We had various ideas about the type of beer we’d like to brew to celebrate the re-launch of the brand, but, when Melissa Cole, author of Let Me Tell You About Beer, asked us if we fancied brewing a beer with her at some point, we decided that such a collaboration was the right way to go and discussed the type of beer to brew and decided that it should definitely include a tea of some sort and, from there, Mad Hatter was born.

At this point the collaboration turned into a double collaboration, as we’re fortunate enough to share our postcode with Taylors of Harrogate, an independent tea merchant whose warehouse is a stone’s throw from the Brewery and who really liked the idea and took the time to help us choose the perfect tea to use. We spent a morning with Ian Brabbin, Head of Tea, where we were shown how to slurp (slurp being the technical term for how to taste tea by slurping it from a spoon so that it’s sprayed all around the mouth to hit as many different taste buds as possible. Check out this video to see how the professionals do it!