2016 Hot Brandy

An interesting concept, blending white and black tea. It tastes more or less how you’d expect, but the progression of flavours is interesting, with more of a dianhong character early on and aged white notes being prevalent in later steeps.

Aromas of the tea are predominately sweet and woody, just like the flavour profile in the mouth in fact. There are notes of autumn leaf pile, oak wood, and orange blossoms. The taste hits flavours like stonefruits, chocolate, and fermented fruits. There is a nice sourness developing in late infusions. Aftertaste is long and cooling and overwhelmingly sweet. It has notes of apricots and various spices, as well as a slightly metallic tone and a tingling sensation in the throat. The mouthfeel is not very memorable, but decent. It is drying, smooth, and somewhat soft. I can feel there is a decent amount of caffeine in the tea, but the feeling is not too rushy thankfully.

I had a sample of this that I finished. This is new cake.
212F, 6.5g, 12 oz
4 steeps: 2min/2/3/5
Malty, hay, sweet, creamy. The later steeps were better due to lower water temp (200F). I like this. Solid combination.

I seriously love this stuff. And not just because it’s got an extraordinary amount of caffeine (which I find valuable in a tea, dangit – just not the make or break element of it). Open the wrapper and smell hay in the sun. I loooooooove the smell of hay. The liquor is thick and sweet, though not in a sugar sweet way, but that same hay sweetness… and maybe some date. I can drink this hot, or (gasp!) iced. It’s fabulous, either way, and everyone I’ve served it to has enjoyed the heck outta it.
The first time I tried this tea was at a local Taiwanese restaurant – the server is a terrific dude in the local tea community and he gave us a pot to try while we ate. Hooked me immediately, and hard – he kept adding boiling water and it kept tasting amazing. There’s no over steeping – it doesn’t get bitter, though maybe a touch astringent and strong like bull!
I don’t really measure when I make a lot of my tea, so the below is a guesstimate. I tend to use more leaf and less steeping time. Impatient, much?
I bought 3 cakes. Two are in storage right now, but they won’t be staying there for the super long term.
I might have to buy 3 more if I actually do want to see how they store long term.

Relatively herbal but not too bitter, able to finish 8oz without getting tired of it. It’s a pretty good, basic travel tea and is good with sweet or savory food.

Having the last of the sample this morning. Currently drinking the last cup of the session at the moment, while going over the notes. Hot Brandy has been the tea that had me quite skeptical going in, unsure whether I’d like it, so I picked up the 25g sample, rather than the whole cake (despite wanting the wrapper).

I will state that I’m not over the moon about it, but it’s not bad, either. The pairing of the white/black tea makes for a solid chocolaty-floral combo. I think this would make a great grandpa-styled brew for the desk at work, but there are points throughout the [gongfu-style] session where it is rather weak. This is definitely the type of tea that cannot be flash brewed as well as it can be when steeped for 30-60 seconds each time one wants to drink it. I’m not a black/white tea fan all of the time—I’m pretty particular of which black/white teas are had—but, this isn’t a bad combo overall.

I can’t get much out of this. Very weak flavor

Grandpa style. Probably four grams for 300ml or so.

Interesting concept. The black tea produces a chocolate note that reminds me of a Fujian golden monkey but without the body. The finish has the fruity floral counterpart of the white tea. Steeping time and temps radically alter the ride. I’m reminded of drinking a dunkleweissen, a dark wheat beer that starts off big and chocolate caramel like and you expect a beer with heavy body . Then that fades instantly and you’re left with thin bubbly beer that tastes like clove and banana. To my palate, this tea was better and aromatic when fresh. I know it’s an experiment so let’s see how it ages. I do get a little brandy as well

First tea I’m trying from White2Tea! This I got as a sample and admittedly I would likely never have picked it for myself. At least not right away while I’m still a pu’er novice. Anyways. A small chunk of a cake. Variety of leaves pressed into it and something that looks like a flower petal, since it’s rounder and orange rather than skinny and black or longer and silvery. It does smell nice though.

Break off a chunk of 4.5 g and decide to follow someone else’s brewing times and temp. I fit about 4-5 oz of water in my little gaiwan, give it a 10 sec rinse at 200 F and then do my first steep at ~5 sec. First impression is positive. I smell and taste the apricot notes quite clearly. The liquid is honey-colored, sweet, and malty. The tastes seem heavier at the end of a sip, too.

Second steep ~7 sec. More maltiness, faint hint of apricot.

Third steep ~10 sec. Smooth, light flavor. Sweet. Seems to have lost any tangible flavor besides the malt.

Late edit: I did steep this 2-3 times more, but no flavors really stood out. Much like the third steep, even though I began adding more seconds on to the steep time. Eventually leaves had been sitting out (covered in gaiwan) for 24 hours and I decided to toss them.

Yet another great White2Tea offering! Admittedly I’m not so familiar with any kind of white tea, and have only tried a few Yunnan black teas. Upon opening the sample bag, I was hit with an intense fruity, apricot, and raisin scent. The leaves are very pretty; they remind me of fallen autumn leaves! A very quick, 1 second rinse later, the wet leaves smelled strongly of the black tea—for some reason reminds me of oven-fresh sweet potatoes? Well, anyways, I actually started out brewing this with lower temperatures, since I was under the impression that with the white tea I would want to brew it at 190 degrees. However, after the third steep I turned the heat up to 200 degrees
1st steep (5s) – malty and sweet apricot flavor. Yup, can definitely tell this is black tea from Yunnan!
2nd (7s) – same thing, but started noticing floral notes
3rd (10s) – feels slightly thicker than before! The floral/hay notes are also becoming more obvious. My mouth also started to feel a bit dry.
4th (15s) – malty, slightly astringent, but still fruity. The apricot flavor is fading away
5th (15s) – The malt is becoming less obvious but I can now taste the sweeter, floral notes of the tea—probably from the white tea. It kind of coats my throat, yet it is becoming more astringent.
6th (20s) – same thing, but with a delightful raisin note at the end
I started feeling the caffeine kick after this, but all in all a pretty wild ride! The way the flavors of the white and black tea interact make this cake is really interesting. I’m ordering a cake of this. I’m definitely going to steep this some more later today.