Tea Forte

Azzrian sent this to me a while ago, and I’m just now getting to it. I’m not really getting any mint flavor to it, which makes me think it’s no good. Or maybe I’m just expecting the mint flavor to be overpowering, and it’s not. Who knows. It’s just tasting like generic green tea. It’s definitely not bad, but I wouldn’t have guessed one of the flavors would have been mint.

Anyway, I’ll leave a rating off tonight. I’m feeling very “blah” and I’ve been sneezing up a storm. At first I thought it was allergies but maybe it’s a cold. It’s hard to tell this time of year :(

I enjoyed reading many of the comments regarding the flavor of this tea. I actually bought it for its skin benefits and sipped it without really appreciating the aroma or flavor. I will definitely experience my next cup in a different way now. Thanks!

From the Traveling Tea Box

Hmmm, not bad, but not memorable, either. Smells like honey! Nice. A little fruity – I am not familiar with yuzu so I am assuming this is it.

The tea in the cup is cloudy – I think from the honey or bee pollen? – and golden. The flavor is not bad, not stellar. I would not buy this, but if someone offered me a cup on a cold day or when I had a sore throat, I would take it. It probably tastes best to thse who add honey or sugar to their tea. Fn to try, though, and I think this is only my second ever Tea Forte tea!

A coworker made a massive Tea Forte order and let me toss in some Black Currant to try and also a tin of these mints. I opted for the Lime Mojito as there’s pretty much no way to screw that up. I love mint so this was right up my alley – and it’s a success, at least in this flavour. The tea is pretty absent but I like to think it’s good for me (they’re made with matcha). The lime and mint are well balanced and the flavours last the length of the mint. Yummy!

Not sure about this one. I added soy milk to this and there was a bitter, almost sour taste. I’ll have to toy with the steeping and additives, I guess.

Spending New Years Eve with a pot of this since I have to work tomorrow morning so I can’t go out (well, I could but I would suffer the consequences).

I love cherries but this was not for me. This comes off as sour hibiscus to me and I think it’d be alright iced. I’m not a big fan of iced teas though so I don’t think I’ll be giving it a go. It gets much more tolerable as I drink it though.

Steep time: 5 mins. Added agave.
Rating: 30. Not or me.

Wow, I am gulping this down like there’s no tomorrow. I picked this up as a gift to myself for getting through hectic holiday shopping (which is my own fault since it’s Dec 22nd). The coconut and chocolate are definitely there (I’m glad I picked them up since they’re two flavours I have trouble tasting in teas). I added soy egg nog to it since it was the only milk substitute in the house and the spices are giving the tea a nice kick.

Boiling water, 3m30s. Rating: 75

Near the movie theatre is a “cupcake cafe” that has coffee and Tea Forte teas. While I’m really not a fan of Tea Forte, I figured I’d get something nonetheless to go with my cupcake. And my cupcake was terrible so I’ve got this tea to fall back on.

I ended up picking this because I thought it would be coconut and chocolate. Of course it isn’t, which is terrible because coco to me is coconut, cocoa would make a lot more sense.

So clearly I looked it up on the way home, while it was steeping. And I was a bit iffy on the spices but every other note seemed positive and I wasn’t too worried about the licorice root after that. Because it steeped so long and because it was still scorching hot to hold the cup and I wanted to drink it already, I added a little bit of milk just in case.

It amazingly tastes like hot chocolate. It even has the body of hot chocolate rather than tea. The spices give the chocolate a good, rounded flavor. They don’t really make it spicy and you definitely can’t tell what’s actually in there.

With this tea, who even needs a cupcake?

Thanks WillWorkForTea for these teabags! I cold steeped them in a pitcher overnight.

I’d like this if it didn’t taste purely of lemongrass. I’m not sure how it tastes like lemongrass when it’s not an ingredient but that’s all it tastes like. No mango, no coconut, plainly lemongrass and nothing else. As it’s sat out for a bit there’s a slight coconut flavor before it really gets into that lemongrass flavor. It’s like drinking a very mild tom kha soup..seriously.

Meh. I think I have to just dump the entire pitcher. I don’t mind lemongrass when other things are going on. But this is just one-dimensional. I don’t know why I keep trying TeaForte when they just keep letting me down.

