Icewine Naturally Flavored Black Tea

Tea type
Black Tea
Ingredients
Ceylon Black Tea, Natural Flavours, Raisins, White Tea
Flavors
Astringent, Citrus, Floral, Fruity, Grapes, Honeysuckle, Pear, Rose
Sold in
Loose Leaf
Caffeine
High
Certification
Not available
Edit tea info Last updated by Mastress Alita
Average preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 2 min, 15 sec 12 oz / 350 ml

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13 Tasting Notes View all

  • “Steeper beware!! this one brews up STRONG!!!! I had the bag in for two, maybe three minutes and it ended up more bitter than a scorned woman. That had never happened to me before. A new experience...” Read full tasting note
    86
  • “Thank you IndigoBloom for this nice CANADIAN sample! Ice Wine Tea seems to be something you can only get in Canada. Don’t exactly know why. Maybe Canada has special ice or snow or a load of grapes...” Read full tasting note
    83
  • “Thank you Reasoned_Melody for this sample. The teabag smells strongly fruity and a little fermented. I can understand why people have been saying this brews up strongly. Once brewed the tea becomes...” Read full tasting note
    70
  • “Holy smokes Batman! Strong tea is strong. Now that I got that out of my system, I have to say that I did only steep this for two minutes as per short steep suggestion via Indigobloom. I wasn’t sure...” Read full tasting note

From Metropolitan Tea Company

Icewine…the nectar of winter. Or, should we say, nectar of the gods? What else could you possibly call a drink that goes for upwards of $250,000 per 350 ml (11.8 oz)? That’s the price you’d have to pay for an ultra rare bottle of Royal DeMaria, 2000 Chardonnay icewine. Most icewines are priced well below that figure, but they still garner higher prices than traditional wines. Why? The grapes used to make the sweet dessert wine aren’t pressed until they are frozen. As such, 1/5th the amount of grape juice is pressed from each frozen grape compared to the non-frozen variety. For vintners, a general rule of thumb is that each frozen grape will yield just one drop of icewine. The flavor of the finished product is divine. Depending on the varietal, the nose can offer notes of peach, pear, honey, dried apricot and green apple. In the glass, the flavor is a sumptuous combination of apricot, peach, mango, melon and other sweet fruits. This fabulous black tea blend uses real icewine to deliver all that fruity sweetness in a rich, round cuppa. To enhance the natural flavors, consumption with sugar is recommended.

Who invented icewine? No one really knows, but the Latin poet Marcus Valerius Martialis (AD 40-102) wrote that grapes should be left on the vine until they were stiff with frost. Evidently, he preferred the rich, sweet wines produced after November.

This is the wholesale source of:
Niagara Frost “Ice Wine” Black Tea by Strand Teas

Country of Origin: Sri Lanka
Region: Nuwara Eliya, Dimbula or Uva districts
Shipping Port: Colombo
Grade: OP (Orange Pekoe)
Altitude: 4800 – 7600 feet above sea level
Manufacturer Type: Orthodox
Cup Characteristics: Add a dash of sugar and have an organoleptic journey to the winter vineyards of Niagara. A delicious fresh and piquant white grape flavor with hints of exotic fruit that pleasantly lingers on the tongue.
Infusions: Bright and Coppery
Ingredients: Luxury black tea, Freeze dried grapes (raisins), Luxury white tea, Ontario Icewine essense, Natural flavors.

Steeping Instructions: 212F(100C), 3-5 min.

About Metropolitan Tea Company View company

Company description not available.

13 Tasting Notes

86
1759 tasting notes

Steeper beware!! this one brews up STRONG!!!!
I had the bag in for two, maybe three minutes and it ended up more bitter than a scorned woman. That had never happened to me before. A new experience to be sure. No matter. Heaps of agave fixed it right up (and I mean several. At least four times more than what I normally use, if I use any at all)
Next time, I’ll try it with a one/two min steep and see what that reveals.
Anyhow, once that was dealt with… the bitterness was peeking out for awhile, and I couldn’t taste much beyond the agave/bitter aspect. Almost like black coffee. I was not impressed.
However once it cooled a bit, I started to see the wine influence. Not quite ice wine per se, but definitely wine. There was that mouth drying sensation, along with a definite grape-like puckering. Like sweet green grapes. or maybe a hybrid green/red grape. Certainly not a plain red grape of course. No, it was not quite that sweet.
I went in for a second steep and that one was quite lovely as well. I added only two swirls of agave this time and steeped for three full minutes (plus an accidental twenty extra seconds). and guess what? it was still strong! not quite bitter. More what I expected the first infusion to be. any longer and I’d have bridged bitter territory. I’m still a little shocked at just how intense it was. Is it possible they added tea dust? I’ve heard it can make a tea bitter…
but that can’t be, I enjoyed it!! I could never like the taste of tea dust. right?
If it hadn’t been for the work event I was obliged to attend, you can bet I’d have stuck around for a third or even fourth cup.
Oh and I figured out what it reminds me of!! Cloud nine from David’s tea! I don’t know why, it just does. Maybe I need to do a side by side comparison one day. It has been some time since my stash ran out.
And for those who may (or may not be! I’m not assuming anyone reads me haha) wondering, yes I did break my tea buying ban. Again.
Ice wine tea had been on my list for ages, and this is the first opp I’ve had to get a decent version. When the shopkeeper said that people come specifically to her store for that tea, well who was I to shun it?! it was no longer in my power… the decision had already been made… sighs

