Hazelnut Truffle

For a bagged tea, this is really good. Not as fresh as loose leaf, but it still tastes great. I am getting an unsweetened dark chocolate note on first sip, and then a light hazelnut flavour starts popping through. I really like dark chocolate, so this is great for me.

This is great as a morning dessert tea. I don’t usually like to have to add things to my tea, but with a splash of milk, the flavours pop even more.

A coworker of mine got some of this with her Tea forte order and HATES it. So of course I wanted to try it, but have been too much of a wuss to try it until now! Dry, it smells really nice, I get some chocolate notes, smells like something you’d want to eat or drink. As it steeps the smell really changes though. REALLY changes. I get coconut (BLEGH!) and something sour, almost with a vomit quality. This is very unnerving. Underneath the gross smells there is something distinctly hazelnut, but it is overpowered by the other noxious odours.

Trying this one requires another application of my brave face. Diving in! The taste is not so bad as the smell but it’s definitely not good. First I get something I identify as coconut, then there is a hint of chocolate/hazelnut then back to the taste that reminds me of coconut. Which I still hate. This is really not the tea for me. Bleck!

This is Yum! I wish that the chocolate was stronger (of course), but I like the balance of flavors. Pleasant!

The black tea is fairly mellow but tasty. The hazelnut is the strongest component and it tastes nutty and yummy. I don’t get a lot from the coconut except that I do get a creaminess from it, and then a coconut note in the tail of the sip. The rose flavor is very faint.

Delicious.

Many of the chocolate-based teas I’ve experienced lose their chocolate-iness after they sit very long. Took me a while to get through my sample cup because I was trying to wax poetic over it for www.itsallabouttheleaf.com, and even after it was stone cold, it still smelled like a really good box of chocolates.

This smells mostly like Hazelnut. I can taste a lot of the hazelnut too! I think the coconut is more in the aftertaste and the chocolate hints are very VERY slight. I wasn’t sure how I felt about this one until after about 3 sips. It’s pretty good but would LOVE more chocolate. Pretty good tho!

This features a mild black tea with a nice chocolaty flavor and a nutty backdrop. The nutty does standout overtly as hazelnut in my opinion and I am a bit of hazelnut addict. There is also a fair amount of rose in this and it is really the third primary flavor in the blend—-and one I could have lived without. It is still tasty though. It appears you cannot buy this one in loose form though.

At home, I always enjoy my teas straight. This is because in this way I can know how the teas REALLY taste like, and of course, I admit that I am just too lazy to buy sugar or milk. :P I am usually quite happy with my plain teas, but from time to time I do encounter teas – mainly full-bodied black teas and chocolate teas – that makes me blame myself for not having any milk at home! This festive tea is clearly one of those guilt-provoking teas. It has the most enticing aroma of cacao and hazelnut. The liquor is flavourful; I really enjoy the nutty flavour (coconut + hazelnut) and dark chocolate note. If it could be just a little sweeter and creamier… it would be 100% like chocolate truffle, albeit in liquid form! Maybe I should really stock up with milk and sugar…

Steep Information:
Amount: 3 tsp
Water: boiling, 2 mugs
Tool: my grandmother’s Bee House Ceramic Round Teapot (like this one)
Steep Time: a little over 3 minutes
Served: Hot

Tasting Notes:
Dry Leaf Smell: Strong hazelnut, hints of dark chocolate
Steeped Tea Smell: hazelnut
Flavor: black tea, hints of chocolate and hazelnut
Body: Medium
Aftertaste: astringent
Liquor: translucent dark brown

Rating: 3/4 leaves

Blog: http://amazonv.blogspot.com/2011/11/tea-forte-loose-leaf-black-tea-hazelnut.html

After some debate, I bought a Hazelnut Truffle stocking stuffer. …For myself.

http://www.teaforte.com/images/361×285/3670.jpg

It didn’t say on the package how many pyramids were in it, but for six (nearly seven) bucks, I figured it had to be three or four, since it had room for that many.