My friend gave me this tea to try because she knows that I love Earl Grey. I decided to look up the steeping guide for this tea and was surprised by the low temperature to brew it with. I usually use boiling or near boiling water for my Earl Greys, but I was willing to try the lower temperature. I steeped it for four minutes.

The liquor was a nice light amber and smelled lightly of bergamot. The taste was light. Very light. I was getting a hint of spice at the end too. I think if I ever have this again I think I might try a slightly hotter temperature.

Trying this again. Steeped this in the fridge for 10 1/2 hours and it’s much better!

The color is very light yellow and it tastes like mango and coconut. Simple syrup adds to the sweetness, which is how I enjoyed the rest.

I believe cold steeping will be the way to go to decupboard this. However, I don’t think this will be a repurchase.

I watched a Today Show segment yesterday titled: “Too Good To Be Healthy”, which featured Tea Forté’s Chocolate Truffle and Coconut Mango Colada teas. I currently have a few boxes of the Chocolate Truffle which I like. Very much. And I wanted to give this a fair shake too, especially after watching Kathie Lee take two sips of this and raving about it during the segment. More than one sip is a good sign usually, right?

I honestly had no intention of buying this tea whatsoever when I went grocery shopping this morning. Since coming home, I have had 3 cups of this. I really want to like it, but two out of the three cups have given me the shivering spine-tingles. This usually happens when I have a red wine that hasn’t had enough time to breathe and mellow – not a good sign.

The packaging says to bring water to a near boil and steep for 5 minutes. I brought the water to 190º and steeped for 5 minutes. Tried it hot, sweetened and iced – ACK! The second time I brought the water up to 174º and steeped for 2 minutes. Tried that version hot, sweetened and iced – ACK! again. The third time I heated the water to 130º for 1:45. This has been the best version so far, iced.

It does taste tropical; Coconut, lime and a bit of pineapple, but I really don’t taste the mango.

I need to try cold steeping this before I completely banish it from the cupboard. Definitely won’t be repurchasing…

Took this with me while I was out of the house and I could not stop drinking it! Coconut and chocolate – sinful on a Sunday morning!

I tried cold brewing this for 11 hours – not great for how I was planning on using it (iced and dirty). This really needs to be brewed the regular way, then iced if it’s to be enjoyed cold. So I reused the 3 teabags in about 4 ounces of boiling water and added that to the cold water the bags had been spending the night in. So much better! Threw it in my tumbler with ice a bit of sweetener and a tad of milk – AWESOME! Really glad I stock up on this one!

I am a little confused: How much caffeine does this really have? Bought a few boxes of this delicious tea at my local big box retailer. On Tea Forté’s box of 16 filterbags it states there “contains very little caffeine”. However on the company’s website it states the caffeine level is “robust”. The ingredient list is the same on both the box and website. I will use this in the morning or afternoon as it does contain some black tea in it.

a very light chocolate taste followed by a hint of coconut. i’d expect something called truffle to be a lot creamier tasting. milk & honey helped flavour it up a bit. for a brand called tea forte, forte meaning strong, i don’t think it’s living up to its name.

apparently contains some caffeine. it’s very minty, even spearminty, i’d say. steeped for 3 minutes at near boiling. i think it could have been set at a lower temp because the bitterness is there a bit. it’s ok. so far i’m not that impressed with Tea Forte. the teas are nice, but don’t have that extra oomf of flavour i crave.

Ahhh….civilization! After 24 hours of radio silence, the hospital where my mom’s having tests has wifi. Funny what small comforts we get dependent on.

This nice little pyramid-bagged sencha is one of those small comforts. It’s not one of those greens that has a temperature sweet spot of less than a quarter degree. Makes a nice, very lightly vegetal cup even with microwave water that isn’t from home.

Wish I could find Tea Forte’ goodies locally. Loved the opportunity to get my hands on some for review:

http://www.itsallabouttheleaf.com/2738/tea-review-tea-forte-sencha/

Won’t say much here, since this is a sample for www.itsallabouttheleaf.com, other than that I love a green tea that doesn’t take much coddling. This is one.