Tea Forté Friday – English Breakfast
Name: English Breakfast
Company: Tea Forté
Type: Black
Cost: $24 for 20 infusers or $15 for canister (35 servings)
Tea Notes:
- Tried twice using boiling water with steep times of 3 minutes and then 1 minute.
- Aroma of liquor is typical English Breakfast with a hint of green bean. Color was dark brown with red undertones.
- Taste was very astringent and bitter.
Thoughts:
Tea Forté’s English Breakfast jumped out at me this week so I decided to give it a shot. The 1st time I prepared the pyramid infuser, I steeped it for 3 minutes which is the time I typically start with black teas. What I got was a cup full of bitter, incredibly strong, smack my senses silly black tea. I couldn’t even finish my cup because of the overwhelming bitterness. It also had a very drying, astringent mouthfeel.
I always like to give teas a second chance by changing the way I steep them and have often found that a tea steeped a different way becomes something I really enjoy. Knowing that, I prepared this again the next day with a 1 minute steep time to see if it helped. I found that the tea was not as strong but it was still very astringent and an odd metallic bitterness was now present. So instead of the bitterness being overwhelming it was now metallic. This tea is just plain not for me. Perhaps there are people out there who like strong teas with characteristics as this one has, but I am not one of those people. While black teas are quickly becoming more and more a part of my tea collection I still find some of them a little too strong. However, I am not going to let my experience with this English Breakfast prevent me from continuing my adventures with them.
The product(s) included in this post were sent to me to be considered for review by the company mentioned or by a PR agency that represents them.
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You’re slowly making me lose faith in tea forte
. Not sure if those tea pyramids are really reaching for the fences.
Yeah, I am really hoping there are some hidden gems from them.
As a fan of black tea and Tea Forte, I recommend the Black Currant Tea. To be fair, I’ve never tried the English Breakfast but I do love a few others by them including Silver Needles and White Ambrosia (both white teas).
Thanks robyn! I’m anxious to try the ones you suggested.
I do not know anything about Tea Forte but there can be a difference in taste, color, and strength of the black teas from brand to brand. It is my feeling that it has something to do with the way the tea is processed. Just my thoughts and ideas.
Your Tea Forte Fridays has be most interesting.
Have a great day.
Thanks for your thoughts Nancy! Thank goodness there are so many teas out there that if we find one with qualities we don’t enjoy then it is on to the next one. I am having a lot of fun working my way through Tea Forte’s teas and hope to find some winners!