Tea Forte
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Of all the single steeps I got with my Kati cup, I like this one best. That may not be saying much considering what I think of the other blends, but I do like this one. It smells more lemony than it tastes, but I like the hint of sweetness to the blend. The taste as it cools becomes more gingery and peppery, with an underlying grassiness. Overall I wish this one was a bit more lemony, and if anything it’s made this combo something I might look for now that I’m out of ginger tea.
Preparation
Steep Information:
Amount: Single Steeps packet
Water: 12oz hot spigot water
Tool: kati loose tea system (my Review here.)
Steep Time: a little over 5 minutes (http://steep.it/5%20minutes)
Served: Hot
Tasting Notes:
Dry Leaf Smell: cherry, berry, hibiscus?
Steeped Tea Smell: berry, tart, floral
Flavor: hibiscus
Body: Full
Aftertaste: tart
Liquor: barely translucent dark purple-red
Too much hibiscus, and I like hibiscus.
Pictures: http://amazonv.blogspot.com/2011/03/tea-forte-loose-leaf-single-steeps.html
Preparation
I really wanted to love. I love mint, chocolate, and herbal tea. However, this just tasted off to me. I’m not sure if it was the steep time, sugar content, or what. I was gifted a whole tube of loose leaf tea, and I will probably keep trying to modify preparation because it is a great idea in theory to tame late night chocolate cravings.
Preparation
I received a single steep loose leaf package of this tea with my Kati cup (which very quickly become my favorite tea cup… I use it all the time).
This has a very “menthol” kind of aroma and taste to it, although I don’t think I am finding it as off-putting as some of the others who have rated this tea. It’s a little different and a little medicinal, but, I don’t dislike it.
The ginger is soft but adds a nice dimension. The peach and mango flavors are strong, with a prominent herbal-y flavor. The nutty flavor of the honeybush is not very distinguishable but I do taste the sweetness from it.
It’s not necessarily my favorite tea from Tea Forte, but I didn’t hate this either… it was decent.
Mmmm.
I always love Vanilla Tea.
I must say, when it comes to teas, teaforte has been my first love.
The cute little packaging had me at “hello”. The array of flavors also captured my tiny little heart.
When I saw that they had a Vanilla tea, how could I not try it?
It’s lovely! I can’t say it’s my absolute favourite vanilla tea ever, but it has a strong vanilla smell and taste, and a prominent black tea flavor to back it up.
Like usual, I prefer these types of flavoured teas with a bit of milk and sugar, but the vanilla hit is strong enough that you can have it on its own, really.
I really enjoy this, but since it’s fairly pricey for a teabag type tea, I do have many other vanilla teas I prefer over it.
Preparation
First of all, thank you to Dinosara for giving me this tea and others to sample.
The tea came in little ‘single-serving’pouches which I found to my annoyance aren’t really ‘single’ servings at all – there’e easily enough for two cups of tea in each little pouch and using the whole thing would have made the tea far too strong. It’s certainly not a whole leaf tea – most of it is in the form of ‘tea dust’ the type you’d find in a regular teabag. So far I’m not too impressed.
Taste-wise it’s a pretty generic English breakfast-type tea. It’s too bitter and astringent to take without milk, but with milk it’s decent enough. It’s nothing special to be honest, and there’s not really anything that would make me choose this tea over something cheaper like Red Rose.
Preparation
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.
Preparation
What is it about some flavored green teas that just get this medicinal taste to them? I certainly have some flavored greens that I love, but they definitely seem tricky to get right.
I got four single steep packets of this tea with my Kati cup. I haven’t brewed it up in a while, but I don’t remember it tasting quite as strange before. Even just opening the packet I was hit by a strong aroma that didn’t really appeal to me, and the taste seems to match it pretty well. I don’t really get mango at all, but I think I’m getting peach; I don’t really taste much of the green tea. Over every thing is a slightly medicinal flavor, like its mentholated. I feel like this one would be good if I was sick! I think the medicinal flavor might actually be part of the peach. Overall it’s not too bad, but it’s not something I’ll be craving.
Preparation
I can’t drink much breakfast tea because its high level of caffeine often gives me headaches. So I am glad to have found this decaf version! It tastes rather different from the breakfast teas I’ve tried before – it seems to have a nutty flavour! Quite puzzling to me as there’s no nuts in the ingredients… anyway, it’s not a bad choice if you want a night time black tea.
