I didn’t completely follow the directions for this tea, as I tried a black iced tea the other night and found it to be extremely strong, almost unpleasantly so. I steeped this at about 180F for 5 minutes in 2 cups water, then poured it into a jug that had 4 cups of cold water in it. It’s pretty cool at this point, so I shrugged and poured myself a glass with some ice in it.

Tasty. The flavours are delicate and sweet this way. A bit of warmth from the ginger, I smell vanilla, the pear is actually very sweet and quite lovely. The white tea doesn’t seem horrible either, but I feel it mostly fades into the background.

It doesn’t need sweetener at all, but I decided to add a small spoon of lemony simple syrup. :) Not bad, but I think I’d prefer ginger simple syrup or no sweetener.

I’ve had this tea quite a few times and it is enjoyable, as Earl Greys go. It is astringent, has a nice black bitterness to it, but for Earl Grey it’s kind of bland. I really don’t get the bold peppery flavors that I get with some other brands. All-in-all this is a good tea, but if I have a choice I will be drinking Bigelow or Twinings over this if we are talking bagged.

Upon opening the package I could smell a lovely fruit aroma. I had not yet read the full description, so I was confused because I didn’t know there was blueberry included. As with all green teas, hell, most teas I drink, I oversteep. The blueberry and cucumber really take the forefront here, with the green tea and mint giving only subtle notes in the back. The fruitiness is not overwhelming, however, but it is very present. As a big fan of mint teas, I would have liked to see the mint take on a larger role, but this blend is by no means bad. This was a very enjoyable cup.

I think I need to try this one hot.

I iced it by steeping for 4 minutes then adding some ice and cold water. For me, one bag in the ‘iced tea’ format makes 2 litres, or about 1/2 gallon.

I also added 2 tbsp sugar, which upon reflection, is a bit much for me. Oh well. It’s still tasty. I really like this iced tea, and will definitely pick up some more next summer.

I’ll be bringing this to work in my water bottle. Especially since I sit in front of space heaters all day, I need to remember to hydrate! My skin is so dry…

This time, it’s pretty good! I made 4 cups of tea, and diluted a cup and a half or so over ice for drinking now. The other 2.5 cups-ish, I diluted with cool water and put in the fridge.

Very sweet, candy-like flavours from Tea Forte. I added a little sugar to boost the “candy” a little, and this is quite delicious! Still a little drying at the end of a sip, but nothing that will prevent me from guzzling all the tea.

I picked this tea up at Chapters last night as well, and decided to brew some up as soon as I got home. They say a bag will make 24oz, which is what – 3 cups? No. It needs to be diluted further, then poured over some ice.

I like the flavour of this one, but it would have benefited from the baking soda trick a little. That, and dilution. Wow. Possibly a 3 minute steep instead of a 4 minute steep.

I saved the tea bag from this one because I think it’ll make another jar of (weaker) tea. But next time, instead of making it in a canning jar, I’m making it in a pitcher. I think I can get 6-8 cups of tea from just the one steeping.

(Whee! 400th tasting note! 199th tea tried!)

sipdown – I’ve been drinking this over the past couple of days. I picked these up at chapters for about 1$ a steeper which makes 24oz. Not bad and certainly better than the regular price which puts them closer to 2.5 a pop.

i started with this one because i figured it out be the one i like the least. I was right about not really enjoying it. It’s drinkable but it’s nothing spectacular and i really don’t like the lavender in it. If there was no lavender it would probably be a pretty decent little tea as the citrus taste is nice

I got the looseleaf of this in a trade with Kaylee, so thanks!

The leaves smell nice, like under sweetened lemonade and you can definitely pick out the lemongrass as well.

They taste is…okay. It’s certainly lemon-y, but it’s more lemon juice than lovely lemon zest. The flavor isn’t artificial and the tea isn’t astringent, but I actually lose the Sencha to the lemon flavor.

I don’t really see this as a dessert tea, and it tasted a little generic. I didn’t really like it enough to finish my 16 ounce mug, and 5 or so were lost to the drain.

I bought a couple of single packets of different Tea Forte teas at my local tea retailer. I love when people sell small amounts because tasting different teas is my favorite! Anyway, this one has a pretty simple black base, nothing extraordinary, but not terrible either. I’m getting more nutty notes than chocolate notes…also something reminiscent of cinnamon? Anyway, not bad for bagged tea. Not exactly like Nutella like I was hoping, but a decent hazelnutty treat :)

Loved this a comfort winter tea but I love to steep it as a ice tea with a good local honey the best. I did find the pomegranate a bit too overpowering for the apple flavor which should have been the star.

Thanks Lala for sending me a few of these to try out.

This tea perfectly captured both the coconut and mango flavours. It didn’t come off as fake at all or overwhelmingly sweet. The coconut was slightly more present than the mango.

This tea was delicious and like Coconut Cocoa yesterday, I feel I need to have this in my cupboard.

The resteep of this is still flavourful.