2016 Hot Brandy

White and black tea together is an interesting concept, the leaves are pretty.

Steeped grandpa style and in a Qinghua Porcelain teapot.

My sample was pleasant but I felt I was searching for something that wasn’t going to happen. I did get a hit of caffeine and picked up on a fleeting scent of brandy.

Perhaps it needs to age.

I somehow accumulated a fair amount of this, so I decided to give it a shot. The dry leaf is a wild mixture of light and dark tones with a mass of big white tea flaky leaves. I can pick up an odd grape, hay, dark wood, and hazelnut tone from the mixture. I warmed my shibo up and placed what I had inside. The scent opens into some mild malt, hay, oak, and (take a guess) brandy (lol). I actually chuckled when I picked that scent up. I washed the leaves once and prepared for brewing. This drink is semi dark orange with a nice aroma to it. The taste is smooth, slightly thin, with some candy sweetness. I can pick up the base of dates, burnt sugar, and smooth soft woods. This is a decent tea, and it actually works in its franken state. The brew continues in the same manner, but it yields some heavier wood tones along with a molasses sweetness. The qi is fair, and I experienced quite a bit of heat. I actually liked this tea, and it is definitely a weird one.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BOh7Oe-ADoY/?taken-by=haveteawilltravel&hl=en

Dry leaf: Raisin, prune, dried fruit. This tea is in cake form, medium compressed. Mixed green, brown, and dark brown leaves. The smell in the bag was very much like a white tea.

Taste: Sweet, honey, nice medium smooth mouthfeel. No bitterness.

Liquor: Rinse and first steep were distinctly dark yellow, to light orange, then after the 2nd or 3rd steep, a beautiful dark orange.

Spent leaf: Light brown to dark brown. Medium sized leaves, very little stem.

Vessel: 200ml glass teapot (actual water 100ml since I only fill it half full)

I had no idea what to expect from this tea. In the bag, it for sure smelled like a white. In a warm tea pot, it actually smelled like both a black and a white. After a quick 5 second rinse, is was all black. I started out at 212F thinking that’s what this tea needed. After a few steeps, I was disappointed. It was tasting like a black tea, but it was lacking any body and had a very flat mouthfeel, no white tea overtones.

So – I decided it was time to adjust the temp mid session to see if I was running too hot, which maybe was allowing the back tea to take over the cup. I dropped the kettle temp down to 190F and that did the trick. The body became fuller, and the white tea flavors were now showing up. Things were a little more balanced. I got 8 or so steepings before things dropped off.

Although I think the idea of mixing a white and a black tea is interesting, I wasn’t totally blow away by it. It was fun and a good learning experience, but for me, not the kind of tea I’d keep in my cupboard. If you feel like experimenting with an experimental tea, then toss a sample in your cart next time you shop at W2T and see what you think! (for science!) Who knows – maybe it will find a spot your cupboard.

I thought the name was just fanciful, but I can really see why one would make the comparison from the smell of the wet leaves after the initial steep. The texture of this tea is really outstanding, with a heavy, thick and smooth with a lingering sweetness. On top of that are some nice classic black tea flavors and maltiness especially on longer steeps.

The tea cake itself looks like moonlight on autumn leaves. Very attractive.

A pretty special tea. Would get more in a heartbeat.

Sipdown (607)!

Torn between whether or not I’m happy about this sipdown. On one hand, I think any sipdown is a good sipdown at this point, and I do have the 2018 version of this tea in my cupboard now so it’s not like I’m completely without it. On the other hand, I’m kicking myself for finishing this off and not remembering to first do a direct comparison between the two productions. D’oh!

I drank this Grandpa style on Friday though for most of my work day. This is just such a good tea to drink that way; so smooth and resilient to over brewing. More “autumnal” feeling/leaning flavour notes: hot hay, dried stonefruits (apricot, peach, nectarines), a little bit of a mineral note, malt, honey, and a tinge of something pleasantly medicinal. The mouthfeel gets so thick, too!

It’s just really interesting…

My memory tells me that when I first tried this tea I wasn’t a fan, but now that it’s gone I feel like it’s one that I’ll be looking back on really fondly!

This is certainly an interesting tea. I had actually bought a cake of this without knowing it was coming in my subscription box. There was an initial note of caramel to this in the first steep. But unfortunately it seemed almost gone in the second steep. There was little bitterness to this tea and it got darker as I resteeped it. The sweet note that emerged tasted a little flat to me. It was still a good tea, just not as good as I had hoped for. This one might be better with sugar.

I brewed this eight times in a 150ml gaiwan with 200 degree water. I gave it an 10 second rinse. I steeped it for 5 sec, 5 sec, 7 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, 20 sec, 25 sec, and 30 sec.

Wow. Such an interesting tea. Got 15g with the December club package. Probably the first time I’ve been able to stand oxidized tea. Really deep and complex flavor, keeps it interesting. Lots of steeps.

Just what the doctor ordered.

This tea came to me at the perfect time. Winter is settling in, my second seasonal cold is taking hold of me, the pollution of my Chinese city is intensifying as the winter coal burning begins, and my country seems to be digressing centuries. I needed medicine, something thick and rich and warm to soothe my aching heart, and this Hot Brandy is exactly what the doctor ordered.

First of all, the mere idea of this tea was more than enough reason for me to try it: white and Black tea, not loosely mixed, but pressed indelibly together into a cake. The withered black tea leaves mix with the whole, unbroken white leaves to make a kind-of camo patterning. Beyond the aesthetics with which the tea was produced, I trust the producer to blend these teas responsibly. I’ve drunk a lot of White 2 Tea’s offerings, and they have never steered me wrong: always straight foreword about their knowledge of the tea, always trying provide real tea with real facts; therefore, I was confident that this tea would not just be an interesting gimmick or a clever idea, but beyond that, a great tea.

First impressions: as soon as I wake the tea with hot water, the name comes alive, Hot Brandy, rich, complex, with plenty of malt from the black, and a subtle floral aroma from the white. The brew is instantly a rich amber, as I pour it from my gaiwan after a flash infusion of 5-10 seconds. (I have already brewed this tea several ways, including in the gong-fu fashion, the western fashion, and in the old Chinese grandpa style – throwing leaves loose in a cup and pouring boiling water in after them, adding more hot water throughout the day). While the brewing styles change the experience of the tea, the flavors and aromas stay very much the same. The soup stays thick, rich and reddish; the aroma starts off with a lot of malt, but slowly subsides into the more floral, sweetness of the white tea. The taste starts off strong but not bitter, heavy and instantly sweet, as the intensity of the black tea dies down after the first few steeps, I arrive at the heart of the tea, a blend of white tea flavors and black tea flavors. These two tea flavors don’t merely exist side-by-side, but they serve to intensify and complement each other, I taste my favorite aspects of each in these brews and see where the bridge that connects the two flavors lie, a connection I never knew existed, but obviously White 2 Tea could taste and wanted to explore.

This is currently my favorite tea, and I would highly recommend it to anyone. Beyond the unique experience of trying something a little crazy, but still classy, the blend is masterfully done, the tea leaves are very high quality, and the taste is on point: rich, thick, malty, sweet, floral and heavy, like papa’s own Brandy.