Tea Forte

This is the tea that led to my discovery that not all teas are created equal. Until I stumbled across this, Republic of Tea is about as exotic as I’d gotten!

Due to a mix-up with our room at the W Hotel in Time Square (tagged along on my hubby’s business trip), we got a free continental breakfast. I opted for tea over coffee and was charmed by the fancy silk pyramid shaped infusers with the cute little leave that sticks out the top.

When I took my first sip, I was in heaven. This is the smoothest, most flavorful tea I’d ever tasted and was instantly hooked. I came home and immediately placed a $70 order with Tea Forte! My first order was a huge variety in the infusers. I actually had the non-decaffeinated version in New York and wanted to try the decaf before committing to a whole canister. I can’t tell the difference between the two.

While I’ve discovered several more I enjoy, the English Breakfast remains my favorite. It also blends very nicely with fruity teas.

I will also preface my review with saying that I can understand why many tea aficionados wouldn’t like this tea. As previously stated, it’s not very “tea-ish!” I also like fruity teas (when I’m not sipping a nice, traditional black). I love this one and it’s currently in my Tea Forte shopping cart.

I’ve had it at least twice – most recently yesterday. All have been in the silk pyramid infusers (not the traditional loose variety, though with Tea Forte, I’m not sure there’s a huge difference). Used boiling water and steeped for approximately 5 minutes. My most recent cup was blended with a 1:2 ratio (by liquid volume) of English Breakfast (also Tea Forte).

I’m still very much a tea novice, so I’ll skip the reviews of the aroma and whatnot, but will comment about the color – it’s gorgeous! It seemed a shame to pour it into my metal thermos.

It is no doubt extremely tart, but I take all my tea with an obscene amount of sugar, so that isn’t a problem for me. It does NOT taste like cough syrup to me, nor do I get any of the vodka taste that some people have mentioned. My immediate reaction both times was that it tastes like a Sweet Tart. It mellows as it cools (and I prefer my tea on the cool side, anyway) – I think it would be fantastic iced.

Next time I’m going to reverse the ratio of black to cherry (two portions black; one portion cherry). I think that might be a very nice blend!

The worst part in the morning is having to decide which tea to drink. I remembered I got The Tea Forte Collection of Teas for Christmas. I am very OCD so when I opened the container the flavors were all missing 2 except this one so I HAD to take it. I like this tea with a little honey but can’t drink it plain. It’s not strong enough even though I steeped it for 2 1/2 mins. Overall I’m not completely disappointed but I just remember it tasting A WHOLE LOT better a few months ago. Oh well, tea and Milano’s for breakfast while I wait for the craft store to open to pick up a few things for my first swap. And a mystery one at that! Wish me luck!

http://m.flickr.com/lightbox?id=8748122370

I love this tea. A reliable perfect cup every time I’ve tried it. Usually I put in two tea bags to achieve the bitterness I’m craving, but this brand in it of itself does great.

I still at a capful of lemon juice to bring out the bergamot, and it is quite stunning.

The price is devastating, however.

backlog! sample sipdown. I had this last night as well near the end of it..just before i got to take my nap between 3:30 and 5 lol I’m super glad that lala sent this my way as it’s not something i would have picked up because of the coconut even though the mango would have tempted me. Verdict after this second bag? Delicious! For sure something i could keep around at work for a bagged tea in a pinch :) thanks lala!

This is another tea from the Coconut Sampler I purchased from work. It’s a not a bad tea, but out of the three different teas in the sampler I think I like this one the least. It comes across as a little weak and while I can taste the spices they don’t quite mesh with the coconut flavours as well as the chocolate truffle and pina-colda blends do.

Thanks to Nicole for sending me a sample of this! This is one of those teas that is totally different than what you were expecting! The dry leaf smells mostly of basil. When I think of fig teas my mind instantly goes to Teavana’s Fig Rose tea. That is fig. This doesn’t smell like fig to me (dry at least). I also thought it was interesting that this is listed as a white tea because I really can’t pick it out for the peppermint and basil leaves.
Wow, when sipping this I can instantly taste the honey/sweet flavor. I agree with Nicole, this tea needs a pretzel! The basil in this is just out of control. I like basil, but this isn’t supposed to be basil tea; it’s supposed to be honey/fig. I think that the biggest problem with tea sellers that I run into is the names. I see a name and expect a flavor, but it is often something completely different.
This tea is unique, that’s for sure! I’m a bit torn about what to think of it.

