Exalted Steps: Experimenting with Tea Blending in Michter’s Rye Whiskey

Loose leaf tea has an enormous potential as an ingredient in various food, beverages and desserts. In this instance we look toward black and oolong tea to favorably impact a mid-tier rye whiskey. We used several teas in the Gargantuan line for this experiment with Michter’s Rye as the blending spirit. Yunnan Sun Dried black, Jin Jun Mei, and Big Red Robe oolong, along with the late entry of Yunnan Golden Fleece sum up the roster for our experiment.

and we are off to the races… the glass is poured and our tea leaves steeping; there are endless more choices to be had

Generally, it is a notoriously difficult proposition to successfully blend similar beverages, let alone to combine different beverage types, especially when involving high proof spirits. The risk with this type of blending is having the resultant concoction to become disjointed rather than possessing a level of additive cohesion. Tea has tannin and spirits have, well, alcohol. The stage is then set for an epic challenge to attempt to thread the needle and to avoid additional astringency, bitterness and heat.

We tried a few techniques; firstly just throwing dried tea leaves in a dram of whiskey. But because of the minimal moisture content of dried tea, and due the high alcohol environment, not surprisingly, our tea proved resistant to hydration and extraction. In response we did a hot water rinse to open up the leaves. Next we tried brewing the tea and titrating in a meager amount of the golden liquor into the true, and intoxicating liquor. Finally, the last method was a role reversal; to spice in some rye whiskey into a full-bodied cup of freshly steeped tea.

a dram with Jin Jun Mei and some of the other tea ‘players’

In food and beverage, occasionally a counterbalance is struck and contrasting tastes can make for a judicious occasion, while other times it takes like components in order to play friendly and attain complementary flavors. In this limited experiment the later seemed to decisively reign as the best route forward. Further, when in doubt, the mitigating factor of a judicious eye-dropper of vanilla extract was used to smooth over any prickly faults. This helped to lessen the perception of negatives, so positive elements were more readily apparent.

We found in the most favorable instances we were able to achieve an increase in aromatics, mid-palate, as well as in the length of the finish. Of course, these clear wins were often complicated by a disruption to the full cohesion of flavors.

dry tea leaves struggling to unwind

Hydrated leaves of Jin Jun Mei worked well. They have elements of rye themselves, and a spice component that is similar to nutmeg. Not surprisingly they added a bump to spice complexity, as well as to mid-palate. Our final foray involving Golden Fleece was a similar success. Golden fleece also has a complex, spice-box nose that includes ginger among other interesting aromas. Again, these attributes played well with our chosen spirit, Michter’s rye whiskey.

whiskey in tea, straight… tea in whiskey, add some vanilla

On the back end, blending a 5% whiskey addition to brewed Golden Fleece tea seemed advantageous. It gave it an interesting edge, and it upped the perception of spice characteristics, while yielding an enhanced and lively palate presence.

Somewhat surprisingly, we did not find as much obvious success with our Sun Dried black tea, or even with our Big Red Robe oolong, the latter, serving up floral aromas that otherwise might have balanced the herbal rye characters. 

we end where we started, a couple of concoctions before us… some have been nice, some have been not so nice!

In the future it would certainly be worthwhile to include a range of spirits, and to get more creative with tea preparations. Hopefully, this little exercise will inspire you to play around with the possibilities of tea in food or beverage recipes of your own. You don’t have to limit your fun to spirits, but it is also not a bad place to start. You might stumble onto something truly delicious… But more importantly, you will definitely learn, as well as develop a greater appreciation for tea and those elements which can pair well together.