Tea Forte

Steep Information:
Amount: 1 teabag
Additives: none
Water: 6 ounces filtered boiling
Steep Time: a little over 5 minutes
Served: Hot

Tasting Notes:
Dry Leaf Smell: cinnamon, clove, red tea, woody
Steeped Tea Smell: cinnamon, clove, MilitiaJim was getting cardamom
Flavor: cinnamon, woody
Body: Medium
Aftertaste: spicy
Liquor: deep reddish-brown

This was part of the Tea Forte Winter Collection I got as a holiday gift. This is the last flavor!

This is a nice spicy red tea (I can’t do caffeine after 6 pm). The cinnamon really dominates and you need to look for the other flavors for you to recognize their presence.

Perhaps I should have steeped it longer? I also can’t smell or taste the lemongrass. I could see it though.

Post-Steep Additives: lactose free fat free milk

Made it creamier less water and masked the rooibos woodiness (not necessarily a positive).

images: http://amazonv.blogspot.com/2010/02/tea-forte-teabag-red-tea-winter-chai.html

Ok, so maybe the brewing circumstances weren’t optimal (my parents’ electric kettle is made of plastic which I am SURE does teas no good) and the tea is a couple of months out of date (my husband got it for me on special… he’s so cute sometimes! :) ) but seriously. This was one of the most pointless pots of tea I’ve ever made. Almost tasteless yet simultaneously slightly bitter… a hint of jasmine as it cooled… It’s a great concept but I didn’t like it at all. Shan’t bother with this one again, shall try making my own jasmine black tea instead.

Tea Forte, you are pretty but I fear you lack substance. Something below the surface, please!

Steep Information:
Amount: 1 teabag
Additives: none
Water: 6 ounces filtered boiling
Steep Time: a little over 2 minutes
Served: Hot

Tasting Notes:
Dry Leaf Smell: vanilla
Steeped Tea Smell: vanilla, sweet, coconut milk, black tea
Flavor: bitter yet sweet, vanilla
Body: Medium
Aftertaste: milky coconut, vanilla
Liquor: deep brown

This is from a sampler set I got as a gift, the “winter collection”.

This is a nice flavored black tea. The flavoring is not very powerful, but that is fine with me.

Post-Steep Additives: none

Resteep: It was a sad and weak resteep that totally lost all the smoothness and dark black tea flavor. (3 minutes) not recommended for resteeping.

The perky pyramid is back…and this time it has yielded much better results. It’s not too shabby for an herbal tea. One look at the ingredients and you will know what this tastes like. Yes, hibiscus is the 1st on the list. It’s really not too bad. The raspberry is present but in general this tastes very sour and very berry.
The color is outstanding. It’s kind of a cranberry, blood red. I love it. I steeped this in my clear glass cup and it was so cool to watch. Well, cool in a crime scene kind of way. A drizzle of red slowly seeped out of the mesh bag. It floated around and then fell to the bottom like a drop of blood. Slowly, the water turned light pink, then a tinge darker…then bloody.
Mmm, Mmm good.

Now these are some cute teabags! That little leaf at the end of the string? Too cute for words! And the mesh that the teabag is made of stays perky even after steeping. I’m not sure why that is important, but it made me smile.

The tea wasn’t that great, unfortunately. Uber-cinnamon-y and that’s about it. I never tasted the “Sweet Orange” or any of the spices. Just cinnamon. Red Hots or Fireball candy type of cinnamon. Too strong and on the verge of spicy.

But man, those teabags are cute.

Steep Information:
Amount: 1 bag
Additives: honey
Water: 6 ounces boiling
Steep Time: a little over 5 minutes
Served: Hot

Tasting Notes:
Smell: apple, pomegranate
Flavor: sour / citrus tart
Body: Medium
Aftertaste: apple, lemon, fruity and tart
Liquor: deep pink

i expected the honey to lessen the citrus tart, but this tea overpowered the light honey completely.

Steep Information:
Amount: 1 teabag
Additives: none
Water: 6 ounces filtered boiling
Steep Time: a little over 5 minutes
Served: Hot

Tasting Notes:
Smell: apple, fruity, tangy
Flavor: citrus, tangy
Body: Medium
Aftertaste: apple, tangy
Liquor: red, almost pinkish

Steep Information:
Amount: 1 teabag
Additives: none
Water: 6 ounces boiling filtered water
Steep Time: a little over 3 minutes
Served: Hot

Tasting Notes:
Smell: Clove – Orange, reminds me of christmas
Flavor: orange, tea, spice
Body: full
Aftertaste: woody spice
Liquor: light reddish brown

Too much spice, not enough tea. I know it says cinnamon but I tasted clove and couldn’t find the cinnamon.

Post-Steep Additives: Added sugar – also added honey (two separate brews) the sweetness in both cases brought out more of the orange, smoothed the flavor and gave a nice sweetness.

Resteep:
Weak spiced water, no tea flavor.
Not recommended

hmm same as last time, i like it but not love it

Amount: 1 bag
Additives: none
Water: 6 ounces boiling filtered
Steep Time: a little over 6 minutes
Served: Hot

Notes:
Amazonv: Added honey, had no effect but to sweeten aftertaste. It seemed like two separate flavors.
MilitiaJim: Are you kidding? The honey romped and stomped all over it.