Rating this after my second drink. The first one I was impressed with the scent, but not terribly impressed with the flavor. It was too subtle to me. I remembered reading on the dicussions here that adding some sweetner usually makes certain flavors pop, so I added a packet of Stevia in the Raw, and BOOM hello Cherry! This, with sweetener (I’d say half a packet is better, this is a little too sweet) is a daily drinker for me. If I order from tea forte again, this will be on the list of things to order.

I went for a random tea bag tonight and I wanted a white tea. I don’t know when the last time was that I had a tea bag… I’ve had so many amazing loose teas lately. The instructions on this said almost boiling? No way. I saw the splenda in the bag right away.. it’s like a bright white beacon. I’m lucky I was looking at the steepster page for this tea as I was steeping because I saw blackberry leaves on the ingredients list and ran over to pull the teabag out real quick. Oversteeping blackberry leaves tastes like peptobismal to me. The first taste I’m cringing a bit at the splenda. I think that is supposed to be half the pear flavor. I’m super sensitive to ginger but I don’t find any here. The splenda kind of drowns everything out, but it isn’t terrible. Maybe splenda is why I’m avoiding teabags now.

Oh no, rooibos. I try my best to avoid it, but this came in a sampler. I’m willing to give it a chance because I’ve had a few rooibos apple spice teas that I’ve really enjoyed. Also, I love spiced apple anything.

It smells heavenly. Delicious red apple with strong, sweet cinnamon. I’m instantly reminded of fall, winter, and frost. The blend is an herbal and rooibos tea from what I understand, which is interesting. It brews up to a very pretty shade of red.

As far as the taste goes, I can tell it’s a rooibos. It has that aftertaste I’ve become familiar with, but with the apple cider flavors, it works. They compliment each other pretty well. Unlike many apple spice teas I’ve tried before, the spices don’t completely dominate it. It’s heavier on the apple side, which is something I’m liking a lot.

This is another winner from Tea Forte. These guys make such flavorful blends!

Well, this is odd. A bit of fig, a bit of honey… and lots of other things that I can’t pick out. There is a strange sweet aftertaste. Very odd in that it doesn’t taste sweet when I’m drinking it but immediately after swallowing it, there is a sweetness that suffuses my mouth. I thought at first it was what I was eating with it, but I’m not sure how sharp cheese and pretzels would make a tea sweet. Maybe… the licorice root is the sweet.

Hm. Not sure I like this. I could drink it if it was served to me, but I don’t think I’d choose it over other teas.

Hm. Not sure I’ve had a plain black currant tea before so I wasn’t sure what to expect. The smell of the dry leaf is slightly sweet. I guess this is grapey? I know currants are grapey. The steeped liquor smells like grape and is slightly sour but not bitter. I probably won’t replace this when I’m out but not a bad flavored tea. I’ve been overdosing on unflavored blacks lately so getting back to some flavored blends it’s been nice to have decent ones. :)

This was the loose leaf version.

Not sure what orchid is supposed to taste like but, from the description, I don’t think it is supposed to be a flavor in this tea. I get toasty vanilla and coconut from this, with a pretty nice black tea base. Overall, not bad. I picked this up with a recent Rue La La certificate which made it essentially half price. Not sure I’d keep it in the cupboard over other vanilla blacks but this is a good tea to have around until it’s gone.

Oh, and I don’t know if it makes a difference but this was the loose leaf version.

I will forever be grateful that the bookstore I work at also sells teas and tea paraphernalia. I don’t think I’d ever have been introduced to Harney & Sons, for instance, without them. Just in time for summer they brought in a bunch of Tea Forte’s Coconut Samplers and being a fan of all things coconut I put my staff discount to good use.

