Jingle Bells

This SMELLS so GOOD! Yum!

Citrus notes with a creamy undertone. A lot like a creamsicle – with tea! And as good as it smells, it tastes even better. The citrus tones are sweet with just enough tart to keep it interesting but not too much. The creamy yogurt flavor gives it a smooth, rich taste and texture. The black tea is bright but fairly mellow. A nice afternoon tea.

I am not sure if Lupicia changes the recipe for this tea from time to time? Cos the description on my Jingle Bells tea tin says “a black tea scented with refreshing grapes and fruity champagne”, which is completely to the description shown above.

The Jingle Bells tea that I have just brewed does tastes of grapes instead of creamy or citrusy. It in many ways resembles Bonne Nuit, another Lupicia blend with grape and champagne flavours, but the latter is sweeter because it is scented with berries as well. It feels a bit strange to drink Bonne Nuit hot, as if you are drinking a hot fruit cocktail. But I don’t have this problem with Jingle Bells – it’s enjoyable when hot but it will be a nice iced tea too. The grape flavour is kinda like what you get in grape soda drink, but far less artificial and sickly. Kids or kidults will probably like this ;)

Day 7 of the Lupicia advent calendar. Day 6 was some very pretty and nice quality Lupicia-branded washi tape. I wasn’t expecting stationery in here, but it was a very pleasant surprise. Looking forward to finding excuses to put it on everything!

I’ve never had this blend before. Wasn’t sure what to expect. Somehow wasn’t really expecting the very strong grape aroma that escaped as soon as I opened the bag. Oh! For those keeping track, the Matcha au Lait came as a single serving, loose, in a pouch. The Jingle Bells came in pyramid sachet format, just one today. Anyway, back to the tea itself – this is easily one of the better teas in this advent so far. That grape aroma carries through into the flavor, with a strong juicy grape flavor at the front of the sip and a white wine note at the back. I’m not sure this would work as well on any other base – the grape is very sweet, and it really needs the astringency of the base to keep it from tipping into unpleasantness. It’s nice hot but I liked it even better cold; the grape and wine flavors really pop as an iced tea. “Jingle Bells” seems like a little bit of a misnomer, only because this seems more like a New Year’s tea than a Christmas blend to me. But I’m probably splitting hairs.

The weather was so favorable this morning that I had no choice but to agree with its prediction for the tone of the day, which calls for a very special tea indeed and can only mean one of a few from the selection in my cupboard. I have had this tea for two or three years and have quite simply been too excited about the prospect of drinking it to dare crack it open, but sitting down to an episode of ‘Murder, She Wrote’ after a leisurely drive through sunny and verdant scenery, I could hear this tea crying out in indignation demanding to be tasted.

First impression unsealing the bag: delight. The scent wafting to greet me is nothing short of a summer day spent over a pitcher of sugary-sweet grape Kool-Aid, but the complexity of the flavors really blossom in the cup, where the artificial grape candy flavor assumes a muscatel character and the rich depth of warm jelly that takes me back to a delectable Polish blueberry jagodzianka. Even a pervasive effervescence seems to emulate the crackle of a delicate pastry glaze, but it pulls me in a few different directions: on one hand, it’s giving the crispy candy shell of grape Nerds candy and the scintillating spark of sourness that follows it, but on the other hand, the intermingled strawberry notes point me toward a bubbly rosé. A little astringency cuts the sweetness to perfection. I have no choice but to be obsessed.

Not much time this morning to do this review justice, other than thanking the lovely and gracious ashmanra for a tea that just makes your mouth happy! Think “best, richest grape jelly ever” and that pretty much gets it. Can’t wait to try the rest on ice—and the weather is going to be perfect for that this weekend!

A festive limited edition, this is a black tea offered at Christmas that’s supposed to have a champagne/grape flavour. The aroma is quite powerful, both in the dry leaf and brewed cup.

I get straight-up grape- but it’s a nice quality and not overly sweet. It does not give me notes of mulled wine or anything else claimed in the maker’s description. I understand the feeling they were trying to evoke, but nothing about this seems particularly Christmas-inspired. If anything, it’s more autumnal. I’d’ve called this Concord Harvest or something, but that’s just me.

Their description: “Black tea with aromas of grapes and fruity sparkling wine. Toast with this festive tea and tasty. Christmas tea with intense fruitiness, inspired by mulled winter wines, Jingle Bells is a well-balanced black tea with a dense and bewitching scent, evoking well-ripe grapes, raisins, cranberries and some well-known sparkling wines.”

Translation: Grape-heavy black. But a little classy.

I got this as a sampler with some other Lupicia teas. Oh wow, it’s like a grape Martinelli’s sparkling cider! It also has a candy flavor. I can see why they call it Jingle Bells, has a fun, holiday vibe.

There’s not much else to say about it, pretty simple and fun flavor combination.

Thanks to Cameron B for sending this teabag with the group order! The grape flavor smells and tastes really pleasant! This is a fun blend – I haven’t had something similar before! I’m not really sure how the name fits with the tea, but the grape flavor is authentic, and the black tea matches and mixes with it well. I wouldn’t buy it myself, but it was very nice to try.

I actually drank this over a month ago, but I am putting a note here because Youngest asked me to remind her which teas we drank when she visited at Christmas. We drank tea pretty much non-stop but I didn’t review many of them because I don’t see her often and wanted to spend time with her. Thus it completely slipped my mind that we had a sample of Jingle Bells that came with my order of Carol and Merci Mille Fois.

We both loved this one. The grape flavor is so spot on. I don’t know how they do it, but the fruit flavored teas from Lupicia that I have tried have been amazing. This fairly sparkled and would be absolutely wonderful to serve for a Christmas time tea gathering when we can finally start having gatherings again. I bet it would also make an incredible iced tea, but we only had one sachet to play it.

Ashman was so enamored of the aroma of Carol this morning that I told him we really need to order even more next year since it is limited edition. Now that I think about it, we should order a pouch or two of Jingle Bells as well.

Thanks Cameron for sending me this to try! I’ve been saving it for New Years.
The dry sachet of this smells strongly of grape Hi-Chews deliciousness!
Steeped the tea definitely has a grape Hi-Chew like flavor as well as some floral perfume like notes. I get the champagne as well it has an almost bubbly like quality to it though leaning more towards champagne than soda. I probably steeped it a tad long and would steep it a bit shorter next time.I bet this would be delicious iced as well. This is my first grape tea I’ve tried from Lupicia and I definitely would repurchase this and want to try their other grape teas as well.