Green Mango Peach

Okay so I had another go with this tea, steeping it for longer than recommended and I have to say my experience was better the second time round! Less medicinal, more peach. The mango notes are more subtle. There’s tinge of sourness from either one of the fruits, I think.
An enjoyable and relaxing cup!

I keep being not as vigilant as I should be and ending up with fruity minty teas when I was expecting just a fruity tea. Darn you, peppermint and/or spearmint! Exit my melanges!

As you can tell this is the latest case of that happening. I think this must be where my fellow reviewers have been getting the menthol-y medicinal taste from, it’s that random addition of peppermint getting all up in the tropical fruit’s business. It’s unfortunate, because the tea smells really good when you’re bringing it up for the sip, but the mint just sits on top of all the other flavors and makes for a weird experience when you’re expecting to taste mango…or peach…or green tea, you know, any of those seemingly random words that ended up in the title.

That said, I don’t hate this! It’s a plenty refreshing cup and enjoyable on its own merits. But I certainly can’t say it does what it says on the tin.

1st flavoured green tea. Love the fruity aroma of peach and mango, but was disappointed with its taste. I prefer a smoother blend.

I was surprised at how much I liked this. Not usually a fan of fruity tea, but it works here. Having failed to read the ingredients, I was not expecting peppermint and ginger. I didn’t smell them either (just the fruits), so the taste was a surprise. It really grew on me after a few sips, though!

Alright, so after my unfortunate experience with Tea Forte’s Earl Gray earlier this evening, I decided to try their Green Mango Peach. Hope this one goes better. ;P

Dry leaves: Smelled very much like peppermint with a hint of mango. The leaves looked better quality than the Earl Gray and expanded nicely too.

I steeped this for three minutes in 175ºF water. The liquor is a nice golden color and smells strangely like NyQuil… Haha. Maybe its just the peppermint and mango mixing, I don’t know. Now what really matters, taste:

The peppermint is definitely the dominant flavor. Tasted medicine-like, just like it smells! I’m getting very light hints of the peach and mango but the peppermint is just drowning them out. At least this is drinkable though.

Until about a month ago, I didn’t realize tea was a lot like wine… so many nuances, qualities, etc. This is my first review, so take it with a grain of salt! Also… I guessed on the water temperature – I’ve yet to invest in a gadget to control/measure temperature (but I did time the steeping).

The labeling on the packaging doesn’t mention the peppermint – just the “succulent mango and sweet peach.” First sip (and several later, plus cooled), all I taste is peppermint. Felt quite vindicated when I logged on and read the full description.

Try as I might, I am not picking up on the mango or the peach. It’s not bad, but I’m disappointed by the lack of fruit flavor. Plus it has a slightly bitter aftertaste (even highly sweetened).

If you like mango, try Bigelow Green Tea w/Mango (if you can find it). Republic of Tea Mango Ceylon is one of my favorites, but it’s black tea. It’s available in a decaf, though.

A friend grabbed a pyramid of this blend for me at some conference or other (thanks, friend!). I feel like mid-range conferences and hotels have really stepped up their tea game. The tea still isn’t great, but it’s definitely an improvement over the tossed-in-a-corner baskets of Lipton of yore. (Nothing against those who enjoy Lipton, more power to you, but there’s obviously higher quality tea out there.)
This particular blend is just sort of fine, you know? Completely inoffensive, but not really great either. The mango and peach notes are very candy-like without being overly sweet or cloying. I’m not really getting any ginger in this cup; I wouldn’t know that there’s ginger in the blend except from looking at the description. The base is hard to make out under the fruit notes. This actually makes a lot of sense as a choice for a conference tea. It’s not in any way distracting, neither so good nor so bad that I really want to give it much attention, the flavors are sweet but not overly so, and there’s none of the controversial flavors that can be an issue for folks (except ginger, I suppose, but you’d have to be allergic to it to know it’s here). Which is exactly what you want for a drink meant to be consumed while people are focusing on a presentation! Mission accomplished.

The infuser smells more minty than I anticipated. I steeped this for about 3 minutes and let it cool some as its a humid warm summer morning. There’s a nice pale color to the tea. I get more ginger and mint than mango and peach. It’s not a bad combo but just surprising. I do taste peach but no mango detected in my sips. I enjoyed it but not overly excited by it.

Because these Tea Forte teas came in a holiday sampler, I don’t have full information about them. I read the label and thought this would be a fruity, tropical tea. After having the mug, I did read reviews and went to the Tea Forte website to see more about the ingredients, it makes more sense now.

I wanted an early wake-up call today, but not the one I received at 5:30 a.m.: a cat doing, um, what you don’t want cats to do on the carpet. Thus, two large mugs of unleaded PG Tips and Partridges later, I’m switching to lower caffeine options early in the day. (Sorry, I always feel honor-bound to explain external tea motivators.)

With that totally unnecessary verbiage out of the way…I would never have expected peach and mango paired with peppermint. Several interruptions kept me from starting the cup fresh and hot, so at slightly above room temp, the peppermint comes through first with the fruit behind it. Two completely different streams of thought, but they play together nicely. Nothing notable about the green tea, just a light, almost invisible carrier for the main ingredients.

Meh. I usually love mango and peach flavors, and I got neither from this tea. It’s hard to describe because the flavors are muddled and there aren’t many distinct notes.