Tea Forté Review

I was fortunate enough to win a contest at Beautylab.nl! To enter, you had to make up your own Winter Holiday tea. I chose a herbal tea, with cranberry, rose hip, echinacea and thyme. The first three have immune system-improving properties, and thyme is supposed to reduce coughing. I called it A very Berry Christmas. About a week later I was informed I won, together with two other girls! The prize? A very deluxe box of tea of Tea Forté, more specifically 3 products from their Winter Collection!

 Along with the tea, there was a cute note from Serena, Tara and Larissa. Serena's from Beautylab.nl and her sisters Tara and Larissa host Kittehscupcakes.com. Both two excellent beauty and lifestyle blogs, I highly recommend them! They hosted the give-away together.

I received (from left to right): The winter spice pyramid grande, the Winter spice petite ribbon box and The winter spice pyramid duo.




First off: this tea is heavily scented! I could smell it through the cardboard box they came in. When I opened that cardboard box and took the three boxes out, my whole room started to smell like spices. While the individual teabags were still in plastic inside the boxes. So if you don't want tea that acts as potpourri as well, this is not for you. The packaging is festive and classy, I love the warm red color! The labels are from a thick paper and the ribbon gives it a very deluxe finish. Tea Forté is a bit on the expensive side, or at least in my poor-broke-student-eyes it is. The packaging certainly shows that, I like!

How expensive, you ask? Of course, Tea Forté has a sale right now, already calculated in the shown prices, so I can't tell you for sure. My calculating skills are pretty much gone, so you'll have to do with what I remember. The total net. worth of these three boxes is € 29,75, according to beautylab.nl.

Winter spice pyramid Grande

The Winter Spice pyramid grande is about € 9,85. For that, you get six silken infusers, two of each listed flavour. Harvest apple spice smells like autumn. Apple and cinnamon, very nice! I found the smell to be a bit overwhelming at first. I had that with all five flavours, but I did get used to it. This flavour was mild, not as heavy as some apple-cinnamon based on black tea I tasted before.
Sweet ginger plum tasted sweet, the ginger was rather present, with a hint of the plum. Very warming, perfect if you're really cold or starting to get sick. Hazelnut truffle smells like warm chocolate milk, and tasted like nutella in a tea. Being a black tea, this was my least favorite, I've outgrown black teas the past year.

List of teas inside

The Winter spice Pyramid Duo contained two silken infusers and costs about € 4,95. Harvest Apple Spice and Sweet ginger plum. But look at the infusers! They are packaged individually and are tiny pyramids. (Well duh, the "pyramid" in the name suggests as such). Every infuser looks the same btw. Look at the cute leaf as a "tag"! Awesomely cute, makes your cup of tea look wonderful! 

Look how cute that is!
I couldn't get it to stand up straight, but that's just clumsy me ^^

What's inside? :)

  

The two other flavors were wonderful as well. They were in the third box, the Winter spice petite ribbon box. There is an even bigger Ribbon box. This one was about € 14,95. For that, you get ten infusers, two of each flavor. 

Sweet orange spice is my favorite! Normally, I'm not to big a fan of orange-y teas, especially when they're black teas. But this one, definitely different! It opened up my clogged sinuses, which is always a plus. The taste was very rich, but not heavy like with other black teas. I could taste the citrus and the cinnamon gave it a little kick. Again, heavily fragranced, but very good quality tea. 

Winter Chai was my next favorite. Normally, I detest rooibos tea. I dislike the taste, the smell, the aftertaste in my mouth, everything. The same for the cheap chai teas you can buy at Xenos. Expensive Chai is very nice, but again, being broke, I don't drink that too often. But this tea tastes much more light and yet warm. To me, it did not taste like rooibos at all, but maybe I've just tasted the wrong rooibos tea all my life. It's not an overwhelming taste, it just filled my mouth in a pleasant subtle way. 

As you can see, a list of the five teas and their ingredients. Some are organic, some are not. Having tasted the teas, I can say all five are high quality and rich in taste and smell. Maybe not every flavor is my personal favorite, but I'm tea-lover enough to conclude they are very very good. I can recommend this limited edition, now on sale, and the brand in general. I've looked at their other teas and I got a bit (okay, A LOT) greedy. I'm eager to try some of their loose teas, but the budget and my endless heap of teas already in possession bid me to wait. But it's definitely something I'd put on my (birthday)wish list. This tea (and the other teas Tea Forté offers) make great gifts. The packaging is classy, welldesigned and it just makes you smile. I mean, look at the little leaf! It's those little details that really distinguish regular from special brands and teas. And I consider Tea Forté to be very special!

So, in a nutshell: 

This tea is for you when: 

• You like high quality tea with a strong smell and flavor. 
• You like real "winter teas". These are definitely that. 
• You don't mind paying a bit more for your tea. An infuser lasts you two cups, so a cup costs you between € 1,25 and € 1,50. 

This tea is not for you when: 

• You don't like winter teas. 
• You don't like spices in your tea.
• You find strong-smelling teas appalling.
• You find the price tag a bit too hefty. 

So, what's your favorite holiday tea? Would you like to try these or other teas of Tea Forté?