Tea Forte

1 pyramid for 250mL water, bare.

So Tea Forte winsthe tea sachet design award. I love the pyramids with the little leaf tag. I try not to think of how wasteful the pyramids, with all their packaging, are. I just got the Tea Forte Sanctuary box (white ginger pear, jasmine green, sencha, silk oolong) as a gift, and I intend to enjoy it.

A very good silk (aka milk) oolong. Not as toasty-creamy as the Quangzhou from DavidsTea, but still very, very nice. Greener and more vegetal — I think I stepped it too long — with a hint of bitterness. Yeah, just have steeped too long. But definitely a buttery silk oolong, and quite silky at that.

Pretty sure that’s full leaf in the pyramid. And dang, those pyramid infusers are handy.

Yeah, IE 9 doesn’t talk to the slider bars below. Hmph. So, 4 minute steep with 87 degree water (estimated), ratng of 88.

This tea wasn’t bad- a solid english breakfast. I love that it is decaf, so I can drink it any time that I am craving a black tea. I’m not getting many distinct flavor notes, a little malt, perhaps. I haven’t tried this brand before, I’m looking forward to tasting some of their other offerings!

This was part of the single-steep package I bought along with my Kati (which I still love). Um…I’m gonna hold off rating this one right now until I can control the conditions a bit more. It really smelled and tasted medicinal and kinda icky. I got hints of its potential, but I wanna hold off total judgment until I bring some home to try with good water and an accurate kettle. But until then, M.

In the mood for a little more tea today! I thought this flavored white would be a nice afternoonish cup. Thanks AGAIN Jaime!)

The pear is lovely, and the white tea is quite nice! I’m not getting ginger, but rather black pepper, which is a little disconcerting paired with the pear. Not entirely unpleasant, but it’s “harshing my mellow” as the kids say. ;) I like it enough to not only finish my cup, but also do a resteep, but I don’t think I’ll run out and buy this particular tea. I would totally try another white tea from Tea Forte, or really any Tea Forte, because I like the tea base and the pear. It’s just the black pepper I mean ginger that I’d stay away from!

Jamie, again, thank you!

EDIT: Oh I forgot to tell you guys about my tea dream! Last night I had a dream where my husband said “It’s so cold in here! We have to go to the mall and get a cup of tea!” and I said "Why do we have to go to the mall?! (I think I’ve already told you all about my aversion to the mall) and he said “To get a cup of tea!” so we went to the mall and everything was closed! I said “Look! It’s so early that all the stores are closed and we can’t get a cup of tea!!” and I woke up!

Here is my Analysis:

tea: I must have REALLY been craving a cup of tea but I projected this desire onto my husband.

mall: ANXIETY! I hate the mall! I think the mall stands for my final project that I am having terrible anxiety about.

cold: this is literal. It’s so cold here and I think I was cold in my sleep! I woke up and all the covers were sort of bunched up around my dog and not on me!!!

so early: It was 4am-ish and I kinda knew that even whilst sleeping ;)

Wow — I get a bit inactive and all this craziness happens in the Steepsterverse! (Okay, so it was a lot inactive). Well, today I brought my newly purchased Kati cup-thingy and single-serving samples from Tea Forte to work (putting the packets in my newly purchased Tardis cookie jar!). Then I chose the Earl Grey to try my first cup in the Kati. Then I steeped. Then I had a small rush of patrons and got back to the cup several minutes later. Yeah. Undrinkable. I think that I may also need to rinse the leaves first since even when I went back and had a second much-shorter steep I was getting the “Pledge-furniture polish” sensation. But I did finish that cup. But I’m able to rate this fairly — so no rating for now.

All that said, I’m really loving this cup. It’s been crazy-cold in our library and the warmth of the cup was a bit of heaven on earth. I realized that with my other mugs I tended to turn the mug so that the handle was facing away from me. So this is the perfect mug to hold like that with no handle in the way.

