Tea tasting: Trader Joe's Raspberry Black

Raspberry is one of my favorite flavors, so I'm always eager to try teas featuring raspberry. Anyone who finds a tea that combines vanilla, raspberry and almond will earn my undying love.

Unfortunately, Trader Joe's Raspberry Black tea is a huge disappointment.  It's a decent black.  But it has nothing in it that makes it raspberry.  There's just the faintest aftertaste of something sweet.

However, combining this tea with the Raspberry Sugar from the Spice and Tea Exchange that I reviewed previously works out incredibly well.  The sugar brings out whatever raspberry qualities should be in this tea as well as adding its own raspberry sweetness.

Tea tasting: Tea Forté's Kiwi Lime Ginger

My newly blossomed head cold demands a lot of tea, and that tea needs to have flavor and not have caffeine.   So, I opened my sample package of Kiwi Lime Ginger herbal tea by Tea Forté.

My initial reaction is not promising.  The brew smells sort of like cough medicine, and not in a good way.  The aroma fairly reeks of ginger, with a sharp slightly unpleasant citrus overtone.  Looking back over the ingredients, I see the "problem": organic honeybush, organic ginger root, organic rooibos, organic lemon peel, natural kiwi flavor and natural lime flavor.

Ugh.   I wasn't expecting a tea billed as "herbal" to be rooibos-based.  Ugh.   But I will soldier boldly on in order to give you a proper review.

If I hold my nose, the flavor of the tea is no more than adequate.  It's not particularly flavorful, unfortunately.  There's a very little citrus bite in the background.  The ginger is relegated to an aftertaste.  It certainly doesn't make up for the sheer unpleasantness (to me) of the aroma.

I've got some single-steep packages left.  If you don't object to the scent of rooibos, I'll happily give them away to someone who might enjoy them.

Tea tasting: Tea Forté's Rosemary Tangerine White Tea

Rosemary is not a flavor I immediately associate with tea (with pork loin, definitely).  

Tea Forté's Rosemary Tangerine White Tea works far better than it should.  I'm not sure I would buy a full box of it, but I will definitely finish the sample package.  This is NOT a fruity tea.  The aroma is all rosemary with a hint of tangerine.  The flavor starts out tangerine, but the rosemary quickly overwrites it.  I can still taste the tangerine underneath, somewhat.  It's . . . odd.   

This tea definitely needs pairing with food.   It paired surprisingly well with the gingerbread cookies I had as a snack this afternoon.  I think it would go well with any kind of strongly-flavored savory meal.   +Jody Livingston  suggested pairing with garlic, and that might work.  I'm immediately immediately thinking of herbed meats of various kinds, rather than something pasta-like.

This tea needs to be consumed hot.  Tea Forté's website says it's "refreshing iced" but they lie, lie lie.  It's appallingly bad when iced unless you like drinking liquid rosemary.

Likewise, this white tea needs to be brewed at the right temperature (185 F) or else it becomes a muddy awful herby mess.

I'd recommend this anyone with an adventurous palate who likes savory flavors, particularly if it is part of a sampler pack.