Tea Forte

Sipdown #5.

I’m motivated to get through a lot of old teas since I’m moving apartments next month. I know tea doesn’t take up much space but it just feels good to get rid of things for a move. Especially since I’ve held onto this for a whopping 7 years.

I don’t like this. I think the worst part is that it smells like vomit more than it does chocolate and that’s all that I’m thinking about as I sip it. Not nearly chocolatey or nutty enough. But not so bad that I won’t finish a cup. It’s just blergh. And it’s been blergh since I first tried it in 2014.

Edit: Reading other reviews, I realized I must have gotten a bad batch. Only one other person seems to have an experience similar to mine.

Last traveling tea box sample from 2020. Hmm this is much more mildly flavored than I expected. Hot, it tastes like rather plain black tea. I’m not really getting caramelized sweetness here. I imagined it being much richer than this. Once it had cooled, the base was a bit more metallic than I prefer, but I also got some burnt caramel hints, which were pleasant. I feel like I did get some nougat in the end, but I wish the flavors were stronger.

18 below (F) when we got up this morning! After that, the balmy 12 degrees we’re expecting tonight calls for beach party drinks.

But instead, I’m capping off a long day with Spiced Ginger Plum. While we’re still frozen sounds like a good opportunity to knock out all the chai stuff I didn’t get to around Christmas.

It leads with too much hibiscus, but there is something plummy and fruitcakey once you get the hibby out of the way. It might be better sweetened, but I’m near the bottom of the cup and I’m just too (spiced ginger) plumb tired to get up.

Bundle up, y’all.

Sipdown #2! Glad to finish this one off. I loved this blend as part of a sampler I got waaaay back in college, so I got a tin of it a little while later. Definitely got a worse batch of it as this time it felt way too fruity, artificial, and kinda thin. The sample on the other hand was creamier, earthier, and rich with that vanilla rooibos flavor I’m usually so in love with.

From the sampler box. There is chocolate (not quite enough for me); there is rose (a little too much for me), but it performs exactly as advertised. Tea Forte recommends it with milk. I recommend it with a Russell Stover chocolate cream. Adds a little elegance to a glumpy afternoon, the highlight of which has been vacuuming cat hair and folding far too many loads of laundry.

Could’ve been the sheer pleasure of sitting down after a full-press curriculum writing day and not having to think, but the scent of the both the tea pyramid and the steeped cup was so crisp and delightful, my eyes rolled back in my head.The flavor reminded me of crisp Granny Smith slices, and neither the rooibos nor the spices interfered with the apple-y goodness. Just had one pyramid from a sampler box, and I’m regretting drinking it so quickly.

DO NOT under any circumstance stick your nose in the tin. Let me save you the pain of having ginger straight up the nose. It is not the most pleasant experience but with how COVID can rid one of their sinus ability maybe it’s not such a bad thing. Take a look and you’ll first notice how very broken the leaf is. Sad to see for a white tea. But seeing as how it’s organic one doesn’t have to worry about them using a pesticide-induced leaf on the bottom of the bush. The flavor is very interesting. The ginger adds a nice spicy kick, but not too spicy, it doesn’t make your mouth pucker like ginger sometimes does. The pear adds a lot of sweetness. There is a bit of earthy flavor when you first take a sip but the lemon immediately follows with a wham of pear and the flavors. Suddenly I am reminded of the green sour gumballs. It’s not bad but I honestly don’t think I could have another cup. It’s a bit too much in my mouth. Unfortunately, the white tea is too muted.

Well, hello there! Long time no steep.

It doesn’t look like this blend is available loose yet; it was an entry in the little pyramid gift box I received for Christmas. (I am in love with the little triangular Tea Forte boxes and refuse to pitch them until I can figure out how to recycle them into a game or craft for my Sunday kids). But I digress.

I approached with great caution, since the ingredients consist largely of two things I don’t like—hibiscus and licorice. Strangely, they cancel each other out, and what is left is a reasonably neutral fruit tea. I am not sure I completely got “cherry” out of it; if I did, it was fruit-cherry and not candy-cherry. Not bad for something I probably wouldn’t have selected on my own.

The dry leaves had a nice apricot scent which translated nicely into fruit flavor that lasted throughout the whole cup. The almond/amaretto was secondary, but detectable. That’s OK; I have terrible luck with almond stuff getting bitter, so less was more.

Good for a bedtime that I’m going to have to adjust to accommodate going back to work come Monday.

I couldn’t pick up much scent from the little Tea Forte pyramid sachet. (But they are so cute and I am in love with the little triangular boxes…) So I went overboard and started the cup bag-in. You pick up the raspberry first; sweet, not tart, with the chocolate following very subtly in the background.

Then I got distracted (imagine that!) watching “25 Words or Less,” my vacation game show addiction, and it started heading toward bitterness. So between rounds, I removed the sachet, added some milk and reheated. With a little creaminess added to the mix, I think the bottom of the cup was better than the top.

Greetings from the middle of a sunbeam on my living room floor. I got up to second-steep this tea and Tazo snitched my chair for a nap. (Cats clearly run this house.)

Among the jing-tinklers and tum-tinglers under the tree was a really glamorous presentation-box sampler of Tea Forte sachets, and this one caught my eye first. The first steep was nicely deep and dark and raisiny, with some truly authentic biscotti flavor. There’s chamomile in here, too, says the label—I always like it balanced against black tea.