No surprise this particularly tea is heavy on the coconut flavours and it gives the tea a rich, almost creamy taste. There are notes of lemon and citrus, and mango too although it is pretty subtle (though I might just need to steep the pyramid-thing a bit longer). I could see this totally rocking as an iced tea this summer.

I’m really starting to love rooibos! This tea is excellent.

I’ve got this in the loose leaf version. The dry leaves of this smell just like homemade lemonade! Unfortunately, it doesn’t smell quite as nice brewed. It just smells like lemongrass and bitter lemon. Nice lemony yellow color though.

This tea tastes fine, but I feel like I was overcharged. I could get the same flavor by squeezing half a lemon into a cup of generic bagged green tea. This tea isn’t bitter, or astringent, or fake-tasting. Someone who likes Arnold Palmers would enjoy this. Adding some stevia did bring out more of a sorbet flavor, but if I’m looking for a lemony dessert tea I think lemon chiffon is still my go-to.

I haven’t actually had this in loose leaf format. I found a pre-bagged variety at my local Meijer, so I bought it because I was curious. I actually like this! It’s not too terribly sweet, but you can still taste the coconut and the cocoa at the end of the sip. The smell is lovely, both in dry form and as it’s steeping. I like to add a little bit of whole milk and a teensy pinch of sweetener to mine. Yum!

Thanks Lala for sending me a few of these to try out.

Wow! So delicious! I love coconut more and more each day. This tea perfectly captured both the coconut and mango flavours. YUM. It didn’t come off as fake at all or overwhelmingly sweet. The coconut was slightly more present than the mango in my opinion.

This tea was delicious and like Coconut Cocoa yesterday, I feel I need to have this in my cupboard permanently.

The resteep of this is still yummy. Still flavourful.

Something I don’t like about Tea Forte is that their teas always come with surprises – usually not in a good way though. While for most of the brands, you can predict reasonably well what your tea tastes like with the name of the tea (which makes me feel really secure), it doesn’t work for Tea Forte at all because they always add A LOT OF other ingredients apart from those suggested by the name. :( And seems most of these “other ingredients” are herbs and spices that I don’t like…

I didn’t enjoy the first brew of this tea. I was horrified to find tartness of hibiscus and rosehips PLUS the unique sweetness of licorice in the otherwise soothing chamomile tea. I didn’t notice that much mint, but perhaps it’s just because hibiscus got my attention completely. :( When cooled the tartness became even stronger – ugh!!!

It was late at night and I was thirty, so I brewed the tea for the second time instead of preparing another tea. The tartness was gone and the refreshing flavour of lemongrass was able to stand out. There’s also a bit of mint. It tasted a lot better!

This makes an excellent iced tea!

Soooooo exams are almost over and felt like I needed some chocolatey drink.
The name appealed to me today, so I guess I’ll give it a try.
First ever Teaforte tea! Came from the groupon deal of Teaforte sampler chest.
The design of their sachets are nice, and the leaf tip is cute.

The dry tea smelled strongly of cinnamon, getting a bit doubtful here…
The brew didn’t smell as strongly of cinnamon! It smelled a bit like chocolate, with a hint of spices.
Okay, so I’m getting the spices here, blended neatly together, but I’m not getting the chocolate. At all.

I’m kind of disappointed…I guess I was expecting too much chocolate?
But nevertheless, a good tasting brew, sort of Christmassy.
Tasted good with cookies ( I had a snicker doodle :)), but I’ll be saving the second sachet until some festival comes up.

I received this in the mail today from lala as a surprise sample and knew i had to try it right away. I am generally not a fan of coconut, but i loooooveeeee mango. Since i’m under the weather today, the simplicity of a tea bag appealed to me a lot. Opening the package i was blown away by the coconut, which kind of scared me. But then, the mango creeped out. It smelled like fresh juicy delicious mango! I brewed this one up at a green eta temperature rather than the recommended black from the instructions.

Seriously? This is really good for a bagged, COCONUT, tea no less. Looks like others haven’t had nearly the luck that i did with this one but man i really like this. It would for sure be one that i could tuck in my drawer at work for those days when you just need a quick bag of tea.

Thanks so much for this surprise sample lala!

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