This is specifically for the 2020 Hot Brandy Minis - they may open up differently than the cake version since I'm just gonna throw the ball in and hit it with water.

Infusions

1. On the first steep, the ball started to come undone a bit and gave off a fresh-out-the-drier laundry smell. Also kinda smells like my cat? In a good way - she usually smells pretty damn good. Tastes kind of like white chocolate with some cardamom and aromatic/soft spices. Reminds me of a whiter Mexican hot chocolate. Very round flavor in that it evenly covers a lot of the main taste categories.
2. Creamier with more honey. Reminds me of golden milk, with the turmeric and everything.
3. More common black tea notes with darker red-tasting(?) white tea stuff. Hard to describe the mixture but it's a good, complex mashup.
4. I love how the large leaves are still so in-tact in these minis. This round is a bit tannic, but I brewed it a bit longer. Burnt caramel, like the crust on a crème brûleé. Liquor from the bottom of the gong dao bei (my 2 fiddy mil pyrex) has this sweet and sour funky thing to it that I only noticed on the first sip of that cup. Neat. The finish has a bit of a tingle to it.
5. This is makin me tweak for a young sheng in a way that this feels like a good appetizer and stomach blanket for something green that'll slap me into another dimension. This is like a comfort blanket or something I'd drink more casually.
6. Malty and pleasant. Kinda falling into just a general smooth tea kind of flavor.