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(Catching up on old tastings…)

This is from the Tea Forte “single steeps” sampler that my sister bought for me to bring me into loose leaf tea. It was the first one I tried and with a little sugar it was to die for. The rest of the flavours in the sampler went quickly downhill from there, but I did drink them in the order I expected to enjoy most.

Before joining Steepster I’d already tried each flavour once as the full package as suggested, but the only flavour that worked for me at full strength was the Strawberry Apple. Such a great taste. Was so disappointed when I learned it wasn’t sold on its own. That’s what made me start looking around for more teas and yea, I’ve made two tea orders since haha…

Anyway, this tea has smaller “leafy bits” than the other loose leaf teas I’ve tried. Smells kind of apple/citrusy when dry and right when the boiling water hits, it has a very strong apple cider type smell.

I steeped half a package this time for 5 minutes at boiling, just to see how it would taste at half strength. Would love to stretch these last two “singles” to four more cups instead of two because this tea’s just so delicious and it’s unlikely that I will buy this sampler again just for this one tea.

The tea once steeped turns out an amber colour and still has the apple cider smell to it, though not as strong with the loose tea removed. Again I added a bit of sugar (I couldn’t remember if I’d added sugar the first time I tried it, so I tasted it this time before without the sugar, and it definitely tastes better to me with the sugar.)

Not as absolutely amazing as last time, but it’s still a delicious light-tasting afternoon drink. I have no problem at all drinking this at half-strength. I can definitely taste both the apple and the strawberry quite strongly. Not really picking up the citrus taste that I was smelling in the dry tea though.

As half strength, I’d probably rate this tea 85. At full strength though, 95.

Updated cup count from 3 single steep packs: 2 (1.5 single steep packages left.)

Would I buy this again? If they sold it separately, in a heart beat. But I’m not going to buy a set of teas that most I don’t find that good, just to get more of this one.