Tina S.

Heee! Tea ban? What tea ban? These do not exist in our universes. :D

Cheryl

Oh oh, we are paying attention … (gives you the momma-bear look) … haha, one at a time isn’t a huge sin, eh?

Indigobloom

LOL no I suppose they don’t!! if only the tea purchases came with extra cupboard space…

Indigobloom

I also justified it by the fact that I now have an extra tin :-D

Tina S.

Tins are totally something that call to me too. Tormenting things, they be!

Indigobloom

Cheryl: hides
yes, one at a time! yes, yes that is how it is :P

Indigobloom

tormenting, no kidding!! How many teas have I purchased because it comes with a tin… they might as well be sirens!

Tommy Toadman

i got some of this on order it sounds realy good o me :)

Indigobloom

Tommy: I look forward to reading your review!! just don’t steep it too long :)

SimplyJenW

Ah, we all give in to the allure of a good cuppa. What I did…I rewrote my no-buy rules, kind of like Kirk and the Kobayashi Maru..My tea ban just includes black tea……(So I have bought a few oolongs, some green, and a gaiwan!)

Tina S.

Wait, did you just make a Trek reference related to tea? I think I love you!

SimplyJenW

Well, it was an unwinnable scenario…… Yes, I am a big fan of many things that are only cool in geekdom.

Tina S.

Hey, who am I to say anything when I have the Delta as my picture on a tea site? ;)

Indigobloom

Hmmm maybe I should rewrite the my rules!
and I <3 Star Trek. I don’t care what anyone says, Cpt Janeway rocks!!!

Dinosara

I just realized the other day that my rule will be broken too… the NY Coffee and Tea festival is in late February, and I can’t expect myself not to buy any tea there! So yeah, already writing exceptions…

Indigobloom

ahh well you deserve it, after all that denial Dinosara! :P

Dinosara

Haha, thanks for being my enabler. :D

Indigobloom

anytime Dinosara, it’s what tea buddies are for ;)

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83
676 tasting notes

Thank you IndigoBloom for this nice CANADIAN sample!

Ice Wine Tea seems to be something you can only get in Canada. Don’t exactly know why. Maybe Canada has special ice or snow or a load of grapes from New York or California froze one year and someone like Krystaleyn studing grapes and drinking tea at the time had a brilliant idea.

Whatever the case was, voila…ya got Ice Wine Tea.

I kept pestering Indigo-B for some “Please”, when we did a tea swap and I was delighted to see some tea bags (don’t say that often) to satisfy my Ice Wine Tea curiosity.

I was careful not to over-steep the teabag…and once the hot tea cooled a bit the flavor unfolded.
There was a ruby red, seedless grape flavor at the correct stage of ripeness without too much sugar and a bit on the dry side. The type I buy and plop into the freezer to eat like popsicles on a hot day in August or September.
Although I’ve become used to loose leaf tea with big flavor, the scent and taste was mild and pleasing, fruity and not astringent. The wine flavor was not overpowering to the base ceylon tea.
I let my cup cool, added stevia and ice cubes and it was really good! The tea became creamier and was better than hot in my opinion.

TeaEqualsBliss

In short…it’s because the grapes are picked after a freeze at a certainly elevation and at a certain vicinity of water and/height and temp :)

TeaEqualsBliss

A longer and more technical explanation…
is a type of dessert wine produced from grapes that have been frozen while still on the vine. The sugars and other dissolved solids do not freeze, but the water does, allowing a more concentrated grape must to be pressed from the frozen grapes, resulting in a smaller amount of more concentrated, very sweet wine. With ice wines, the freezing happens before the fermentation, not afterwards. Unlike the grapes from which other dessert wines are made, such as Sauternes, Tokaji, or Trockenbeerenauslese, ice wine grapes should not be affected by Botrytis cinerea or noble rot, at least not to any great degree. Only healthy grapes keep in good shape until the opportunity arises for an ice wine harvest, which in extreme cases can occur after the New Year, on a northern hemisphere calendar. This gives ice wine its characteristic refreshing sweetness balanced by high acidity. When the grapes are free of Botrytis, they are said to come in “clean”.

