Sweet Merlot Black Tea

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

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.

SIPDOWN! 299 baggies of tea on the wall…299 baggies of tea!

Kittenna graciously allowed me to have a taste of this one! The initial aroma of this one before brewing is totally grape juice! Like whelch’s grape juice that i haven’t had since i was a little one. Sadly, the taste of this one is also kind of a weak grape juicey tea. It sort of reminds me of the after taste of a merlot…but not much. Overall not a bad tea, but this one might be one that would be better brewed cold. Still, happy to have tried it!

Edit: for a better version, try the vintage tea works version imo

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 to Kittenna for this sample! I have been fighting a food poisoning for the past few days so I have been trying to drink various teas and hope they agree with me as food surely isn’t. Sadface ‘cause I’m thinking I really should eat something right now..

Sweet Merlot tea it is! In the dry leaf, I do smell some layers of fermentation, as I would in wine.. same with some juicy grape. There happens to be a big one in my tea (or raisin I should say..)
The liquor after 3ish minutes is lovely. Nice red hue to it and smells malty/grapey and almost wine like (impressed!). The taste is a little more subtle, and takes a few sips to build. There is definitely a grape flavour present, though not fully artificial (Yay!)

I wouldn’t say this is a wine tea if someone handed me a cup of it, though it would be very easy to pick out the grape presence, but wine would be a different story. The black tea has a nice round/smooth body, which makes me think of a nice rich full bodied wine.

I have a little of the sample left so I will try this one as an iced tea next time.. though I am very much enjoying this hot. A lot.

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.

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

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.

Oooooh the scent of this one has me most intrigued! Yes, upon opening the packet you are greeted by fermenty-grapes aromas, all sweet and a bit vinegary. Reminds me quite a bit of going wine grape picking last fall, where the guy had us sniff grape clusters to pick out good molds vs. bad bacteria. Unfortunately it was the grapes that had the smell that were infected with bacteria and discarded, and the fungally-infected grapes (I should know this…! Was the good fungus Botrytis, perhaps?), that looked rather unappetizing but had no smell, that they actually collected for a particular type of wine. Or something.

Anyways, I digress. It reminds me of picking grapes for wine.

Steeped, I’m getting much more concord grape aroma. Exciting! Haven’t ever had a grape tea that I’m aware of. I can also smell a malty black base…. smells good!

Hmm. Well we’re not having the bitterness problem here that there was with the Cherry Garcia, but there’s not as much body as I would like. Where’d that black base go?! Definitely getting grape flavour and grape aftertaste. Ok, actually there is a touch of astringency. Maybe I’ll reduce the infusion time next time.

Well… doesn’t exactly taste like wine to me. Maybe it needs some more time. I do appreciate the grape though, and would love to see a tea like Blueberry Cream Cheese Danish, but with grapes (as that tea really worked well).

ETA: Perhaps I should have used less water for the second infusion. Water just below boiling, steeped about 3.5-4 minutes. Definitely tastes like a re-steep. There’s a bit of grape in both aroma and flavour, but it really tastes just like a grape-flavoured black. Quite hoping this improves with age – I would have been happy if it tastes like that sickly sweetish fermenty grape scent it smelled like! More like wine to me :)

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!

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!

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.