Forsman Tea

This is a pretty tasty Rooibos. I agree with the other reviewer it is chocolaty but in a chocolate liqueur sort of way. I had it plain but I might try messing around with different additions and see how that changes the flavors. I would not buy this normally but it was a nice addition to the Amoda box this month.

This tea is pretty good for a rooibos! Definitely tastes chocolatey, in a chocolate liqueur sort of way, which is surprisingly tasty. Enough rooibos flavour that I can tell it’s there, but it’s not objectionable. Overall, it’s a reasonable selection that I’ll finish off, but not repurchase.

Also, sorry for the very short tasting notes lately. I’m feeling very uninspired…

ETA: Also a good second infusion.

The color of the tea is very light indeed and the scent very sweet and fruit-like. The taste lingers on in your mouth for some time and you each sip seems to enchant you further. I began to miss the smell. Suitable for any situation but a superb tea for me-time and tea lovers. A big surprise from Forsman tea, without a doubt one of their best.

Light, Darjeeling-like in color and with a sweet flowery scent. The taste is quite mild and leaves a slightly bitter aftertaste. Not a flattering tea, but not many teas from Forsman Tea are. Good for company, but not for connoisseurs.

Here’s another tea purchased at the Victoria Tea Festival imported via the Dream Tea Boutique (http://dreamteaboutique.com/).

I’m afraid that I don’t know what a quince is supposed to taste like, never having tried one, and I had to resort to Google to find out what a ‘cherimoya’ even was. But regardless I found the flavour of this tea to be very agreeable. It’s tastes light and fruity with a bit of a tropical tang to it – from the pineapple maybe – as well hints of citrus and apples. I like that this tea company offers something different from the usual flavoured black tea fare. I mean what other company can you think of that can say they carry a cherimoya-flavoured tea?

This tea comes courtesy of the Victoria Tea Festival – a tea store based in Coquitlam called Dream Tea Boutique (http://dreamteaboutique.com/) imports Forsman teas (which is apparently a Finnish? tea company). I haven’t seen Forsman teas for sale anywhere else in the country which is a shame since they have a nice selection of both flavoured and unflavoured tea.

The black tea base they use is a smooth, light Ceylon that compliments the fruity flavours without being weak. The cantaloup flavours are nice and not too strong or artificial and I can taste a hint of the dried pineapple in there too. I bet this would be lovely iced.

Tried this one at the Victoria Tea Festival too. The packages of this were flying off the shelf. There were two left, and once the exhibitor announced that, people snatched them up. Must be some psychological trick. Granted, it does smell great dry. Very tart. While I could smell the pineapple, the cherimoya was most likely the amped up note. I never smelled cherimoya before, but it’s supposed to be like a mixture of tropical fruit.

But all of that exciting pineapple, cherry, pear, papaya, etc nuances vanish when you take a sip. Bolder than expected, and barely any fruit flavour. Oh well.

Sampled this at the Victoria Tea Festival. One of the exhibitors was saying that this is their best-selling tea. While I can see that, since most of the others smelled very underwhelming, the taste was a little too artificial to me. Yes, it was in-your-face pear. You couldn’t have mistaken it at all. Seeing that this is a Finnish tea, it makes sense why this may be one of their strongest since pear is a ridiculously popular flavour in Scandinavia.

I almost bought some just because I wanted a sencha. But ultimately passed. I had to ask myself, “Wait a minute, do you even like pear tea?” Not really.

No notes yet.

Ahhh, the seasons. The bane and joy of one’s existence, especially in a land containing all four of them! Added with all the nice holidays life is grand, especially when one has the mind as dirt-, ahem, inventive, as yours truly. If you still regard seasonal candy as innocently as children I’m not tarnishing your mind. For now.

To celebrate a phenomenon called vacation (a word far too unused for art people so we need the society around us to remind us for that small thing) I’ve decided to dedicate this post to all the strange Christmas teas found from my cupboard, which were promptly forgotten after receiving them from a classmate since she isn’t a tea drinker.

Therefore the tea name on this post has actually very little to do with these teas, except that the provider is the same in most of them. And it’s all white outside. With horisontal snowing and over knee-high snow banks. Not kidding.

Ratings: naughty / nice

‘Green Christmas Tea’ by Forsman Tea; green sencha flavoured with cherry, grapes, white chocolate and orange peel bits.
First sniff: sweet, getting some notes on a subtle choco and orange, otherwise very dodgy aroma. A little twist of greeness in the scent.
Initial sip: …Taste..? Ah, there it- ick. Ugh. Ew. Not nice. Definitely not nice.
Naughty, naughty tea!

