Canadian Ice Wine

Sipdown! 824.

This one is definitely too perfumey for me. Sure, it tastes kind of grapey, and a bit reminiscent of ice wine, but honestly, Butiki’s Gui Fei Oolong tastes more like the real thing to me, and it’s not even flavoured! Also, there’s a bit of astringency here even with a 2-minute infusion, which I’m not fond of. Ah well! I’m not sure that finding the perfect ice wine tea is a huge priority for me (although I think a well-done one could certainly be interesting).

ETA: The second infusion wasn’t nearly as perfumey. But I hadn’t intended to re-steep this one, so once I realized what it was, it went down the drain. Needed to keep stomach real estate available for other teas.

An hour of chipping away at the ice barely put a dent in it, but we were able to bumble and bounce out for a lunch break. This is dessert before going back outside in the (now slushy) tundra.

Enjoying the last of the packet that came from Azzrian; it’s still more floral-tasting to me than when I had a pouch of my own some years back. Wonder if they changed their formulation or my preferences have shifted some.

Recommendations for a decent grapey tea that tastes really grapey?

I am cold-brewing 8 Tbs in 48oz water for 8 hrs. Had a scant teaspoon left, so made a (rather weak) cup hot, with a bit of sugar.

I found my stash of this today! I’m having one last cuppa before sending the rest to Ashley! It’s fruity and fun and super sweet and it’s a scent-match to iced wine and darned near taste match, too!

I am glad that I have enough of this tea to brew for iced tea tomorrow. I suspect it will make a delightful iced tea. It is tasty hot too.

It has a very pleasant grape-y taste. I am not one who generally likes grape flavors. I like grapes, but, as for grape flavored things, not so much. What I like about this, though, is that this doesn’t taste like some artificial, sweet grape taste. This actually reminds me of the grapes that my gramma used to grow on her vine in the backyard. Crisp, a little on the tart side, and not cloyingly sweet.

My first experience with Ice Wine tea was a Design a Tea Sample.
I got this because I LOVED the Design a Tea Iced Wine and well I was giving Culinary Teas a sample go around.
I am at that stage of deciding my favorite teas but also which vendors I like best.
I must say Culinary has some wonderful teas but I feel they are a bit hit and miss at times.
This is a very good tea.
Fruity, Sweet but not overly so, and I get the ice wine flavor I was hoping for … but … I do prefer Design a Tea’s ice wine over this one.
There was just a bit more flavor to it. I got far more of the wine flavor.
Now I will say the grape flavor in this is very very good – absolute NO artificial flavor at all and no astringency! There is nothing wrong with this tea at all so if you are going to make an order with Culinary Teas and want an iced wine go for it!
It smells very good – grapey but not fake grape like most soft drinks and juices!
Now I did end up adding a touch of sugar to this and it did help bring out the flavors nicely which they suggest.
I did not however have to add any sugar to Design A Tea’s Ice Wine.
Its all a matter of what one likes though. If you prefer a little less BAM in your tea I would suggest this one.

Tried this after a night of social drinking. Nothing like a “hair of the dog” tea to brighten your day. This stuff – unlike other flavored teas – actually doesn’t dilute very much after the initial dry whiff. The flavoring holds up after a good steep. As an added bonus, some of the natural floral characteristics of the Ceylon base also show through.

Full Review: Pending on www.teaviews.com

I very much enjoy this tea. It has a nice sweet berry scent. A bit more flavor on the base’s part and I would have liked a bit more of the fruit. Overall a nice tea with a smooth taste. One of my favorites.

Really digging how floral and sweet perfume-y, not just grape-y, the dry leaves smell, indeed like a lovely chilled wine. Brewing and in the cup the sweet floral quality turns a bit musky in a good way, continuing the perfume element. Impressed and pleased this isn’t more astringent.

Funny enough, I seem to have a conditioned mental block to drinking more than a cup of this in one sitting—I guess I inevitably connect it to drinking a lot of wine really fast, and how my body doesn’t like the idea of that.

It’s a shame this isn’t less caffeinated, because it’d be a lovely way to have a nightcap sort of relaxation beverage without, you know, the icky dehydration and mouthfeel when you wake up the next morning. Unfortunately, I’m not familiar with any herbal/tisane wine “teas”—New Mexico Tea Company’s, Joy’s Teaspoon’s, and Red Leaf Tea’s all have tea leaf bases as well. I do reckon it would be refreshing iced in hot weather and possibly blended with other flavors, sort of like a wine tea summer spritzer “cocktail” thing, which might be good for a party on the patio in that it’d pick you up (instead of make you sleepy, which wine does to me) and be less dehydrating.

Now I’m wondering if it’d make a good partner with certain foods. Hm…