I also started to get that feeling of “nom — tea is nummy” that I haven’t had for most of the summer. I’m hoping to get back to posting more often, at least between now and when I need to buckle down and focus on getting accepted into the Master’s Program.

I shouldn’t have tried this on a day when I have a bad cold. It smells good, and I thought the spiciness was going to come bursting through the stuffiness and let me taste the tea, but alas! It was not to be! I can smell the cardamom and clove, and they smell so bracing and bright, but I can’t taste them much and that is probably the fault of my cold and not the tea. Because my tasting ability is off, readers should probably disregard this review if you want an accurate picture of how this tea tastes! I can’t even taste the black pepper that two others mentioned! Do I detect a citrus scent, or is that just the spice?

A friend from India gave me chai once and her recipe was very close to this one, but another Indian acquaintance was horrified at the thought of including black pepper in chai, so I guess the recipe varies widely by region. It smells really nice with this cold, so while I am not planning to drink it I do plan top cuddle the cup and sniff it!

I had a cup yesterday. very decent strong black tea.

Smells like hibiscus. Which is… KIND of a rasberryish smell?

First few sips, I’m getting a surprisingly un-hibiscusy sour taste. Don’t know what it is.

I can’t, for the life of me, understand why hibiscus is at the TOP of the ingredients list in all these kinds of blends. It’s too powerful, put more of the actual intended flavours in. As it cooled I only got hibiscus.

I ALMOST think I taste raspberry, but I’m not sure. It was mentioned to try this iced, and I guess I probably should. Still, it’s a very pretty shade of red.

The tea’s cooled, and I’m starting to pick up a bit more raspberry.

Backlogging. The only chocolate/peppermint blend I have enjoyed because the peppermint usually overwelms the chocolate. I could taste the peppermint and the the chocolate. And abit of sugar made this nice and sweet. This was a good tea.

Thank you to TeaEqualsBliss for sending me some of this!

YUM!

I steeped my cup for 8 minutes, which results in a very strong and pleasant cup, the two ingredients (lemon peel and peppermint) taste very vibrant. A very nice night-time cup!

More detailed review is up at http://www.itsallabouttheleaf.com/ (with some other really enjoyable tea & product reviews - I’m enjoying reading them.)

Really nice—a nice round fruity taste, not tart and none of that nasty hibiscus hiding behind the good stuff :o)

But I’m wondering … do you consider black currants to be more grape-ity or more blackberry-ish? I am having to re-think my opinion.

Thanks for the free sample tea forte. Backlogging. Now i am netural on earl greys. This smells like earl grey only with a bit more orange. I steeped it up. I could really taste the black tea with some bergamot and some orange. This would be good for someone that likes earl grey with more orange. I just thought it was decent.

Thanks tea forte for another free sample. Backlogging. Dry this smells like chamomile,lemon,and abit of peppermint. I steep this up. Smell I can now smell the peppermint more. This taste like chamomile with some lemon and abit of peppermint. Now to me this is decent because the lemon is too strong to me and I prefer spearmint to peppermint,but I think this is a fairly good herbal.

Thank you Tea Forte for the samples and the kati cup system. Backlogging Dry this smells like mango and peppermint. I steeped this for a short time because of the green tea. This tastes like mango with some peppermint and some green tea and abit of green honeybush. I did not taste the ginger though. I think this is really good and I think the combo of the mango and peppermint is interesting.

This was a free sample of loose Earl Grey from Tea Forte. I don’t think I can give this a rating because I really hate Earl Grey tea. I did try a few swallows of this because I am supposed to review it, but I can’t tell you if it is a good Earl Grey or not.

The loose tea leaves smelled like a old man’s cologne. Once brewed it tasted very bitter and actually tasted like someone poured cologne in my tea. I really really don’t like Earl Grey. I had to rinse my mouth out and I can still taste it. Caveat – this is what all Earl Grey’s taste like to me.

I really appreciate the sample from Tea Forte so that I could try it but it’s definitely not my thing.