Due to the labour-intense and risky production process resulting in relatively small amounts of wine, ice wines are generally quite expensive.

Canada and Germany are the world’s largest producers of ice wines. About 75 percent of the ice wine in Canada comes from Ontario.[

Bonnie

Ohhhhh.

TeaEqualsBliss

:) CHEERS!!!

Azzrian

Just my two cents but I like Design A Tea’s version a bit better but still I do like this one as well! Ice wine tea is YUM!

Indigobloom

awww glad you like it Bonnie! I love ice wine… a frozen dessert that’s not really frozen :P

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70
1379 tasting notes

Thank you Reasoned_Melody for this sample.

The teabag smells strongly fruity and a little fermented. I can understand why people have been saying this brews up strongly.

Once brewed the tea becomes a reddy brown colour with a sweet yet strong grapey wine fragrance.

Despite the low steeping time of 2 minutes it’s rather bitter, making the whole tea sweet and sour. I can taste grapes and fruit and there is a little dryness there which has a wine effect. While it may not be the nicest flavoured tea it still has charm. Drinking it gives me a sort of…glow…like real wine does.

If the bitterness could be improved then this would be a wonderful bagged tea but for now it remains average.

Preparation
Boiling 2 min, 0 sec
KittyLovesTea

If you leave the tea to cool down it picks up the fruity flavours and sweetness and tends to become stronger in general. Each Christmas I have mulled wine which is served hot so I’m used to drinking it warm on occasion. :)

Indigobloom

I love this one!! but I find it’s much better at 60 or 90 seconds.
Second steep is great to :)

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557 tasting notes

Holy smokes Batman! Strong tea is strong. Now that I got that out of my system, I have to say that I did only steep this for two minutes as per short steep suggestion via Indigobloom. I wasn’t sure what exactly to expect because I never heard of Ice Wine before I got on steepster.

When it was hot, it smelled so grapey, like the big, fat red seedless grapes. It tasted really tangy and a little overpowering. So I put a big tablespoon of sugar in my mug and then dumped the rest into a glass of ice. Voila! An iced ice wine tea.

It actually tastes pretty good iced. It is still tangy, but the sugar cut out the slight bitterness I was tasting. From what I can tell the black tea base is smooth. And instead of the overwhelming concord grape jelly taste, I am getting a light fruitiness out of it.

Yep, this would probably be a tea that the wine drinkers I know would adore.

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 2 min, 0 sec
Indigobloom

Iced!! now there is something to consider haha

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1
55 tasting notes

Backlogging:
Another sample from Azzrian, this one originally from Indigobloom.

In a word, yuck. I paid attention to the steeping instructions and only steeped for 2 lousy minutes. This was so profoundly bitter that after about 3 sips I gave up and threw it out.

Seriously, yuck.

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 2 min, 0 sec

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66
440 tasting notes

Wow, Indigobloom, you weren’t kidding with the strong on this one. Heeding your warning I gave it a short steep of two minutes. And while it isn’t bitter, it is extremely strong. I am getting a fermented grape note under the strong black tea base, and can definitely see wine drinkers who enjoy tea really loving this one. Me, I’m not a wine drinker at all but couldn’t resist the grape smell. It smells heavenly, but if you aren’t a fan of a strong tea I recommend doing an even shorter steep than I did!

Preparation
Boiling 2 min, 0 sec
Indigobloom

ok so it wasn’t just me! I just hope I don’t forget next time I make it…
the lady at the shop said people come from all around Ontario to that specific shop in the blue mountain village for that tea, and then ski on the side because it’s convenient!! :P

Tina S.

I think the lady lied. :D

Indigobloom

noooooooo! I shall cling to my beloved icewine tea ;o

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89
255 tasting notes

So, you’ve probably heard of the Champagne of Tea, but have you ever heard of an ice wine tea? Certainly not I, and certainly not before two days ago.

It was a happy surprise to find out that a long time specialty shop in Terrace actually sells loose leaf tea. What was quite amazing was the variety of teas they offer, and how relatively obscure the fact of them carrying loose leaf tea was.

