Tea Forte Tea Sampler
Twenty silky pyramid infusers of ten different teas, in a presentation box with a tasting guide. No strainer, no gear, and it looks expensive because it is.
You want something that looks like a real gift, you don't know their taste, and they might not own a strainer.
You're buying tea for your own cupboard. Twenty cups for $40 comes to about $2 a cup. A good everyday box costs a fraction of that.
The best luxury tea gift set
Tea Forte built its name on the pyramid: a small silky bag of whole leaf with a paper leaf sticking out of the top, which you hold to lift it out. Each one comes in its own little carton, so unwrapping a cup of tea feels like a small occasion, and the leaves have room to open up in the water.
This box has two each of ten teas: Black Currant, English Breakfast, Earl Grey, Green Mango Peach, Jasmine Green, White Ginger Pear, African Solstice, Chamomile Citron, Ginger Lemongrass and Blueberry Merlot. That's enough range that a morning drinker and a bedtime drinker both find something, and the tasting guide inside tells them what they've got.
For your own cupboard, my tea brands guide points you to much cheaper tea. A gift is the one time paying for the box makes sense. The 10-infuser box runs about $30, or $3 a cup, so skip it for this one, and there's a 40-infuser chest for about $78 if the budget is bigger.
Drinkers are upfront that you're paying for the presentation, and they say that's exactly what makes it a good gift. The teas themselves get called very good rather than the best they've had. One got two good steeps out of an African Solstice pyramid, while another found a second steep of a different blend came out weak. One reader of the green tea instructions thought they called for water that was too hot.
- About $2 a cup.
- Serious loose leaf drinkers may find it more pretty than remarkable.
- Twenty cups goes quickly in a house that drinks tea every day.
