Introducing Tea Flight, a guided tea trio to experience the full possibility of a tea.

This season, our founder Nana Chan presents a Black Tea Series, unveiling the deep, robust elegance of these remarkable profiles.

This unique, sundried black tea comes from wild purple bud trees grown in the deep forests of Yunnan bordering Myanmar, where the teas have been harvested by the ethnic minority Palaung people for centuries. The purple colour comes from a high concentration of anthocyanins, or plant pigments, which are high in antioxidants and has anti-inflammatory properties. Unlike traditional black teas, this tea is sun-dried instead of machine-dried, resulting in a tea that is ever so much softer and gentler, and will have some room to further develop into a deeper, more robust black tea.

🧊 Left: Cold Brew 冷萃茶品
🍸 Middle: Drunken Guifei 醉妃笑
🫖 Right: Traditional Hot Brew with Homemade Amazake 傳統熱泡配酒釀

Let's break down the making process behind the scene with Nana!

🍸Cocktail: Drunken Guifei

When my team and I coming up with a cocktail for the Sundried Purple Buds Red, we were taken immediately by its sweetness and deep ripened fruit aroma, like an alluring beauty. We thought of the legendary Yang Guifei, Tang Dynasty concubine, arguably the most beautiful women in the history of China, who happened also to be the most famous lover of lychee. Legend has it that the Emperor had the fruit, which was only grown in southern China, delivered by the imperial courier's fast horses, whose riders would take shifts day and night in a SF Express like manner, to the capital of Chang’An (present day Xian). 

In creating this drink we also use an interesting new ingredient, Free Run from Yunnan. Free Run is the terminology used to describe the juice that flows freely from freshly picked grapes before they are pressed. The result is an amazing, ultra flavorful “juice” that has the sticky viscosity, sweetness and aroma of a fine wine, yet none of the alcohol content. We mixed this with slow-cooked Sundried Purple Buds Red Gin, lychee liquor, Free Run and a dash of grapefruit. 

🫖 Traditional Hot Brew: Paired with Homemade Amazake

I remember the first time I tried this tea I thought I was somehow drinking kombucha. It’s the fermented sweetness of the tea, almost like a deeply ripened plum or peach, that reminds me of it and which makes it so interesting.

When I was tasked with creating a series of drinks and pairings with this tea, I naturally thought of something fermented and sweet. The first thing that came to mind was amazake. I was fascinated by koji and the sheer simplicity of it. How could a process so simple add so much depth to something as plain as rice? Koji, the same fermentation culture that creates the Chinese 酒釀 and the Japanese sake, turns rice into a sweet, thick porridge in a painfully slow 8 hours, but the result is something eye opening.

The amazake is paired with a traditional hot brew purple buds red for that unadulterated original flavour. We’ve added some preserved Japanese persimmon to the amazake to add a hint of fruity sweetness to it.

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Plantation Tea Bar
📍G/F 18 Po Tuck Street, Sai Wan
🍸Thursday-Sunday 12-11PM (Last order: 10pm)
Closed every Monday-Wednesday