Concord Grape Bai Mu Dan

Even though I’m a monthly subscriber to 52Teas, I still tend to stalk the website on Mondays, checking to see what Frank came up with for the tea of the week. If the tea doesn’t get posted on Monday, I find myself clicking on the website even more often on Tuesday, because I am becoming impatient. I want to know! If for some reason, Frank is later (and I suspect he does this just to tease me because he knows I am waiting), I become really impatient and have a hard time leaving the computer until I know what the tea of the week will be.

It has gotten better since I started subscribing though, I think some of the anxiety of worrying that the tea will sell out before I have a chance to buy it is alleviated with the subscription. But it doesn’t alleviate the curiosity.

Most of the time, I’m not only excited about the tea but also quite astonished at what Frank has come up with for the week! Case and point: Pancake Breakfast. Wow! But occasionally, I’m a little disappointed by the tea of the week.

If you go to the 52Teas website right now and look at different teas that appear on the homepage, most of the teas there are ones that excited me. Cotton Candy? Custard-Filled Maple Long John? Chicken and Waffles? (Oh, never mind…) and let us not forget this week’s creation: Double Chocolate Decadence. (for my birthday! yippee!) These flavors are exciting!

And there are a few that are a little less than exciting. I’ll be the first to admit that I wasn’t interested in trying the Doggy Tea. The Citrus Piledriver I wasn’t too excited about, but, that one turned out to be a big winner after trying it.

But this tea. This tea actually disappointed me when it was announced. I don’t really like grape. I like the fruit. But I don’t usually like grape flavored stuff like soda or candy. I don’t even really care for grape juice.

That being said, I have actually found some grape flavored teas that I’ve enjoyed. But that didn’t stop me from being just kind of “meh” about the announcement of this tea.

All that was before I tried it.

This is good. This tea makes Concord Grape worthwhile.

This is one of the teas that I got in the grab bag sale. I ordered 2 grab bags, so I got 8 new teas to try! I really couldn’t resist buying two grab bags… Something about mystery and tea combined by Frank made this irresistible! 

The dry leaves smell like sour grapes. It reminds me vaguely of grape juice. I love the HUGE freeze dried grapes in my tea. If my calculations are correct, I have about enough to include 1 grape per cup of tea! :) The tea leave are a big small and broken, though that may be due to the rough trip to Ecuador that they had to endure…

While steeping, I got a slight grape scent that was much lighter than the dry tea leaf scent. The butter colored liquor that I achieved after a three minute steep smelled strongly of Bai Mu Dan with a grapey scent in the background. 

I didn’t need to sweeten this tea at all. The fruity taste of the Bai Mu Dan worked wonders with the grape flavoring. It was smooth and only slightly grapey.  The taste was not artificial at all, and I really enjoyed the cup. I think I might have enjoyed it more if the grape flavor had been a little bit stronger, but it was still a delightful tea. 

The second steep had a weird sour after taste that I didn’t like at all… So I am sticking to one steep on this one. 

I have already gone through 3 cups of this one… Somehow I don’t think it is going to last me too long! :)

Another sample from Amanda :) And happily, another sipdown as this was a one-cup sample. Pseudo-progress, yes.

Although I couldn’t really get any aroma from the dry tea, the instant the water hit this I was blown away with a delicious grapey aroma. Nom. The tea is very much that artificial concord-y grape juice flavour, with a bit of white tea lurking in the background. Tasty, but not a tea I need in my cupboard, as I have a lovely Grape Oolong from Butiki already, and grape is not a flavour I tend to seek out often.

Thanks again Amanda!

I’m clumsy. I just dumped half of my freshly brewed cup onto my lap. It didn’t feel good. On the bright side, it smells lovely…mmm…Concord grape and boiled me. Thank goodness for re-steepable leaves. This tea is too good to waste, not that any tea should be wasted, but this one is super-deelish! The grape and the tea are nicely balanced against each other. It’s light and fresh and perfect for spring/summer when I’m craving the fruity teas. When it gets warmer outside I’m trying this iced! C’mon sunshine!!!

Thank you tattooed_tea for this sample!
I also got this tea in one of my grab bags that I ordered. So I am glad I liked it!

I cold brewed this.

Whites are my fav, so I thought this was great. Light concord grape taste, maybe a little too light, but good enough for an iced tea. The grassiness of the Bai mu dan comes through a little too. I think the flavours compliment each other well. Nice and light tea on this humid summer day!

I didn’t buy this one for myself I bought it for Lance, he likes it alot except he said it tastes much like a white tea version of the Oatmeal Raisin Cookie also from 52 teas and we both noticed NO GRAPES there was no freeze dried grapes in our bag at all so I’m not sure if we got the bottom of the batch or if it wasn’t mixed well. Anyways Lance is happy with it and likes it still I just wasn’t that impressed with it, to me it has a doughy taste. Long as he likes it tho :-)
Oh yeah, it smells wonderful like grape bubble gum

I wanted iced tea, but something low on caffeine. Since I had moved this to the kitchen…it was the winner.

I’m not a big fan of grape flavored things. It’s like cherry, where there’s a fine line between tasting like the fruit and tasting like medicine syrups. This isn’t bad though. Since I have no plans to ever take iced bai mu dan and add just a bit of some fresh concord grape juice to it, this works for me. That’s how I imagine this would be. It’s just enough grape for you to know that’s the flavor, and then you can taste the white tea.

I’d like to see how it fares cold brewed, see if that makes it any more grape tasting.

I have found through tastings of other grape related teas, Apparently it is hard to get a nice natural grape flavoring that does not scream artificial. Well Frank has come close to the holy land on this tea. The flavoring is mild and mixes well with the bai mu dan.

Steep Information:
Amount: 3 tsp
Water:500 ml at 185 °F
Tool: Breville One-Touch Tea Maker BTM800XL
Steep Time: 2 minutes
Served: Hot

Tasting Notes:
Dry Leaf Smell: sweet grape
Steeped Tea Smell: Grape jolly rancher, hint vegetal
Flavor: Vegetal, sweet
Body: Light
Aftertaste: none
Liquor: Translucent light brown

Post-Steep Additives: Add sugar, slightly more grape…meh

Rating: 2/4 leaves

Blog: http://amazonv.teatra.de/2012/06/24/52teas-loose-leaf-white-tea-concord-grape-bai-mu-dan/

Thank you to Amanda for sending me a sample of this tea! You can definitely smell the grape when you open the package. The taste is more of a candy/bubblegum grape. But it’s not strong at all, it’s more of a mellow grape flavor that kind of hangs out in the background. I really like it :) and I’m happy I got the chance to try it! Thank you again, Amanda!

I brewed this tea using 195°F water for 3 minutes and then put it in the refrigerator overnight to chill. Today I am enjoying it cold.

This is good. You can tell that the base is white tea. There is a slight hazelnut quality that I associate with white tea. And, despite my having had this tea for awhile now, it still tastes fresh to me. The grape flavor is great. Definitely concord, not candied or artificial tasting. Very clean, fruity, and sweet. There is a brief and pleasant aftertaste of grape. This is a very good tea.

Reminds me of grape jelly. I like it; I drink it plain and can really savor the bai mu dan through the grape. Resteeped at 190F for 4 min and tastes just as flavorful. As it cools, I pick up more depth in flavor. (wish I had the vocabulary and palate to better articulate). I can’t wait to try it cold.