’Santa’s kiss’ by Forsman Tea: black loose leaf tea spiced with cherry, grapes, white chocolate and orange peel bits – should I be worried at this point?
First sniff: almost identical without the previous tinge of green (obviously), somehow the sweetness is actually stronger now..sweet orange.
Initial sip: I’ve been kissed a lot better than this. Sloppy Santa.
Naughty.

‘Christmas Tea of Health and Well-being’ (rough translation, but that’s what it screams at me) by Forsman Tea: First off, it’s rooibos. Flavoured with cinnamon, vanilla and orange and I quote: “velvety flavour”. I should really worry now.
First sniff: the sweetness that rooibos usually has on its own is now increased with something that is NOT cinnamon NOR vanilla but a twisted version of orange infused with…something vanilla-ish-if-you-push-your-imagination-hard-enough. As it brews the scent takes turn for worse. Starting to think it wasn’t so good idea to taste all of these pouches at once – I might just cripple my taste buds.
First sip: My tongue is going to hate me for a while.
Naughty.

‘Christmas Tea (Selected Quality)’ by Lipton: black tea with spices (they mention cinnamon), rosehip, orange peel…and ‘flavours’. Oh the joys of mystery in Christmas season, eh..
First sniff: Okay, there seems to be some berries in it…maybe lingon or cranberry…and I see some cloves as well, that’s nice…and some small little things I can’t seem to pinpoint, maybe some peppers..? Sadly the scent is only sweet with no traces of other layers and the orange peel dominates a lot. Oh well. Here we go.
Initial sip: Seemingly tasteless at first, a very thin taste afterwards..it was an opened pouch so I’m guessing it has aged before given in this household, since the scent while brewing was way better than the previous three. Plain. Simple. Now getting somewhat ‘old’, muffled taste. Definitely not the best teas I’ve enjoyed but from this foursome this is the nicest.
Nice.

And now some chai to wash my mouth.

My old rooibos bag ran out, so I decided to buy bit different. This is rooibos, with chamomile and rosehip-oil. I noticed that they get stuck in my teeli-filter, cleaning it takes some time.

Dry leaves smell very sweet, and there is some chamomile visible. It tastes sweet, but its missing the “fruitiness” of teekauppa.fi rooibos. Chamomile doesn’t contribute much to taste, neither do rosehip. Maybe next time I use 2 teaspoons, instead of 1.

This was my first “blooming” tea. This was fun to watch the little ball of green tea bloom and release a string of what I believe are jasmine flowers. (That was a surprise.. I didn’t expect jasmine!) I’m surprised the longer steep time to watch the flower unfurl didn’t make the flavor of the tea bitter. The flavor is great too! Green tea with jasmine. Very fresh, grassy with a lingering floral flavor. Sadly, I watched the hauntingly creepy movie ‘Eraserhead’ so the bloom might have reminded me of odd bits and pieces from that movie. Seriously, what is the deal with that movie? But I won’t let it ruin this tea!

This tea was really good! I just finished the bag today. I was quite surprised at the quality, as usually the pre-packaged teas you get from supermarkets aren’t that delicious. However, this one was very smooth and difficult to overbrew. Though the package didn’t specify which kinds of tea were included, it was a nice blend that went well with milk, but was even better plain. I’ll definitely buy this again.

A very straight-forward tea. Dry leaves smell of apricot, leather and a hint of smokiness. Taste is sharp and strong, a little bit of orange on the background. Packs a punch so works well as a wake-up tea in the mornings.

I bought this tea mostly because I thought the package looked cool. It smells mostly fruity and slightly malty, and the leaf is pretty with the cornflower and marigold bits. The taste isn’t interesting, and though it leaves a minty feeling on the tongue, there’s no strong mint flavor. I can’t taste the vanilla either, but there is a hint of blueberry at the back of the tongue. It’s not a horrible tea, but much more boring than I thought it would be.

This is only an alright chai tea. It tastes very strongly of cardamom so that it’s difficult to pick out the other flavors in the blend. It’s good with milk and sweetener, especially in the morning. I won’t buy it again as there are so many better “chais” out there, but I’m enjoying what I have left.

No notes yet.

I’m still wondering how they could make a fruity green tea that I don’t like.

No notes yet.

Disappointment. I bought this thinking it would be like other fruity green teas of this brand, but it is terrible. The name was alluring and the description promising. I don’t know why it doesn’t suit my taste. I’m on the verge of throwing it in the compost bin.

No notes yet.

Taste is too artificial.

God, this sounds terrible. Please do not use the venerable name “tea” to describe this concoction!

The taste is superficial.