Tea Information:
Leaf Type: White
Where to Buy: 52Teas
Tea Description:
So, I’m a little extra excited about our new freeze-dried grapes. I can’t help it, they are just too much fun to blend with. I’m hoping our customers will forgive me and enjoy this deliciousness.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
Grape is not my favorite flavor. I like the fruit alright when eaten fresh (and I like to freeze grapes and eat them like that), but when it comes to grape flavored foods, I tend to steer clear of them. I don’t like grape candy or gum or soda or ice pops. I don’t even really like grape juice, jelly or jam. So, when 52Teas announced this tea as their tea of the week for the week of May 7, 2012, I was less than overjoyed. In fact, it would be more accurate to say I was a wee bit disappointed.
But that was before I tried it.
And as I sit here, sipping this Concord Grape Bai Mu Dan, I’m quite enjoying it, despite the fact that I usually don’t care for grape flavored drinks. This is actually quite good!
The flavor is sweet, but there is enough tartness to the grape flavor to keep it from tasting like the icky-grape-ness that I dislike so much in the soda and other grape flavored foods. This tastes a bit more like grape juice to me, but the delicious, light Bai Mu Dan offers a balance so that I’m not drinking that sickeningly thick, sweet-tart juice.
What I’m trying to say here is that the Bai Mu Dan saves this tea from being something that I’d probably otherwise dislike, and turned it into something that I’m actually enjoying. And the flavor gets better as it cools, which means this will be my next pitcher of iced tea!
There are those (I’ll call them “purists”) who think that the reason tea artists flavor teas is because the teas aren’t of good enough quality to enjoy on their own… so the teas are “masked” by the flavors to make them consumable. I don’t really agree with this viewpoint, as I have found many tea artists (like Frank at 52Teas) who use very high quality teas in their flavored teas. But, if it were the case, I’d have to argue that with this particular tea, I think that the opposite is closer to the truth. The tea actually makes the Concord Grape drinkable!
Canadian Ice Wine Tea from Culinary Teas
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Culinary Teas
Product Description:
Our Canadian Ice Wine tea has a unique flavor. Grapes are left to fully ripen and then freeze before they are picked to make ice wine. 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. Made with all natural flavorings.
Taster’s Review:
I know that I’ve written about my gramma and her yard full of fruit. One fruit that she grew that I don’t think I’ve written about, though, is her grape vine. It wasn’t as prolific as her lemon tree or her apricot tree, but, the limited amount of fruit she did manage to harvest from it was very memorable. Those grapes were considered a great treat when they were harvested because there weren’t quite so many of them as the other fruit.
These weren’t the ordinary, store-bought variety of grapes. They had seeds in them, and the fruit was crisp and juicy with just a hint of sweetness to them. They were more tart than sweet. It was almost a pucker-y kind of tart, but just as I was about to pucker, the sweetness would arrive. They were very refreshing, bursting with grape flavor.
This Canadian Ice Wine Tea brings me back to those days and the flavor of those grapes. It has a crisp, bright flavor that is tart with just a hint of sweetness. It is a true grape flavor – not some cloyingly sweet, artificial grape taste that you might find in purple ice pops.
The black tea base is a brisk, black Ceylon tea. Mellow and smooth; it is not particularly strong. It does its job: providing a delicious background flavor. It has some astringency to it which plays well with the wine-like flavor.
I really have enjoyed this tea; it is a nice change from the typical sweet-fruit flavored teas out there. It’s remarkably refreshing – and it has this crisp, fresh taste to it that has really taken me by surprise. I like this! It makes a nice afternoon tea or, for a real treat – try it iced! When chilled this tea becomes much more wine-like in flavor. The grape flavor really emerges powerfully. Awesome!
Grape Sencha from Den’s Tea
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green
Where to Buy: Den’s Tea
Product Description:
Grape Sencha has a grape flavor plus a hint of dried cranberry and raspberry. These combine into the sweet-tart flavors of our Grape Sencha. Great for iced tea.
Taster’s Review:
Before brewing, I was a little unsure about this tea. I mean, it smells nice with its delicious berry scent and it’s a really beautiful looking dry tea, but, grape? While I do enjoy grapes, I am not a big fan of grape-flavored drinks, foods and/or candy. There is just something sort of artificial tasting about them, and I don’t know about you, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen a grape that is as purple as a grape ice pop.
So, anyway, my point is, I wasn’t terribly excited to try a grape flavored tea. I have actually tasted a few and I have enjoyed one or two of them, and the other teas that I’ve tried from Den’s have been nothing less than amazing … nevertheless, I was still skeptical. Then I read the description (which is provided above). It is not just a grape flavored tea, but also has cranberry and raspberry.
The grape is the strongest flavor, but, I can taste the tartness of the raspberry and the cranberry, and they not only add their tangy flavor to the cup but also a depth of flavor that I don’t think would have been achieved with grape alone.
The Sencha is crisp and flavorful with a somewhat grassy taste but nothing too overwhelming or off-putting. There is a sweetness to the Sencha that compliments the fruit flavors very well. This is a delicious, soothing tea when served hot, and a refreshing, thirst-quenching tea when served iced! (I prefer it iced!)
I really like this blend – much more so than I thought I would! YUM!