I’ve dispensed with 2/3 of the second round and have to hunt around a little harder for the raisin flavor, although it’s still viably present.

Hope you’ve found a sunbeam to bask in today, physically or otherwise. This dark, dreary world needs a lot more light. Merry Christmas.

This is so delicious. I totally get both peach and creme brulee from this. The flavoring is done so well. The black tea tastes a little old, but I got it from a tea box, so that may be the case. So yeah, I absolutely love the flavoring here, but the base isn’t great.

Now this is a fantastic rooibos. It’s one of those where you take a mouthful and go whoa. It’s not super almondy, but the bit that comes through really elevates the flavor as a whole. I’m so glad I had the opportunity to try this one. I would certainly buy some of this for myself.

This ended up more light and floral than I imagined, but the flavor is definitely enjoyable when it cools. It’s one that tastes a little different with each sip. I like the rooibos that Tea Forte uses. I see that it gets mixed reviews, but I’m definitely feeling more on the positive side about this one.

I brewed this and then left it in the fridge overnight. It turned out a bit murky from the mint. I guess I should have made the effort to drink it in the same day. The orange comes across quite sharp and cleanerish. I wish I had enough of this to try again with different brewing parameters because this doesn’t taste very pleasant, but maybe my methods aren’t doing it justice.

(Catching up on old tastings…)

This is from the Tea Forte “single steeps” sampler that my sister bought for me to bring me into loose leaf tea. It was the first one I tried and with a little sugar it was to die for. The rest of the flavours in the sampler went quickly downhill from there, but I did drink them in the order I expected to enjoy most.

Before joining Steepster I’d already tried each flavour once as the full package as suggested, but the only flavour that worked for me at full strength was the Strawberry Apple. Such a great taste. Was so disappointed when I learned it wasn’t sold on its own. That’s what made me start looking around for more teas and yea, I’ve made two tea orders since haha…

Anyway, this tea has smaller “leafy bits” than the other loose leaf teas I’ve tried. Smells kind of apple/citrusy when dry and right when the boiling water hits, it has a very strong apple cider type smell.

I steeped half a package this time for 5 minutes at boiling, just to see how it would taste at half strength. Would love to stretch these last two “singles” to four more cups instead of two because this tea’s just so delicious and it’s unlikely that I will buy this sampler again just for this one tea.

The tea once steeped turns out an amber colour and still has the apple cider smell to it, though not as strong with the loose tea removed. Again I added a bit of sugar (I couldn’t remember if I’d added sugar the first time I tried it, so I tasted it this time before without the sugar, and it definitely tastes better to me with the sugar.)

Not as absolutely amazing as last time, but it’s still a delicious light-tasting afternoon drink. I have no problem at all drinking this at half-strength. I can definitely taste both the apple and the strawberry quite strongly. Not really picking up the citrus taste that I was smelling in the dry tea though.

As half strength, I’d probably rate this tea 85. At full strength though, 95.

Updated cup count from 3 single steep packs: 2 (1.5 single steep packages left.)

Would I buy this again? If they sold it separately, in a heart beat. But I’m not going to buy a set of teas that most I don’t find that good, just to get more of this one.

Tea contains no Yuzu, and has a terrible strong grapefruit flavor. Wife lovingly bought me this for Xmas and I could not drink it at all due to my hatred of grapefruit.

As afternoon tea I took this one from their Single Steeps solution. I have it for ages, but it was small foil wrapping with loose leaf – I thought it will be still okay.

And it was – okay.

Expected some weird, bad spicy notes and alcohol, but apparently I did not noticed any of them. I experienced mostly cloves and another spices with chocolate notes. Yep, it was like chai hot chocolate but somehow mild. It was pretty nice. Maybe little notes of biscuits were there as well.

If I take into account that it is really old one (I really have no idea), it was still pretty nice.

Prepared grandpa, 300 ml glass cup; almost boiling water.

Arby Advent Day 13
I accidentally knocked this over in my fridge and spilled most of it, so I only have a few sips to review. I definitely get both the hibiscus and the berry. It’s pretty tart. The flavor isn’t that tasty for some reason. There’s just a weird third flavor in there that isn’t great. I don’t mind sour hibiscus blends – this one just isn’t done that well.

Good flavor without being overpowering with the turmeric or spices & herbs.

I feel like I should have liked this tea more than I did. Every word I would use to describe it is how I describe my favorite breakfast teas. And yet…. I don’t know, something just didn’t work for me with this tea. It was enjoyable, but it didn’t blow me away.

Sipdown (689)!

This is maybe my favourite of the sampler!? But it’s a hesitant maybe…

Started off ok; sweeter rooibos based chai with the generic cinnamon/ginger notes to it and a nice, strong vanilla element to the cup as well. Weirdly, it loosely gave me rootbeer float vibes at first between the cinnamon/mild spices and assertive vanilla flavour combined with the natural sweetness of the rooibos base. I left the teabag in while I drank though, and boy oh boy that was a mistake! It got sickly sweet, and the spices took on this unpleasant taste that was almost like body odour. But sweet body odour…

Barf.

Might be ok; but keep steep time short is my advice.