Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Tea Forté
Company Description:
Combining fine black tea, Madagascar vanilla and coconut slivers produces a smooth and luxurious indulgence. Naturally sweet.
Taster’s Review:
When I first received this tea from my SororiTea Sister (Tea Equals Bliss, of course!) I had thought that I had tasted this tea previously… but I hadn’t. I would have remembered tasting such an exquisite tea!
The dry leaf has a strong scent of vanilla with a lingering note of coconut. It smells deliciously exotic. It brews up to a beautiful coppery color. The liquor smells a bit more like coconut than vanilla, but still smells yummy!
The black tea base is smooth and robust. It isn’t bitter, and it has a light background note of cocoa and flower. It has a fair amount of astringency that leaves the palate feeling invigorated.
The vanilla is pleasant here. It seems that vanilla is difficult (sometimes) for tea companies to get just right – and the flavor of the vanilla is either too soft to be tasted or too strong to be able to enjoy the other flavors of the cup. But that hasn’t happened here. The vanilla tastes sweet and creamy, and perfectly accents the coconut essence.
The touch of coconut in this blend is so delicious! I can even taste that light “oily” taste of the coconut that should be there, but often isn’t there in coconut teas.
This tea gets the coconut and vanilla JUST RIGHT, and these flavors do not overpower the black tea base. It is a harmonious blend of flavors that creates one of the BEST teas that I’ve tried from Tea Forté. I highly recommend it!
I am so frustrated. Your review made the product sound SO awesome – I adore vanilla and coconut. The logical move was to try some. Checking the website, I found some local retailers listed (all of them were upscale). When contacted, they indicated that they had either dropped the product line or did not carry the loose tins. At best, they had only the sachet bags in a limited selection of varieties. Ok, fine – let’s try online purchase. Strike two! Tea Forte uses UPS and cannot accomodate a US PO BOX. Still more disheartening was the website’s vague tone of arrogance regarding ordering.
I guess I will just have to wait on the Vanilla Orchid and Cocoa Truffle . . .
Millicent: I am sorry about your frustration with ordering. I received the samples that I have from a friend, so I can’t tell you that your experiences are usual ones. I can tell you that as far as local retailers, yes, they are all upscale, and generally, it’s been my experience that the purveyors of those shops generally know very little about tea.
It is because of this that I generally do not buy my tea in local shops (unless they are tea shops and their employees are knowledgeable about tea). I find that the quality of the tea that I receive via online purchases tends to be better than that which I purchase in a local, non-specialized shop. It is worth this short wait in my opinion.
I have had only limited interaction with Tea Forte but the interaction that I have had has been very positive. They’ve been very helpful and quick to respond to emails. That is very important, because there are some companies that are far less responsive.
Best of luck to you! Thank you for stopping by and for your comment!
Thanks for your feedback – it definitely motivates me to pursue the product further. Now I just have to devise a “ship to” destination that can be accomodated . . .
Just out of curiosity, I wonder – why do those retailers who stock the TF line only carry the sachets and not the loose canisters? Is is a profit margin issue or are the typical customers still intimidated by the concept of loose tea preparation?
Again, thanks for all the commentary 🙂
Cheers,
M
I think that it is a little intimidation.
But I think it also has something to do with the kind of customer that shops primarily at those high end kind of boutiques. These may not be the type of tea drinker who drinks several cups of tea or more a day, and they are looking more for the elegant/trendy thing associated with “having tea” than the actual tea. It’s been my experience that many of these types of individuals don’t even know what loose leaf tea even is. They think tea comes in bags.