Smell: Faintly raspberry / berry (I know there are no berries in it)
AmazonV Flavor: Citrus / sour
MilitiaJim Flavor: I am drinking sour Skittles, without the sweet center.
Body: Full
Aftertaste: Tangy berry
Liquor: dark deep red

Resteep tried for at least 15 minutes, it was too weak.

This tea was a gift and part of a pretty little Winter Collection set including a teapot. I do adore the pretty silken pyramid infusers and the cute leaf tag.

Braving this tea again today and I have to say I’m thankful I won’t have to drink it again. Tried steeping this for 1 minute this time instead of 3. While that did help with making the tea less strong, it still isn’t good to me. It is way more astringent than I care for in a tea and makes my mouth pucker. I also noticed an odd metallic bitter taste this time. Yesterday it was just flat out mega bitter, but with the shorter steep time the bitterness becomes metallic. Not something I enjoy.

I don’t like this one. Strong, bitter, extremely drying, and just not pleasant. Added sugar with no luck. Would have added milk but I have none. Drank half of my cup so I could at least have something to say about it, but this isn’t for me. Even at 3 minutes this was strong. Perhaps someone that likes teas to pound their senses will enjoy this? I may try steeping it for less with the other sample I have, but I’m gonna wait till tomorrow. I can’t handle drinking it again.

I know, I know. Chamomile makes my nose run but I’m still recovering from some chest and head crud so what does it matter. Besides, I love chamomile. I can tell this one is obviously chamomile but it is quite light and I can’t taste any of the orange peel that is in there. I wouldn’t keep this around because there are much better chamomile’s out there, but for an easy clean up infusion, this is OK.

Pleasing but not as flavorful as I remember.

Finishing up the VERY little bit I had left of this and I still think it is one of my faves Tea Forte Offers! YUM! And YES! I can taste it! YAY!!!!!

I have new teas to try – might start in with them again tomorrow…I HOPE…

I had the bagged version of this the first time I tried it and went back and noticed that I gave it a 45…see addition notes…ANYHOW…

This time I am trying this loose leaf and I must say there is a HUGE difference.

I really like this loose leaf version!

It’s flavorful and refreshing…minty and mango-E, Comforting and thirst-quenching! It says there is ginger root in it but I’m not tasting much which is fine by me but I can taste everything else and it’s yummy.

So…I’m changing this rating…it’s purely based on the loose leaf version…I’m still not thrilled about the bagged version of this…but Loose Leaf ROCKS!

This doesn’t taste bad…it’s just that it doesn’t have MUCH taste. It doesn’t taste like Mango…but it’s a light buttery green tea flavor with a ever-so-slight fruit taste…more like a melon than a mango. Like I said…not bad tasting, just not as it describes.

Not very Chai-y in my book but that’s ok…it’s ok hot but would be better iced, at least I am thinking…which is weird because with a name of Winter Chai one would think HOT HOT HOT – Warm and fuzzy…hum…not sure…it’s ok tho.

This smells just like hot chocolate while it is brewing and tastes like a spicy chocolate drink. I was quite surprised that it actually tastes like chocolate without being watered down and the spicy quality gives it a really interesting twist. Really nice treat!

So I’ve never actually drank an English Breakfast before. Hmm. Well, I suppose I did when I was in London a few years ago and had tea every morning in the hotel dining room. That was certainly breakfast tea, and it was certainly an English breakfast, but was it officially an English breakfast tea on the label? I mean, if you’re in England wouldn’t they just call it breakfast tea anyway?

But I got this teabag in a giftbox of assorted flavors, so I’m trying it out. It’s nice. Kinda generic. Assam is the generic black upon which most flavored teas are built upon, right? I’m so ignorant about the various black tea…

I do tend to like flavored teas above regular black teas, so this tastes very uninteresting and plain to me. If I had honey or sugar I’d mix it in, but I’m at work and I’ve got nothing.

Meh. That’s all I’ve got to say.

I’m convinced that whoever writes the tea forte descriptions has never tried the tea but is instead given an ingredient list.

Sweet orange spice… tastes like vienna cinnamon without the flavor boom. So there is definitely something mellowing out the cinnamon but orange isn’t an obvious flavor in the profile. Actually I thought this was an illusion to it being orange pekoe grade. Not that this tea had any orange flavor in it. So when I was confused by the game called "what is that tiny little flavor in the back over there somewhere? I’ll just look at the box… " I was super shocked to see that this is an “orange” flavored tea. When it’s cold you can taste the orange if you are looking for it in the cup. But it’s barely there.

Really I thought it was just a cinnamon maybe with a dash of some other spice (cough you know spice tea should have more than just one spice in it cough) like maybe a granule of nutmeg or clove or something. But no. It’s vienna cinnamon toned down by a molecule of orange oil.

A little bit of sugar brings out the flavor… but milk doesn’t really help it out. And milk with no sugar wasn’t very pleasant. So just a little sugar makes it nice. This is really a pleasant tea as I like cinnamon but it’s not named well and that tends to piss me off. If you like Tea Forte’s Vienna Cinnamon and you are at a party and they have this you will enjoy drinking it.

I drink my tea straight, no milk, no sugar, no honey, and this was a bit too much for me, the coconut was a tad bit over powering, if I had wanted a pinata colada I would have went to a bar.

As Im not a fan of cinnamon teas, my review should be regarded as having a predisposition, but I really didnt care that much for this one in general, just wasnt for me.