Link to full review and pics:
http://parkcityvegan.blogspot.com/2010/04/tea-fortes-kati-loose-tea-system-and.html

Blegh. This should just be called Ginger Ginger Ginger. And I like ginger but this has the same medicinal scent/taste that Apricot Amaretto does, both dry and brewed. Maybe I tried this too soon after that experience, but I had to pour this baby out. Sadness!!!

I have to mention how beautiful all of Tea Forte’s packaging and the actual teas look – which is why I have about 15 more flavors on hand to try! I am a little worried.

The hotel I stayed at on my trip served this one as my complimentary breakfast beverage when I requested hot tea. Honestly the packaging thrilled me more than the tea itself. The little pyramid shaped bag was in a tiny single serving box the same shape as the bag. The shape was nice because it sits flat on the bottom of the tea cup, and the little bendy tag with the leaf on the end was really adorable! Not bad for free hotel tea I guess shrug I added sugar and a squeeze of lemon.

Writing this as I sip my first brew and wait for the resteep… if you watch How I Met Your Mother then you know what I mean when I say this is how I imagined a Thankstini to taste! Dry, it smells lovely. It is a beautiful looking blend and produces a beautiful color! I used boiling water and steeped for 5 min, per the instructions. Upon tasting, I get overwhelmed by the scent of sage and then the tartness of (too much) hibiscus hits my tongue. I tried adding a little agave in an attempt to bring out the blueberry. Not a huge improvement but it isn’t necessarily bad. I am sensitive to sage so to me this smells like a box of Stove Top stuffing (mixed with tart “berry”, hence the Thankstini reference!). I really want to like this so I am giving it another chance; hopefully the resteep will give me what I want.

Holy cherry cough syrup, Batman! Apricot Amaretto is the first of the Herbal Retreat single steeps sampler that I’ve tried – and since I’m talking firsts, it is my FIRST EVER LOOSE LEAF BREW and this, well, is my first Steepster review! I’ve been a fan of tea for about a decade and only recently got into truly expanding my tastes and my knowledge of the art of tea. Anyway, back to the tea: I normally love anything almondy, amaretto scented or flavored. That said, I was appalled at my first whiff of the dry tea. Total cherry cold medicine smell. I brewed it with boiled water for five minutes and while it retained its fragrance, I can’t really TASTE anything. I added some agave and still… MEH. Can’t imagine icing this will help much. Now I have two single steeps left I will probably never use!

Dry, this tea smells strong of Ceylon tea and candy like blackberry scent. Brewed the tea is much more pomegranate smelling. Slightly sour, not too sweet.

The hot brewed tea tastes like tart pomegranate, but not so tart it is puckering. I added about 2 tsp of sugar and chilled over ice. The iced tea tastes of slightly sweet but still tart pomegranate. There is still a candied blackberry taste. The Ceylon base is medium strength under the fruity flavour. It is just bordering astringent. Brewed this one for 4 minutes in 24 oz boiling water.

Brewed this one up iced as per recommendations. 24 oz boiling water for 5 minutes, then chilled. I added 2 tsp white sugar.

The dry tea sachet smelled sweet but spicey, a strong Ceylon. The iced tea was quite strong, there was definitely some astringency but it was mild. It may have been better steeped for a but less time. The tea tastes bold, slightly earthy, there is a light spicey flavour, more pepper spicey. The sugar sweetens it up to make a delicious iced tea.

Will be trying to re-steep.

Edit: Re-steeped this using 24 oz boiling water for 4 minutes. Didn’t turn out terribly good. It is still drinkable. The tea is very light, not really strong enough to be enjoyable. It is much sweeter than the first steep.

This is a wonderful light jasmine! The green tea is clearly of good quality, and neither flavor/aroma overpowers the other, which is nice. Next time I think I’ll let the water cool down a bit more though- it’s just a wee bit scalded with a 2:45 steep time ~2:00 post boiling.