Tea Forte

Thank you Alphakitty! I was excited to try this tea. The aroma of this tea is heavenly. I love the flavors. I can catch some cherry, berry, and almond flavors. It reminds me of a cherry/almond cookie. Mmmm :) thanks again!

This was actually not bad. Kinda reminds me of bread, for some reason. I think milk drowns out the black pepper.

Possibly the worst tea I’ve ever had. It tastes like (cheap, gross) cologne, or maybe wood polish. Or a mix of the two. All I got was that gross faux-citrus; I couldn’t even really taste the base. I love Earl Greys and I’m usually all for strong bergamot flavor, but here it was so heavy and artificial, almost musky. There’s no way I would’ve even recognized this tea as an Earl Grey by taste if I hadn’t know what it was.

I found this tea bag lying around a relative’s house and have no idea how old it might be, so there is that. Still, I see other mentions of cologne-like flavor, so I don’t think it’s just that the tea has gone off.

A coworker of mine got some of this with her Tea forte order and HATES it. So of course I wanted to try it, but have been too much of a wuss to try it until now! Dry, it smells really nice, I get some chocolate notes, smells like something you’d want to eat or drink. As it steeps the smell really changes though. REALLY changes. I get coconut (BLEGH!) and something sour, almost with a vomit quality. This is very unnerving. Underneath the gross smells there is something distinctly hazelnut, but it is overpowered by the other noxious odours.

Trying this one requires another application of my brave face. Diving in! The taste is not so bad as the smell but it’s definitely not good. First I get something I identify as coconut, then there is a hint of chocolate/hazelnut then back to the taste that reminds me of coconut. Which I still hate. This is really not the tea for me. Bleck!

If you don’t like the taste, use it as a sachet… it smells gorgeous! I’ve always wanted to try a cucumber tea and this was my first and last stop. Perfect for icing, super fragrant, very well blended tea.

I absolutely loved this tea. I sampled it at work after someone brought in a sample pack of Tea Forte. I was disappointed that there were only two of this flavour of tea in the sample pack.
It has a mild citrousy taste. I was disappointed to learn, that the tea is only available in the sample pack (and I’m not too keen on the other flavours it comes with).
I have searched for other companies that make this kind of tea, but they appear few and far between.
If ever possible I would love to try this tea made from fresh orange blossoms!!

Dry leaf smell: Like marmalade, but with herbal notes. Rather odd but pleasant nonetheless.
Steeped leaf smell: A bit like a wet hamster.
Taste: I’m not a fan of chamomile, but I guess this wasn’t too bad. Kind of tastes like chrysanthemum tea. The aroma was off-putting though. There also seems to be this pineapple-like aftertaste. I can’t decide if it’s a good or bad thing. Oh but I like the mint in the tea!

Let’s be real here – I love black currant flavoured things. Black Currant Simpkins drops are one of my favourite candies and I am always on the lookout for a tea that can recreate that taste, albeit with a lot less sugar! When a coworker of mine told me she was doing a Tea Forte order, I knew I’d end up tossing in their black currant to try it out. I piked up the 50 gram loose pouch for $7.00 – if it’s good, that’s a decent price for a flavoured black.

The aroma out of the bag is bold and very closely aligned to the Black Currant Drops I so love. MMM, a deep breath of this is lovely. Weary of a potentially bitter base, I am giving this 2.5 – 3 minutes to steep. Steeped, the aroma has diminished but if you get close to the cup it hangs heavy like fog. I wish the smell were as vibrant steeped as dry, but hopefully the taste holds true.

First sips are a good balance of the tea itself and the black currant flavouring. No bitterness but neither is it sweet. I get the sharp flavour of black currant on the back of my tongue, and it builds throughout the sip. I wish there were a little bit more of the black currant, but this is a pretty good balance. I’m not sure if I prefer it to the Twinings Black Currant (one of the best bagged teas I’ve ever had) but it’s very nice. I’m very glad to have a black currant back in my cupboard as before this I only had the dregs of an old batch from Bulk Barn.

Yay tea!

Absolutely awful. Tastes artificial and the sweetness is sickening. I think it’s the combination of berries and vanilla. The liquor is a dark reddish pink, and it tastes just like it’s color.

EDIT: I gave this another shot. My opinion remains unchanged. My mother and friend beg to differ though. They love this tea. Maybe I just don’t like berry teas.

…Okay so I just don’t like coconut. I’m biased.
The coconut tasted rather artificial, and it was overpowering despite being the aftertaste. I couldn’t really detect much else besides the coconut and the tea itself

I actually don’t like ginger teas, but I enjoyed this! My mother is a ginger AND lemongrass fan, and she absolutely adores this tea. Great stuff.

