![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.postcardteas.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/3-tress-blend-1-1024x397.jpg\")
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Nearly 20 years ago Lu, Asako and I became very interested in old seed grown tea trees. We realised that all the world\u2019s great teas had originally come from natural seed mutation rather than being developed in one of the many tea research centres that now produce the new clonal cultivars that are mainly used for propagation today. At that time the dominance of certain cultivars was also becoming alarming (in Japan for example the Yabukita cultivar once accounted for over 80% of the tea cultivated in the country) so we started to seek out old seed grown tree teas in China, Japan, Korea, and Vietnam. This search for led us to meet many remarkable makers and find some very special teas which we have included in the Auld Tree range.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Playing with Tea, Time and Technique<\/p>\n
We want to share ancient\u00a0tree<\/span> tea in an accessible way so that anyone, even without tea brewing skills, can experience these amazing teas. Distillation is a highly effective method for extracting and preserving the tea\u2019s essence and flavour in a different way to water. The idea for Auld<\/span>\u00a0Tree<\/span> came about eight years ago after an incredible meal at one of the UK\u2019s most iconic innovative restaurants where they presented Tim with their famous whisky wine gum map dish and a green tea version made with teas from farms we work with. When, to his surprise, he preferred the whisky wine gums, he started thinking about creating a complex, unaged single malt, where the depth of flavour and complexity come from some of the oldest living tea trees<\/span>\u00a0rather than from aging in wooden barrels. With the help, skill and knowledge of Alex who runs the production side of Postcard Teas and is also a brewer and a distiller, it has taken seven years and many trials to find the right way to make a spirit we feel worthy of these special teas.<\/p>\n To make a batch of\u00a0Auld<\/span>\u00a0Tree<\/span> we produce a fermented barley wash using a premium barley grown in Scotland following the same initial process as you would if you were making a whisky from scratch. When the wash is distilled, we add tea not only to the pot but also to a basket which the vapour passes through, similar to how gin is distilled through juniper and other botanicals. For the third layer of tea contact, we infuse a small amount of tea with the malt spirit for about a week, which gives the spirit colour and mellows it. We try as much as possible to make every process and every quantity of tea exactly the same so the difference between each Auld<\/span>\u00a0Tree<\/span>\u00a0is primarily the tea, not the process.<\/p>\n The three\u00a0Auld<\/span>\u00a0Tree<\/span> versions available at the moment are Wakocha, Shui Xian and Peach Dancong with the Wakocha being the latest off the still in late November 2025.<\/p>\n Wakocha Auld<\/span>\u00a0Tree<\/span><\/strong> is created using a wonderful Japanese Black tea or Wakocha made by Mr Matsumoto on his family\u2019s farm which was planted by his ancestors in the 1920s. It has a dark plum flavour with lingering vanilla sweetness reminiscent of some whiskies. Numbered by hand 200 bottle edition.<\/p>\n Shui Xian Auld<\/span>\u00a0Tree<\/span><\/strong>\u00a0is produced from an incredible roasted oolong handmade by Master Xu from just four 125 year old Shui Xian cultivar tea\u00a0trees<\/span> deep in the Wuyi mountains. It has a lovely minerality and floral notes reminiscent of the tea from these famous tea mountains which are a Unesco World Heritage site. It reminds us a little of\u00a0 a fine brandy. Numbered by hand 75\u00a0 bottle edition.<\/p>\n Peach Dancong Auld<\/span>\u00a0Tree<\/span><\/strong>\u00a0is made from a single 500 year old\u00a0tree<\/span>\u2019s oolong tea by Master Lin on Wu Dong mountain in southern China. It is a juicy peach flavour with violet floral notes. Its smooth highly aromatic quality as well as its complex flavours make it stand out – this Auld Tree spirit reminds us of the very best fruit eau de vies. Numbered by hand 50 bottle edition.<\/p>\n Auld Tree is a creative collaboration between Timothy d\u2019Offay and Alex Simpson of Postcard Teas. During his three decades in the tea business, Tim has worked with the world’s leading spirit brands Diageo, LVMH and Pernod Ricard. One collaboration included spending time in Cognac learning about heritage distillation and blending. As well as working with tea since 2012, Alex has spent the last decade brewing, distilling and visiting dozens of distilleries across England and Scotland. In 2023, he spent a week studying at Scotland’s most traditional distillery Springbank.<\/p>\n PLEASE NOTE<\/span> A \u2018Challenge 25\u2019 Policy as shall be in force at the point of delivery of the alcohol. No collection or delivery shall be made if the person seeking to collect or to accept delivery appears under 25 and is unable to provide proof of age. Examples of appropriate ID include a passport; photographic driving licence; military ID; biometric residents permit and the Proof of Age Standards Scheme (PASS) approved age cards.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":46924,"template":"","meta":[],"product_brand":[],"product_cat":[20,239],"product_tag":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-46867","1":"product","2":"type-product","3":"status-publish","4":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"product_cat-new","7":"product_cat-specialities","9":"first","10":"instock","11":"taxable","12":"shipping-taxable","13":"purchasable","14":"product-type-variable"},"booking_location":null,"booking_location_type":null,"booking_duration":null,"booking_duration_unit":null,"booking_buffer":null,"booking_cost":null,"booking_resources":null,"exclude_global_add_ons":[],"addons":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.postcardteas.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product\/46867","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.postcardteas.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.postcardteas.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/product"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.postcardteas.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46924"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.postcardteas.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46867"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"product_brand","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.postcardteas.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product_brand?post=46867"},{"taxonomy":"product_cat","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.postcardteas.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product_cat?post=46867"},{"taxonomy":"product_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.postcardteas.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product_tag?post=46867"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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