Grape Expectations

Not bad! You can definitely taste the grape with a green tea aftertaste. I don’t find that it has a chemical taste like others have said. Its nice and refreshing!

I agree with previous estimates – this does taste more like an oolong. Like an oolong soaked in grape kool-aid. In the best possible way, it’s really good. I drank about half the cup hot, and it was more oolong-y. The grape became much more prominent as it cooled.

Now it’s my turn to give Grape Expectations a whirl! This is most definitely an artificial grape that you find in pop or popsicles, but like Cavo, I like that. This is splitting hairs, but perhaps because this isn’t carbonated, it reminds me of grape popsicles more than anything else. I’d imagine that making tea popsicles with this would be awesome.

OH! Imagine a tea slushie? That would be pretty cool.

Additionally, I appreciate that the base is light. I’m normally not a fan of grassy senchas, or any grassy/vegetal greens. I’m sure I let the water cool even below the recommended temperature, so whatever I did worked. Maybe I let it cool in the pot for like fifteen minutes or so.

Next up will be a cold brew. Let’s hope it’ll be just as good, if not better. As long as the base behaves.

Lastly, 700th post!

Arg. This tea is so good…when done right. I don’t know what the hell they were thinking at Davids when I got this to go. My wife was envious of my carry travel mug, so we stopped in to get one for her, as well as pick up three replacement infusers that somehow got lost in the move. Anyway, as I’ve always understood it in Davids store, when you buy a travel mug, the first fill is free. We have 2 timolinos, a carry travel mug, a kid’s spill-proof mug, a bodum travel press and three of the iced tea specials. And every other time, we’ve gotten a free cuppa. So today I asked for iced Grape Expectations, because the wifey didn’t want anything, and when the girl went to ring us up, she said she forgot to charge us for the tea to go. Ah….no? Am I wrong? Is the first cup not free? We had already started the debit transaction, so she let it go, which is good, because if I had paid for this, I would have demanded a refund.

So they open the new travel mug and offer to run it through the dishwasher. I appreciate the thought, but the mugs are handwash only (something they should know) and that would heat the metal inside, which would not at all help keep my iced tea iced. I declined and asked them to just rinse it. Then came the weird part. They must have filled the infuser with leaves, filled the mug with ice and then hot water, and then put the infuser and top on the mug.

Um…no?

I asked if it had agave in it and she said no, even though I had asked for agave. So she opened it back up and that’s when I saw the leaves. As I was trying to figure out why the leaves were there, she proceeded to put four pumps of agave in the mug, going for a fifth when I stopped her. I asked for “a fair bit” of agave, but that’s excessive.

I stepped out and immediately dumped out the leaves. My wife offered to go back in with the infuser and lid to ask them to rinse it out and I agreed. She came back and now there were a fair number of leaves on top of the lid, the part you drink out of. When I took a sip, I had cold agave water with the barest hint of grape.

So…yeah. This is not the right way to make this tea, I don’t recommend it XD.

This doesn’t disappoint!
It’s grape! And yes, it’s that fake grape you get with pop or cough medicine, but you know what? I LIKE that grape.

I think 4 minutes is starting to push it as this tastes a little bitter. Maybe 3.5 would have been perfect? This is still good though, don’t get me wrong. I can taste the sencha, but it’s not super strong. I’m ok with that.

Again, I’ll rate this later after I come down from my new-tea excitement!

Steeped 1.5 perfect spoonfuls for approx. 4 minutes in a mason jar (boiling). Left overnight to cool. Added ice and two healthy squirts of agave.

Yum yum yum. Watching a movie with my students this morning, and I look forward to sitting back and enjoying this while we watch.

The grape flavor was very hard to find until I added the agave, which totally brought the grape forward. It’s a light, green grape taste – not at all similar to the purple kool-aid smell it has in the dry leaf. This is another one I need to stock up on for the summer break.

This smells so good! I was pretty excited to try this tea when I got back to the office, though I tried peaches and cream first. The girl at david’s told me to watch my steeping time because it took them a few tries to get it right. I totally forgot about it, but still only steeped for 6 mins or so at a warm temp. It was slightly bitter but had a strange chemically taste to it that I hope was because of the oversteep. It got better as it cooled but that could be because my taste buds were used to it. I’m gonna play around with steeping times because the flavour was quite nice, very concord grape.

This was my morning cup, and still is in my cup so I guess early afternoon cup as well lol. A tasty fresh treat, although at only +12 degrees C in the office, a strong, cozy black tea would have been a better choice, albeit too much caffeine for my cutting back on caffeine lol. The frigid temp in here is also probably why I can’t shake this darn sinus thing, I think my cold progressed into a sinus infection, hoping it clears up without needing antibiotics. Ugh, anyways, back to the tea, it’s tasty and good, but not very warm now haha so I will finish this off and make a cup of something else! See previous notes on this tea :)

Oh, and I still have to find time to make a trip to my local DT to pick up the new summer collections, hoping my nose will fully clear up before I go so I can fully smell them in all their glory haha.

ETA – Haha, I see a previous note on this tea was when the heat was messed up in the office and it was +26. How nice that would be for a bit now. LOL

This tea definitely smells a lot sweeter then it tastes. When I first smelt it at the store I didn’t think it would have such a bitter taste to it. The girl also told me that she usually uses a TON of sweetener in her teas but for this one she doesn’t need too. That wasn’t the case for me.. Haven’t tried it hot, but I don’t think I’d recommend it on ice.

First tasting note!
Overall not too impressed with my first cup of this… just very weak and lacking. This being said I don’t always get a great brew at work – get caught up in something and oversteep, don’t get a chance to drink until it’s already cold, etc – so definitely willing to give it another try at home. The smell is too good not to get a second chance!