I poured the single steep packet into my infusing basket and it looked to be mostly lemongrass with some bits of ginger and lemon peel thrown in. They smelled a lot like ginger. I can smell lemon too, ginger is definitely dominant though.

I steeped for five minutes in boiling water, result was a cloudy yellowish-green liquor. It smells like lemon.

The ginger is very overwhelming in this. Its really all I can taste. Okay, I can taste the lemongrass and licorice root a little but the ginger is really drowning everything out. Bummer, dude.

Okay so I had another go with this tea, steeping it for longer than recommended and I have to say my experience was better the second time round! Less medicinal, more peach. The mango notes are more subtle. There’s tinge of sourness from either one of the fruits, I think.
An enjoyable and relaxing cup!

Dry leaf smell: Mango, mint, peach.
Steeped leaf smell: Mint; medicinal.
Taste: Weak green tea. I probably should have steeped longer than the recommended time.

Tea dust.

Interesting smell; reminds me of bread somewhat. I like to associate smells with colors, and this smell gives me soft, light-brown vibe (:

The taste is pleasant but not particularly remarkable. Or maybe that’s just me. I think my tastebuds are malfunctioning this morning. I’ll re-assess on a different day I suppose.

The dry leaves smell of lemongrass, a touch of mint and licorice. Also, kind of reminds me of a hay loft because its so floral smelling.

Steeped for five minutes in boiling water. Result was a very clear, golden liquor. The liquor smells sweet and reminds me of butter.

I mostly taste licorice and chamomile with a cool minty aftertaste. Has a very creamy mouthfeel. As I keep drinking, the citron is becoming more apparent. Decent soothing herbal tea.

Surprisingly delicious! This is my first “cucumber” tea, and mixing it with mint sounded a tad odd, but I got it on sale, so. In the end, I don’t regret buying this fabulous tea.

Like drinking perfume. That fragrant, too.

Was feeling sleepy after a long day so I decided to try Tea Forte’s Forte Breakfast blend to wake me up. I’m using a single steeps packet to brew this cup.

Water: Boiling
Steep time: 4 minutes
Dry leaves: Smelled nice but were unfortunately mostly powder.

After steeping the cup smelled fairly decent. The liquor is a very dark brown/red. Taste time.

A tad astringent, but very bold. I usually don’t drink milk in tea but this is one I would consider adding a wee bit. Don’t have much to complain about, but also nothing to rave about either.

Alright, so after my unfortunate experience with Tea Forte’s Earl Gray earlier this evening, I decided to try their Green Mango Peach. Hope this one goes better. ;P

Dry leaves: Smelled very much like peppermint with a hint of mango. The leaves looked better quality than the Earl Gray and expanded nicely too.

I steeped this for three minutes in 175ºF water. The liquor is a nice golden color and smells strangely like NyQuil… Haha. Maybe its just the peppermint and mango mixing, I don’t know. Now what really matters, taste:

The peppermint is definitely the dominant flavor. Tasted medicine-like, just like it smells! I’m getting very light hints of the peach and mango but the peppermint is just drowning them out. At least this is drinkable though.

Fist off, the tea leave are very fine and powder like. They smell VERY strong of bergamot.

I boiled water and poured in a mug and let it steep for 5 minutes per instructions from Tea Forte. The end result being a very dark liquor smelling a bit less of bergamot. I can smell the assam now unlike before. Onto taste, first sip I took tasted nothing like bergamot and very much like pure black assam. Second sip, all I got was bergamot, and not good bergamot, chemical tasting bergamot. I drank about 1/4 of the cup before throwing it out. This tea tasted horrible. Didn’t even taste like tea, just chemicals… I still cant get the taste out of my mouth. Very disappointed.

Oh dear, it’s a rooibos. Rooibos and I don’t really get along, but that’s with one exception: apple cinnamon. I’ll admit right here in front of all of Steepster that I genuinely like Tazo’s Organic Apple Red, which is also a rooibos. (What?! You got something to say?!) I had a feeling that this might be similar, so I’m giving it a chance even though this one uses chocolate instead of caramel.

It smells divine. I actually made a “mmm” noise when I sniffed the bag. I can’t smell the chocolate, but that’s alright. As it steeped, the aroma spread throughout my kitchen. As I sip, I can’t really taste the chocolate either. But more importantly, I can’t taste that strange rooibosness that I dislike so much. This is just a yummy apple cinnamon treat to me. Smooth and comforting, well-spiced without it being too much. Yep, I’ll be picking this one up again, too.