No. It was two. Two. What a rip. The same favours are only five bucks on the site, but retail shop markup’s to be expected I guess.

However, they smelled delicious. Brewed, it’s still a wonderfully strong, sweet nutty smell. Holy crap. However, after I brought the package home, I realized it included rose petals (ick). I smelt a bit of rose in the dry bag, but I’m not getting any from the brewed tea, so I can hope it all goes well. I really need to read packaging more closely.

This has a wonderfully hazelnutty taste. The nut seems to be the main flavour, although I think I get chocolate as well… I’m not sure. I ate a cookie before I started sipping, which might have thrown me off. It may just be the sweetness of the hazelnut. They need to offer this blend in a canister. I’d buy it. And it’s such a STRONG nut flavour too—most nuts added to tea blends, I find, are usually very present, but still in the background. This one is definitely at the forefront.

So I’ve established hazelnut, and possibly truffle. Luckily no sign of the rose petals.

I like the ‘favour’ style of these packages. The christmas ones are meant to be used as stocking stuffers. If there were enough flavours, I’d pick up a bunch as actual stocking stuffers for my family.

Edit: Second steep. Hazelnut flavour is still goin’ strong. Delicious tea. They really need to sell a big tin of it. I’d get it.

Another one of my samples to try. Was excited to try this since who could pass up the promise of dessert…hazelnut…chocolate truffle…oh baby! I’d be excited if it was chocolate hazelnut dirt! Anyway…back to my review…I tried a little after about 3 minutes…and it was a bit tasty, but weak…so I waited a little longer…4 minutes…nice and deep golden brown, the flavor nice and hazelnut with a deep coconut and slight hint of cinnamon taste. No chocolate. The flavor is a bit watery and somewhat cardboardy. Yep. Cardboard. I sat…hum…what’s missing? I had this sweet enough so that’s not the problem. Aha…add some cream…! And that me amigos is absolutamente correcto!

I only had a one-shot of this – alas – so I could only try it as a tea, which is too bad because this just screams, “Latte me NOW!” Oh well, c’est la vie. As a tea, I still think it holds up where it should. It’s a guilty pleasure without the guilt part. Subtleties escape me in describing the flavor because there really aren’t that many. It’s all chocolate and hazelnut like its moniker declares.

Full Review: http://www.teaviews.com/2011/01/07/review-tea-forte-hazelnut-truffle-2/

If I only had one nitpick it would be that the black tea base doesn’t appear to be of high quality. As with a lot of dessert teas, I found it quite bitter on the forefront. That said, it does what it sets out to do.

I’m not sure how I feel about this tea. I steeped it for 6 minutes, and still found it quite bland. I kept steeping it for another 3-4 minutes, but probably should have stopped a bit earlier, as I found the tea a little bitter.

I thought there would be more of a chocolate taste, but the hazelnut is excellent. This tea is going to take some experimentation.

This is very much a proper coffee alternative. I am reminded of the hazelnut coffee sweetener, with a nice sweet nutty aroma.

Steeping lessens the sweetness, but gives a more full coffee-like scent with hazelnut highlights.

The flavor is a very rounded nutty chocolate, with subtle hints of the hazelnut and coconut. I like that it works unsweetened, with a very mellow characteristic.

Not bad, it would probably be better as an early afternoon pick-me-up, with a bit of rock sugar.

The smell of this tea is heavenly; the chocolate and hazelnut smell is present from opening the bag to brewing the tea. I think that I may have not steeped it long enough or the water wasn’t hot enough because the flavor was kind of muted. The chocolate taste is fairly faint, but the hazelnut is pretty strong, but still really yummy!

Strong Nutty Hazelnut Flavors, not so much chocolate.

Since I’ve never had either hazelnut or chocolate in my tea before, I can’t be sure what exactly is making me dislike this tea. It’s not terrible – and actually woke me up quite well – but I’m not sure I’ll rebuy again for myself after my infusers are gone.