Black Tea Merlot

Dry leaf aroma: Black currants with notes of plum and a delicate floral undertone.
Dry leaf appearance: http://instagram.com/p/siUfXtFcBu/

Wet leaf aroma: Very much like the dry leaf aroma – black currants and floral.
Wet leaf appearance: http://instagram.com/p/siUlZYlcB8/

Preparation: Brewed western style in a glass infuser mug.

First steeping: 4 minutes at 195 degrees. The freshly brewed liquor has a delicate floral aroma. While the cup is hot the dominate flavor is black currants, with hints of licorice, plum and a mild floral note. As the cup cools the floral note becomes fainter and there is a tart aftertaste.

For some time this company and these tea’s have intrigued me, and I wanted really badly to sample the tea’s, but for some reason never placed an order. My opportunity to try a couple of these finally came up in a recent swap.

I’ve had the merlot twice. My first sampling of it yesterday didn’t work out. While the leaf in the bag smelled sweet, it didn’t translate to flavour. That was my fault. I think I over-leafed and water temp was too hot. Yesterday’s cup was disappointing.

I tried again today, and decided to let the water cool a bit longer and used less leaf. I also added a drop or 2 of agave, just to see if that would pull out more flavour. Today’s brew was a lot more flavourful. I definitely got the grape/wine coming as the cup continued to cool down. The problem today was the agave that I thought would help, but in fact made the brew too sweet.

So maybe third time will be the charm, and hopefully tomorrow’s sipdown of this I’ll get it right. I guess I should bust out the thermometer for proper brewing temp and skip the sweetener.

Thanks to looseTman for providing me with a sample.

So I found this in an old word document that was saved to my desk top. It is back from before October 2013.

I received this in round 2 of the Secret Pumpkin swap from Darby. It is also on my shopping list so thanks so much for sending a sample!

I have been trying to post about this tea for a while but have been having trouble, steepster won’t let me log this specific tea for some reason. So here is what I remember.

The dry tea smells very fruity. I immediately thought black currant.

The brewed tea tastes similar to merlot. But not a “real” merlot. It really reminds me of Arbour Mists Blackberry Merlot (read: wine that really tastes like juice). It is sweet but not overly sweet without adding any sweetener. I would say it is a bit disappointing in the sense that is lacks the body and flavor profile of wine, but that said, it tastes enough like merlot to not have to question the description/name of the tea. It is also missing that bit of dryness or astringency that you get with wine. Definitely better as is cools, the sweetness becomes a bit stronger as it cools.