Preparation
Once again utilising my Tea Forte Cafe Cup, Tea Forte Tea Tray, and Tea Forte Tea Timer iPhone application, I start out steeping this tea for a recommended average of 3 minutes. The leaves inside the pyramid infuser look very broken up. This worries me a bit, but not being one to judge a tea from its appearance (at least not completely), I wait patiently for the steeping to finish.
The liquor has steeped to a milk-chocolate brown. Nutty smells waft up from the cup. This tea smells quite nutty. In the aroma, there even appears to be some subdued cocoa notes. Taking my first sip, it appears that three minutes was long enough to steep this tea. Perhaps even a bit too long.
The taste is much smoother than the smell would lead one to believe. Unlike many Formosa oolongs I have tried, this one slips nicely over the tongue, ending in an expressive aftertaste. Robust is a good descriptor for this tea. Oolongs are known to be warming to the body, and this one seems to be the epitome of that factoid.
My tea time was enjoyable, thanks to this tea. It was a good representation of a decent Formosa oolong. On my personal enjoyment scale, I rate it an 80/100.
Preparation
This being the first Tea Forte tea that I have tried in quite some time, I decided to go all out. I am using my Tea Forte Cafe Cup, Tea Forte Tea Tray, and the Tea Forte Tea Timer app for iPhone. The instructions, acquired from the application itself, recommend 2-4 minutes of steep time. For a happy medium, I choose three, using just-under-boil filtered water.
I have a decent amount of experience with oolong teas. As this tea is steeping, I cannot help but wonder if the tea is being restricted from expansion by the pyramid in which it rests, as most oolongs like this one do a decent amount of unfurling while steeping.
The colour of the tea is a brownish yellow; the smells wafting from the cup are smooth, mellow, with perhaps a faint hint of spice. After a couple of small sips, I determine to put the pyramid back into the cup for another minute. The strength is okay but not quite as strong as I like. (If you like your oolongs light and mellow, three minutes will probably suffice.) Another minute, and it is back to tasting. Pleasantly, I can still taste the buttery aftertaste of those couple sips, with hints of vegetal flavour. The taste of this tea reminds me a lot of a Ti Kwan Yin.
In my opinion, four minutes was a prime amount of time for this tea. The flavours are much more full-bodied and literally burst in the mouth. There is a bit of vegetal bite on the sides of the tongue, as with a slightly-oversteeped green tea (like a gunpowder), but this is hardly noticeable, and probably due to my long steep time.
Overall I really enjoyed this tea. It was a very pleasant cuppa, and I do not think I have any complaints with it, other than a bit of lacking in the flavour department. I would perhaps be interested to know if this was due to the pyramid or the tea itself. 85/100 is what I would rate this tea on my personal enjoyment scale.
Preparation
Backlog: I chose this tea to enjoy with my dinner this evening. It came from their “organics” line, and it was in a classic tea bag rather than the signature Tea Forte pyramid sachet. I have to admit that I found myself preferring the classic tea bag over the pyramid, if for no other reason than the fact that the foil pouch kept the tea tasting fresher than the origami-like folded cardstock packaging for the pyramid.
This is one of my favorites from Tea Forte. The pear is light, the ginger is peppery and it was a pleasing accompaniment to my meal.
As a mint tea it’s ok, but if it’s a “chocolate herbal tea” as they call it, it ought to have stronger chocolate flavour! Apart from peppermint all I can taste is some bitterness which is hardly like chocolate… it’s not unpleasant, but as a chocolate fan I am disappointed.
Preparation
A very gentle Darjeeling. It doesn’t have an overwhelming astringency, although it doesn’t have a strong sense of muscatel either… this would be a great Darjeeling for those who find most Darjeeling teas to be overly astringent or too bitter. A nice fruit quality in the background with an overture of toasted, nutty, flowery taste. Nice!
Almost ridiculously sweet, I can’t say I loved this cup. Did I like it? Debatable. It was drinkable, and I drank it, so that has to mean something, yes?
At one point, I found myself thinking ‘It tastes like juice warmed up.’ Which, pro or con, I’m not entirely sure.
Some of you were still having pretend tea parties with your Furbies when I first reviewed Tea Forte’s English Breakfast, but at the time, I was very complimentary of it. Trying it again after a 10-year-break, I still have nice things to say about it. A good and beefy Assam with some brown sugar and raisin notes. Simple and sufficient.
