Tea Forte

Sipdown 62

This was not great. The ginger was a bit stale and dusty tasting. The lemongrass was muted.

Sipdown 61

Meh, not impressed by this. Had a vaguely fruity flavor, and tasted mildly like licorice root.

Sipdown 60

I would’ve sworn this was a peach cobbler tea. Definitely tasted way more like a stone fruit than a pear.

Sipdown 59

The dry leaf smells like blue cheese. Luckily, once brewed the blue cheese smell goes away, and there is no blue cheese flavor to be found. There is also no ginger or pear. This tastes like bananas. Like banana runts, not a fresh banana. It’s actually not bad for a banana tea….but it’s a pear tea, so I’m confused.

Sipdown 55

Another sipdown from my Tea Forte sampler.

This is strangely lacking in flavor. I’m not tasting peach or anything that vaguely resembles a brûlée. I’m tasting rooibos, so much so that I checked the ingredients to confirm…not seeing it.

Sipdown 54

I just started on sipping through a Tea Forte sampler I bought quite awhile ago. I made this hot, though admittedly it seems much more suited for an iced tea.

The hibiscus works really well with the bright raspberry flavor. Not usually something I would gravitate towards, and not terribly unique. But, an overall tasty herbal/fruity option.

Would definitely be better iced.

My husband and I had our hanami at a local park that happens to have a bunch of cherry trees. They’re small, but loaded with blossoms. This tea was the perfect accompaniment to the onigiri, shrimp shumai, strawberry daifuku, taiyaki (custard AND azuki bean filled!), and a mini baumkuchen that I brought. I brewed it up beforehand according to the instructions, and put it in my thermos. Delicately floral, light cherry fruit, soft green tea flavor, nothing was too heavy, nothing overpowered any of the other elements in the tea. We enjoyed it so much. I wasn’t expecting much from this, since my previous experiences with cherry blossom green teas have been mixed. They can get cloying, metallic, overly floral. Not so here. This is a winner.

Single bag grabbed from a tea box. I taste mostly a sour rose and a pepperiness, maybe also from the rose. I get maybe a little chocolate and some nuttiness. The black tea doesn’t contribute much. I’m drinking this with milk, and it’s okay, but not really my thing. I don’t like that these bags are each stored in their own non-sealed cardboard pyramid.

Mastress Alita’s Monthly Sipdown Challenge
January 2022 → A tea flavored like your favorite pie

I know, I know. It’s February already. I intended this for yesterday, but time got away from me. My favorite pie of the moment is lemon ice box pie from Jim ‘N Nick’s. I think Jim ‘N Nick’s is a local restaurant, maybe originating in Birmingham but now spread throughout the southeast US. (Just checked and there is a lone location in Aurora, Colorado.) Anyway, it’s mostly known for its barbecue. They have some other great items on the menu too though, one of which is their lemon ice box pie. It’s wildly expensive for a slice of pie, to me at least, so I usually savor a few bites over the course of a few days (if I can make it last that long). Equal parts tart lemon and mile-high whipped cream with a buttery graham cracker crust. It’s heaven on earth.

This tea comes closest to that puckery lemony flavor, but of course it can’t compare. It would be unfair to expect it to. As a tea, and a green tea at that, it’s enjoyable. It’s not tart like I expected but instead tastes more like Pez candy. There are quite a few lemony elements in this tea, so I’m not sure which is giving me that impression. Contenders are lemon verbena, lemon myrtle, lemon peel, lemongrass and natural lemon flavor. I’m guessing it’s either the lemon verbena or the lemon myrtle. I’m not familiar enough with them to match the flavor. So yeah, not as enjoyable as the pie but definitely a nice enough green tea. Coming from someone who doesn’t really like green tea, I think someone who does would probably like this one.