Ice-wine Tea

I once picked up a bagged icewine tea on a road trip in Victoria, Canada from a corner gift shop in Chinatown. It was amazing! Grapey and delicious. I was so happy to see an icewine tea in a little tea shop in Leavenworth, WA while on my honeymoon! How exciting! Since I had just one sachet of that original icewine tea tucked away, and my new hubby had given me a budget of four teas (I have a habit of spending money freely, ESPECIALLY when it comes to tea, ESPECIALLY when I’m in a physical shop where I can SMELL everything), I totally snagged an ounce. You can order online, so I figured if I fell in love, I can order more. ;)

I have fallen in love with this tea! I didn’t realize when I bought it that it’s a black and white blend. How interesting! I read the ingredients before brewing, so I brewed it like a white tea. Measuring the leaves into my Cha He, there isn’t a lot of white tea leaves, so I think it would be safe to brew this at a black tea temperature.

It tastes so amazing! It has a very floral flavor that I think comes from that ambiguous “natural flavors” on the ingredient list. A little pinker than jasmine… for a non-synesthetic person I think you could say… (insert a couple more sips here) It’s more perfumey, but not musky… like you would smell on a lily or tulip. Tulip! That’s it. It tastes like I’m drinking grapes and smelling a tulip garden. Talk about amazing! Oh, there’s also an aftertaste like lavender. Perplexing…

The tea also has a fruity smell to it, like grapes and sweet pea flowers. It’s just a whole roller coaster of floral smells and tastes that I really wasn’t expecting, but that I’m totally loving right now.

I could end each day with a cup of this…

Second steep loses some of the tulip, gains some lavender, and the grape is less bitey and more smooth and… relaxed?

Yeah, I’m ready for bed now. :)