Red Wine Apple Cake

TTB. I miss A Quarter to Tea. I absolutely loved their monthly subscription, and miss all of the unique blends. The aroma of the dry leaf here has the familiar AQ2T honey note that I love. Once brewed, I’m smelling a honeyed corn chip. Tastes like a corn chip as well. An old corn chip and grapes.

I’m tasting no wine, apple, or cake. No idea what is happening in this blend, but I get an overwhelming “artificial grape” flavour. Think jumbo grape freezie or that grape scented window washer fluid at gas stations. My immediate thought from both the dry leaf and the brewed cup is that it reminds me of gas station soap (but in a good way). I LOVE artificial grape, but it has nothing to do with tea (especially a cake flavoured one). Have you ever had a grape freeze gatorade/powerade? It tastes a lot like that but without the sweetness. There is also a floral element that I don’t think does with the idea of wine or cake.

So, I’m not giving this a good rating since it fails to deliver any apple, cake, or red wine even though I actually enjoy the smell of it. This would work as part of a fruity iced herbal like “grape freeze” or something like that.

apple grape juice. Not really getting “cake” out of this one or red wine. But maybe that’s because red wine cakes don’t really tend to taste like wine…or because i like my red wines bold and rich. Still an enjoyable afternoon cup! thanks VariaTEA!

This is probably my favourite of the “cake tea” assortment – though Satsuma Spice cake is a close contender. It really doesn’t taste anything like cake though, but it’s such a full bodied and well rounded mix of floral, sweet and encapsulating grape and apple flavours. I drank a mug of this tea after the whole tasting, and it was finished so quickly.

I think it was hard for my coworkers to separate their bias towards the DT blends completely, but I’d say this was probably tied with Mandala’s Phatty Cake II for the most liked non-DT blend in the tasting.

My mom has decided she wants to try a bunch of cake recipes so we have been spending the day baking. This tea showed up in the midst of the baking and since at the time I was making a white wine crack cake and a caramel apple bread, this seemed like the bridge between the two.

There is a distinctive grape note that does lean towards wine while the apple pops up now and again. It is a touch buttery/pastry from the white base but I don’t know if I would go as far as to say it is “cake”. I think the contrast between the red wine and the apple cake just creates too much for the flavors to really connect. It is an alright cup of tea but not my favorite.