Tea Forte Noir Caramel Nougat

Sipdown 77

This was not good. I’ve been generally unimpressed with the Tea Forte sampler I got.
Had a really strong synthetic caramel flavor that was not tasty at all.

A co-worker received this from her mother and passed it along to me as she’s not a tea person (blasphemy!) Usually I detest when people try to buy or give me tea because 9/10 times I have better tasting ones at home, but I decided to give it a go because caramel nougat sounds like a great flavour and the blend is ostensibly organic.

I pretty much just brewed this Western style (96°C for 4 minutes) and was expecting a sweet desert tea like something from David’s Tea or another equally experimental company, but it completely took me by surprise and is way more savoury!

A caramel/malt flavour is definitely in your face, which I love, and I’m happy to report that it’s not much more sweet than a typical black tea. I can taste a bit of the hazelnut too which I assume is supposed to be the nougat part of the blend. Everything tastes balanced and is tied together by rather good black tea. Overall I’d say they did a great job emulating caramel nougat, and to be frank this is a pretty damn good blend. I probably won’t buy it, but I might order it at a cafe if I saw it somewhere.

I found this fascinating sounding tea at our Home Goods store. I was familiar with Tea Forte but not this selection. The price was so low that I was unable to resist.

When I opened the metal tin and snipped open the clear plastic bag, I found black leaves peppered with yellow marigold flower petals.

The aroma was very strong. I could sift out the powerful caramel and butter attributes. All ingredients and flavors are listed as organic and natural. If so, they were somehow supercharged to produce some of the strongest smells that I’ve experienced in an unbrewed black tea.

I strictly followed the company’s brewing instructions and steeped the leaves for five minutes at 212 degrees. The finished product was a dark golden orange. The aroma was pure caramel.

The taste was quite potent. The flavors screamed caramel and butter with a flowery whisper in the background. My palate was so bombarded with these attributes that I wasn’t sure where the taste ended and the aftertaste began. I did notice that the aftertaste lingered…and lingered…and lingered.

It is unusual to find a black tea with flavors that are too robust for me but this one is definitely on the cusp. The overall taste isn’t unpleasant and I can’t say that astringency is a problem. However, at least in the morning, this selection is too much for my drowsy taste buds to process. Maybe it would be better received in the early afternoon when I’m already dueling with the issues of my day.