Apricot Amaretto

Thank you for the free sample tea forte. I taste the apricot and the honeybush/roobios. And find this a fairly good but wish the apricot was somewhat stronger.

This one just doesn’t stand out for me. I’ve been sipping at it all night and it just…I don’t know. Ten seconds after a sip, I can’t tell you what it tastes like.

I taste a bit of juicy peach, but overall, it just tastes like tea to me…which is neat, seeing as how there’s no tea in it >.>.

I received a sample of this tea along with four other herbals that I will be reviewing this week. Since I had five of them, I decided to begin with the Apricot Amaretto. My first impression was that I really loved the smell. The aroma is sweet, and I could immediately pick out the apricot, peach and almond notes. The fruit dominated the dry leaves and I was pretty interested in how it would taste. I used my perfect tea maker to infuse it. I generally brew herbals around 208ish and the instructions on the back said to let it steep for 5 minutes. I loved out dark it got when it brewed, but the fruit smell began to fade as it steeped and the almondy flavors became much stronger.

I let it cool to about 140 degrees and took my first sip. The almondy amaretto was very strong, so much so that it really overwhelmed and took over the apricot and peach notes that I’d smelled when I first opened the packet. I drank the cup with no sweetener, because I try not to sweeten a cup of a new tea when I first tried it. However, while it wasn’t a terrible tea, I was really hoping for that fruit that the title promised, leaving me a bit disappointed. Its tasty enough and would be interesting to try iced or sweetened, but I only had enough for the one cup. By the time I’d finished my first, I wasn’t interested in trying to re-steep it and see. I might pick up a small amount on my next tea order and try it again, but at the moment, I’m not that impressed.

Still, a lovely almond flavor so if that is what you are hoping for, you’ll be satisfied.

really nice, sweet amaretto flavour.
i find that these ‘single steeps’ packets are good for at least two cups, otherwise it would be way too strong, all that tea in one cup!

The first I tried from the sampler. It actually does smell and taste a bit like amaretto. Not exactly amaretto but reminiscent. Props for that. The apricot/peach flavors are like candied or dried apricot/peaches. Sweet, tasty, pleasant. I enjoyed it. It tasted best at a certain point between hot and warm, before it started approaching cool. I couldn’t really taste all of the flavors until it got to that perfect warm point. I also had to hunt for the flavors a little bit. It wasn’t bad, just wasn’t impressive. If I could put the tea on some kind of flavor steroids that would just enhance and boost the existing flavors, I’d like it more. It’s like, if you had a hot peach amaretto cocktail and watered down all the flavors you would get this tea. Pleasant enough to drink if it’s around, but not something I’d see myself going out to buy.

Thanks to Tea Forte for their sampler! I must mention the great packaging, which isas relaxing as the tea. Very nice.
I can see why this one gets top billing; of all of them it’s my favorite. It really tastes like dried apricot, and feels well rounded by the rooibos, much to my surprise. Not too sweet and fruity floral like chamoile. I can only imagine how great this would be iced. Without caffeine or a need for eye popping sugar, I would call this the perfect summer sunset tea.

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!

(Backlogging)

Based on two experiences: my wife’s and my own

Experience buying from Tea Forte: Positive. Website is very colorful and easy to navigate. Sent free samples after responding to an invitation on Steepster. Package came in reasonable amount of time. Other than sending my address, no e-mail or phone contact.

Age of leaf: Unknown. Steeped within weeks of receiving.

Packaging: Creative: each tea came in a silver and somewhat transparent plastic bag with five smaller “Single Steeps” packs attached to a colorful paper backing describing each tea. The tiny tea foil packs themselves are the most colorful and most professional-looking tea packages I have ever seen—with a picture of the fruit that the tea replicates prominently displayed on it.

Dry leaf: smelled just like I remember Amaretto tasting!

Brewing guidelines: (package states 12 oz. I used closer to 16 oz.) I used a metal basket strainer inside a ceramic 16 oz. Cup. Two steepings: 1st: boiling, 3mins. 2nd: boiling, 5 mins. (hours later). Small amount of Stevia added.

Aroma: smelled pretty much like the dry leaf, but not as strong.

Color of liquor: dark brown.

Wet leaf: << I can’t remember >> : (

Flavor: Like amaretto! A bit too strong, and possibly too tart.

Value: Free sample, but their price on their website is more than I would be willing to pay if I purchased it.

Overall: I have always liked the taste of amaretto, and it is fun to smell it and taste it in the tea, but that flavor overpowers everything else in the cup. Then again, it may not be designed to taste like a tea.

I grabbed this one at random from my jar of random teas to sample. My first few sips were pretty tasty. Definitely could taste the amaretto and apricot initially. I found the amaretto to be stronger than the apricot. There wasn’t much of a scent to the tea though. Overall, I found this to be rather lackluster.

Sipdown 35

Mehhhh. Smells vaguely like amaretto and overripe stone fruit. Tastes like generic fruit with a medicinal aftertaste. Not a fan.