Sweet Merlot Black Tea

This is my first tasting of my grab bags!

Dry leaf smells like wine but not very sweet.

Hot: no astringency, strong grape flavour.

Iced: this is where it shines! The grape comes out a little stronger with some dryness that might be associated with wine (it almost makes your mouth pucker, but not in a bad way). I also seem to be getting a tad of current flavour, but maybe that is just me. I wouldn’t have associated this tea with wine if it wasn’t called that, but I think it is a great tea nonetheless.

Tea 15 Great Canadian Traveling Tea box

I’m a little surprised at how much I like this one. I’m not sure Merlot is exactly correct, but it is sweet and grapey with a hint of black tea. This is really interesting, but a little strange. I think this would be one that would grow on you. I’ve put the rest back in the box, but enjoyed the couple of cups that I had.

I saw this in my sample box today. This is also from the Tea Box Pass B! The black tea leaves look very nice. They are medium length and slightly wavy dark brown leaves. Crunchy looking! Steeped, it was a dark brown color. I love the way it smells like muscat … err grapes! It does have the nice wine flavor. This one is more like a dry wine. It isn’t overpowering or artificial tasting. It is just right. There is a moderate amount of astringency at the end of the sip, and it increases as I keep sipping. It doesn’t need any additives either. Towards the end, I decided to try this with a little bit of sugar. I felt like it took away from the flavor more than added to it. Good tea! I miss wine so much, so I am happy to have stumbled upon this tea!

Thank you Kittenna for this sample.

Spring cleaning came early this year and I have spent the day cleaning, sorting and hoovering the downstairs of my house which did not come without my many grumbles and groans. I hate cleaning, but someone has to do it. I just polished off the last of my real wine to celebrate a job well done and after starting to feel a little tipsy I thought it was best to have a nice cup of tea. Then I had the thought..when in Rome… wine tea.

The loose tea looks like your standard bog standard black tea but it’s the aroma that is rather interesting. It’s a sort of fermentedly dark and fruity affair that is sweet and fairly potent.

After a 3 minute steep the water is a reddy brown colour similar to mahogany (not quite passable as red wine). It’s scent is still fruity but the strength has weakened, grape would be a reasonable fruit to compare with it’s scent.

And then there is the taste. It’s gentle, smooth, a little fruity with subtle sweetness and a slight maltyness. There is also a little dryness which becomes noticeable after a good few mouthfuls. Also the sweetness increases and picks up a floral hint. It really reminds me of a Yunnan tea as it has the same rich malty tones.

Well it’s certainly sweet and there is something winey about it so it does live up to it’s name but I’m sorry to say for me it does not substitute the real thing. It is pretty tasty though and a great novelty drink.

I will leave you with a poem.
“We had a kettle; we let it leak:
Our not repairing made it worse.
We haven’t had any tea for a week…
The bottom is out of the Universe.”
― Rudyard Kipling

1.5 tablespoon for 375 ml

Aroma has almost savoury black tea notes which blend well with the sweet grape.

The grape flavour is quite deep and complements the black tea taste. The astringency of the black tea cuts the fruity-tangy edge of the grape taste and makes it more of a wine-like grape. Mild sweetness from the grape. Smooth overall flavour. This tea is what I wish actual wine would taste like.

Thanks to Kittenna for sharing this with me!

Just got this in the mail today and made a cup of this tea to bring with me on my way to class. Steeped, it has a very sweet, grape-y aroma, sort of tastes like grape juice (more like grape-flavoured fruit snacks or something), and is slightly astringent. Being under the drinking age at the moment, I’ve never had Merlot wine, so someone else will have to do the comparing (I honestly got the tea because I was curious about the freeze-dried grapes!). Overall, I think I like it, but I’ll have to try this again some other time without being distracted by note-taking to give a proper rating.

This is a pretty interesting blend. The dry leaves smell a lot like grape flavoring, but not in a cough syrupy kind of way. I didn’t really detect the vinegar notes that other reviewers have mentioned. To me, the taste is somewhere grape juice and wine. The grape flavor is really bold, but there’s a very slight acidity that reminds me more of wine.

ETA: I re-steeped this for 3 minutes, but then got called into an unexpected meeting. I enjoyed this at room temperature after I got back. The wine flavor is definitely stronger after it cooled off.

Big thanks to KittyLovesTea for the sample!

I have had this hot and iced. And, I feel this one works equally well either way. It really does give me the impression of drinking a red wine. I find it to be ever so slightly astringent, which lends to the dryness in the taste. It’s not sweet or sour or bitter. It tastes winey with a clean, but maybe ever so slightly sweet aftertaste. It’s a good and interesting tea that I can’t wait to share with friends, but not my favorite flavor. I rarely drink alcohol because I don’t much like the taste in general, but this tea has the best components of the red wine flavor.