3 Tasting Notes
I received a sample of this in my December Birchbox, so naturally, the next day, I brewed myself a cup. This tea was my first experience with Tea Forte, although I’d heard of them before.
My reaction upon tearing open the packaging and smelling the teabag probably looked something like this – !!!!!. YUM. A previous reviewer described the scent as a sweet chocolate covered cherry and I find it spot on. In fact, I still have the pouch at my desk a few hours later, and am still sniffing it. It smells THAT good.
Brewed to a nice warm honey color after 4 minutes, and the taste is much milder than I had anticipated, much to my delight. Smooth and gently sweet, but not so much that you can’t taste the hint of green tea underneath, which the almond compliments really nicely IMO. The cherry is definitely noted when I smell the cup, but isn’t an overpowering taste. It’s sweetly subtle, letting you know it’s there without drowning your taste buds.
The aftertaste of this tea is wonderful – light cherry with just a smidge of almond nuttiness.
This is a fantastic tea. I could easily see myself drinking multiple cups of this during my day – my sign of something wonderful. If I can’t find this locally I’ll happily order online.
Preparation
Good words to describe this tea – rich, cozy, luxurious.
I’m a big licorice tea junkie. Pukka takes it to the next level and adds another warm, deep layer of flavor with the cinnamon. It’s very complex and comforting and I see this as the perfect tea to sip during chilly winter nights. Very smooth, very tasty.
One note, however – I find I really have to be in the mood to have this particular tea, because while I love licorice, the cinnamon can sometimes be a bit too rich and heavy for what my palate wants at the time. Still, it’s great to have a box of this around the house.
The first time I made a cup of this tea I thought I made it wrong.
Here I am, many cups later, realizing that no matter how I make this tea, it just tastes like dishwater. YUCK.
I’ve steeped it for two minutes, three minutes, up to five minutes. I’ve added Splenda and real sugar and honey. I’ve microwaved my water and made it in a traditional tea kettle. Nothing helps. Nothing makes it better.
I want to like this tea because I’ve had good Darjeeling tea, and other Twinings teas I’ve had have always been consistent and good. (Their Irish Breakfast is one of my favorites.) But this… this is just unsalvageable. Every time I try to make another cup and put all preconceived notions out of my head so I can try and enjoy it… Dishwater. I suppose it has a slight bitterness that one could point to a light black tea with, but the flavor is just so flat and unsavory that I’m not willing to dig that deep to keep drinking it.