In any case, the ice wine tea intrigued me. I haven’t really heard much about quality or experiences, but the fact that there was an ice wine tea was enough for me to purchase.

Upon opening the bag, you’re met with an overwhelmingly sweet and fresh pear and grape scent, not so much fruit but simply refreshing. It is actually very interesting, as the grape and pear make up most, if not all of the leaves’ aroma, as you cannot find one bit of tea scent. The leaves are a typical long and rolled black tea, with very dark tones.

I have taken heed to previous tasting notes and decided to steep a minute less my typical 3 minute black tea time. During the steeping, the black tea is brought right out with a very strong aroma. I have also taken heed to the bag’s recommendation of adding sugar, only adding half a teaspoon of rock sugar. Deeper inquiry to others’ past experiences make me think I should have added more sugar.

The brew appears very dark and very wine-ish. The color is deep and clear, the aroma strong yet fresh and subtly fruity. It’s a really soothing aroma, one I would imagine from an actual ice wine.

I also regret not having a wine glass handy at work for this tea.

My first initial sips allow me to understand the strong warnings of how strong the black tea can get, as I instantly taste the strong tea pushing through the other flavors. I am thankful for keeping my steeping at 2 minutes, as I could see this brew turning bitter.

The fruity notes are harmonized with the black tea, giving a wine characteristic of sorts. The grape is quite obvious, but there is also a hint of green apple, as I would imagine as there is also some sweet pear. There is a slight astringency, but due to the shortened steep, it is almost undetectable.

Overall, this is a refreshing and lovely blend. For these wet winter months, this is quite appropriate tea to enjoy casually. I wouldn’t mind sharing it iced with close friends… while watching Girls on HBO.

Preparation
Boiling 2 min, 0 sec

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2447 tasting notes

Tried a bag from the tea box. It could always be improper steeping, but this one was really boring for me. I had it cold, and it sort of tasted like nothing? Maybe black tea with flavoring, but basically nothing. All the other reviews say the complete opposite thing, so it must be age/storage/user error. Oh well!

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78
1244 tasting notes

Repost. I bought this tea from Strand Tea under the name “Niagara Frost ‘Ice Wine’ Black Tea” and have been working on sipping it down (one serving left!) but have recently discovered this blend is wholesaled from Metropolitan Tea Company, so I’m moving my original review under the wholesaler because that is just how I like to jive.

Autumn Harvest! This is one of my oldest teas; I bought it in a Strand Tea order in the summer of 2017. It’s a black tea with some Bai Mu Dan white tea leaves, ice wine grape flavoring, and raisins. The dry leaf does smell sweet and grapey, but also a bit like black currant, and also has some floral notes.

I have a pitcher of this icing in the fridge, but right now just have a warm thermos to sip at work. Originally I prepared the tea at 205F and steeped for four minutes, but this produced a bit more bitterness and astringency than I prefer; I wasn’t sure if that was because I steeped a little longer than I usually prefer to steep black teas, or if I didn’t take into account that this blend includes some Bai Mu Dan which may have reacted poorly to me using the typical water temperature I use for black tea bases. So on my lunch break, I prepared another thermos using 190F water and steeped for three minutes, and the tea seemed to be much more to my tastes this way. There was still some astringency after the sip, but it wasn’t nearly as potent, and I also found there was a sort of pear-flavored note coming through in the flavor prepared this way as well. The base is Ceylon, so it likely is a quite brisk black, and I do tend to respond more favorably to stronger blacks with shorter steeps, so I imagine that had a lot to do with it.

The flavoring is quite nice; there is a floral touch here that I like, slightly rosy and sweet like honeysuckle, which I also noticed in the Honey Mead tea I had recently. Beneath the floral notes is a strong grape note, but it doesn’t taste particularly raisiny. The end of the sip brings out some subtle pear and citrus notes. It’s a fairly pleasant tea, with perhaps a hint more astringency than I tend to favor due to the Ceylon base. Certainly not enough to keep me from drinking, and I’m looking forward to seeing how my iced tea turns out, since I think this flavor is going to work well for that.

Flavors: Astringent, Citrus, Floral, Fruity, Grapes, Honeysuckle, Pear, Rose

Preparation
190 °F / 87 °C 3 min, 0 sec 2 tsp 12 OZ / 350 ML
Nattie

Good sleuthing!

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79
1473 tasting notes

I’ve got tons of this because I have both loose leaf and a tin of teabags. But that’s a-okay, because I really enjoy it cold.

I have a migraine of epic proportions, so I’ll just say this is yummy.

Sami Kelsh

Feel better!

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