Sweet Merlot Black Tea

yeah i think my earlier teas this evening did weird things to my taste buds. had a cup of this tonight and it’s just not what i remember. I’ll try again another night..

Because Amanda tried this iced…. I decided I would too!

I steeped 1 tbsp and a bit of this one in ~200F water for 30s before mixing it up with the rest of two cups of cold water.

When I was straining it earlier, I caught a good whiff of grape, but I’m not getting that from the cup anymore. Strange.

The flavour is actually a surprisingly pleasant raisiny-concord grapey flavour. Yum! It’s like summery grape juice without all the sweet. It’s still a pretty big stretch to call this a wine tea, in my opinion, but I kind of like it this way! I think I would perhaps use a bit more tea next time just to make it a touch stronger, but it’s ok as is. To be honest… this actually tastes much more like a black currant tea than the Black Currant Bai Mu Dan I just drank. And whether or not they’re present here, I’m not getting a sense of strong artificial flavouring that turns me off.

I still intend to give this tea another shot hot, but I’d be happy drinking it this way all summer. Rating bump.

This is pretty good. I wasn’t expecting much … I typically don’t with wine flavored teas as I’m not a big wine drinker anyway. But, this exceeded my expectations, and it tastes very much like a wine I’d favor. (I used to drink wine more often than I do now, I used to think I needed it when I got into “creative mode” like some sort of wine-o artist or something. Now, I find my creativity is much more likely to emerge with tea than it ever did with wine.)

This has a light sweetness to it and is definitely grape-y, but, there is a fermented grape sort of taste that is very wine-like. It isn’t a super dry or astringent experience, and that is typically what I do not like about wine, so I’m glad that this tends to be on the sweeter side without tasting too sweet. I find that the black tea base works well here, although I don’t think that this is the new black tea base. It’s remarkably smooth and round, and I really like this. I think it would also be excellent iced, I think I’ll brew more in a bit for the fridge since my iced tea pitcher is empty.

Received this in a swap from Tigress Al.

I am happy to try this one, I almost have just as much wine in my house as I have tea, and I have lots of tea.

The dry tea smells strongly of super sweet merlot. Like the kind you get in a box, not a bottle.

The brewed tea tastes a bit more like fermented concord grapes. Not quite like wine yet. The black tea is much more prominent than the wine flavours. There is a bit of spice and stringency in the aftertaste which reminds me of the astringency you can get with a dry red wine. I added some brown rock sugar and it brought out a bit more of the grape flavour.

I would not necessarily describe this as a wine tea, more of a grape tea, but I still think it was a good effort at trying to mimic a merlot taste. I think this one may be better iced. I have a container chilling in the fridge as I type.

Thanks Tigress!

At first I was skeptical. I got a huge whiff of vinegar from the dry leaf. Steeped however it was quite nice. I am not ready to place a rating on this just yet. I want to brew a fresh pot. It did not re-steep well which is kind of a bummer. More to come once I get caught up on some work and make another pot.

Big thanks to Azzrian for the sample!! I was curious about it for so long, so I am super psyched to finally be trying it out :P
Anyhow it’s quite interesting. Certainly winey! There is that vinegar aspect I see mentioned in other reviews, and something else, almost like burnt tea?
Around that there is a slight grape like flavour, mixed up with a mild, very mild, bubblegum note.
After finishing my cuppa, the aftertaste is reminiscent of merlot along with a healthy dose of astringency.
Overall, it’s a great tea, just Not one that I would crave often. Of course, I’d certainly recommend it to a Merlot lover!
Rating: 82

I decided to give this a try cold steeped first. It worked better than I expected!

I really love the combination of what really tastes like fermented grapes and black tea. It’s a lot easier to drink than red wine can be…actually I’m not a big fan of Merlot but I really love this.

I’ll give it a shot hot sometime, but I really like how it tastes iced. It might suit my tastes better iced because hot grape flavors and I aren’t too friendly.

I’m French and I don’t like red wine …paradox ?
Anyway I was brave and tried this tea, my dear Azzrian kindly sent some over me.

You know, the idea to create and blend a tea flavored with red wine couldn’t have come from France : It would be some kind of sacrilege here…(!)
So thank you dear American for always daring new things (with teas and with with food in general). Things shouldn’t be canonized as we often do here in France for some beverage or ingredients.

I cannot really say I taste a Merlot but for sure I have a real nice grape aroma especially on after taste.

Quite nice, well done 52 teas and thanks for being audacious

Okay, so this is ridiculous.
My fiance is over and we are playing Wine Pong.
First round, he won.
Second round I insisted we take a break and play a round of “Tea Pong”. And what tea to play with than Merlot Tea?
Keep in mind for this tasting that I have some lousy Yellowtail Cabernet Merlot on my palate ;) (okay, it’s not that bad).
For the leaves I get the best whiff of chocolate. Yum.
(Oh yeah, buzzed side note: my fiance assisted me in explaining gongfu tea ceremony by calling the tea tray “kind of like a tea toilet” describing the water disposal. You can, of course, see why I love him.)
Back to the Merlot Black Tea. Oh wait! Damn the merlot. I forgot earlier – I took pictures so you can all see how ridiculous this is.
Evidence: http://www.flickr.com/photos/71654987@N06/8018298699/
The merlot tea now.
Taste wise, this reminds me of my comfort black tea (okay, red rose, but a really good red rose!). My fiance was reminded of Thai Red Tea. I’m not getting a ton of wine flavor until the finish which is nicely astringent in the same way that wine is.
Okay so we played tea pong and if I ever edit down the footage I’ll upload it to my flickr. Until then you can just picture a slightly drunk tea-afficionado making tea jokes while sipping this tea and playing pong. It was awesome.
The tea is great. My fiance and I both enjoyed this – not so much wine flavor but definitely wine astringency and tea flavor.
Thanks, Amanda for sending this along in the package :)

Thank you so very much, LiberTEAS, for this tea included in the samples I recieved from you.
I didn’t know what to expect, I’ve never had a tea meant to taste like wine. Making a game of it my wife and I smelled the dry leaf without reading what it was. She said blueberries first, then recanted not sure. I said bubblegum. She was much closer obviously(though I shall revisit my choice later).
The wet leaf has a sweet malty aroma. The liquor is e deep red with just a smidge of brown.
I was surprised at how much it remineds me of wine, though it’s been over ten years since I’ve had any of it. The flavor is malty as well, with floral notes. I swear they snuck fermented grapes into this concoction…IT TASTE LIKE WINE.
The bubblegum comes into play in the afterflavor, I think it’s sugar free but I don’t chew much gum so can’t place it.
I’m really impressed with this glass of wi…I mean cuppa tea. Not an everyday drinker, but something to savor late at night just before bed which is befitting because…goodnight.
tune-Amos Lee=Black River/Keep It Loose,Keep It Tight/What’s Been Going On