This new-generation, cognac-styled brandy is a taste adventure - a mouth-filling mélange of vanilla, fruits and nuts that lingers deliciously on the tongue. Enjoy with coffee, specially chosen to match the flavours of the brandy, and home-made biscotti from our kitchen, for your added pleasure.

Cost: R25 per person

HOW TO TASTE BRANDY:
Step 1: Colour
- Tilt the glass at a 45 angle away from you and observe the colour of the brandy preferably against a white background.
- The colour of the brandy can be indicative of the age and blend or style of the brandy
- The darker the brandy, the longer it has been matured in oak casks.
- The darker coloured brandies can indicate that they are usually fuller and richer in taste.

Step 2: Do not swirl
- Unlike wine, which you are meant to swirl in the glass to release its aromas, brandy should be kept stable in the glass as the liquid is very volatile and precious volatile flavors can be lost.
- The alcohol strength of Brandy, neat, is more or less three times that typically found in wine. Keeping the glass still allows your nose time to gradually get used to the alcohol content.

Step 3: Nose
- To appreciate the brandy aromas, you should first inhale at the top of the glass to allow your nose to acclimatize to the alcohol.
- One should not immediately place the nose at the top of the rim of the glass and inhale deeply but rather move the nose above the glass opening and gently take in the subtle, top notes of the brandy.
- As you smell deeper into the glass, you will experience the richer, more complex flavors.

Step 4: Taste
- Hold the bulb of the glass in the palm of your hand to slightly warm the brandy contents. This helps to bring out the full flavor of the brandy.
- Slowly draw a small amount into the mouth, ease the brandy over the palate and swallow.

Step 5: Overall impression
- The discoveries on the color, nose and taste of the brandy will now allow you to gain an overall impression of the brandy you are tasting.
- The lighter flavored, less bodied brandies are generally great for mixing.
- The fuller-bodied, aged potstill or vintage brandies are best savored neat, over ice or with a dash of water.

HOW TO TASTE COFFEE:
- Cupping is a method of systematically evaluating the aroma and taste of coffee beans.
- It is often used by growers, buyers and roasters to assess the quality of a particular coffee sample.
- Proper cupping requires the adherence to an exacting set of brewing standards and a formal step by step evaluation process. A trained cupper generally looks at six characteristics:

1. Fragrance: - The smell of beans after grinding.
2. Aroma: - The smell of the ground – up beans after being steeped in water.
3. Taste: - The flavor of the coffee
4. Nose: - The vapors released by the coffee in the mouth
5. Aftertaste: - The vapors and flavors that remain after swallowing.
6. Body: - The feel of the coffee in the mouth. This is the feeling of weight and texture.

- After the coffee has cooled sufficiently take some coffee into the spoon and slurp the coffee strongly to aspire it over the tongue.
- It is very important to aspirate strongly since you are trying to cover the entire tongue evenly.
- Aspirating strongly will also cause tiny droplets of coffee to be distributed into the throat and into the nasal passage.
- Evaluate the coffee according to the taste, acidity, aftertaste and body.

BISCOTTI:
Biscotti has been baked for centuries. It was the perfect food for sailors who were at sea for months at a time. The biscuits were thoroughly baked to draw out moisture, becoming a cracker-like food. Biscotti were a favorite of Christopher Columbus who relied on them on his long sea voyage.

In Italian, the word Biscotti means biscuit or cookie. More specifically, biscotti are made according to the original method of baking. The root words “bis” and “cotto” literally mean “twice” and “baked”. When Italians first created Biscotti in the region of Tuscany many centuries ago, they were careful to bake the cookies twice, in order to form their unique shape and allow the cookies to develop their signature crisp texture. Bakers shape the dough into a log, bake it, and evenly slice it into cookies (hopefully without crumbling), and then toast and turn the cookies again until they are perfect.

WHICH CHARACTERISTICS IN EACH COMPLEMENT EACH OTHER AND WHY:
NEDERBURG POTSTILLED BRANDY;
Colour: Light gold.

Nose: An elegant bouquet with many fresh and fragrantly vibrant perfumes that present a complex mix of vanilla, light floral and citrus aromas with a hint of tobacco.

Taste: Refreshing, refined flavors of delicate dried fruit and nuts follow through onto the palate, leaving a long, full – flavored and lingering finish that is essentially dry and cleansing.

COFFEE:
This blend is best suited to the Nederburg Pot stilled Brandy. To ensure this, the roaster has combined a Darker Roasted Coffee Blend (Romano) with a Lighter Roasted Colombian to produce a balance between a stronger burnt caramel taste and rich sometimes nutty taste of Colombian. We therefore find a good balance between strength and aroma with a hint of acidity.

NOW FOR THE TASTING:
- First enjoy the ritual of tasting the Brandy

- Then take a sip of the coffee – to be enjoyed without any milk or sugar.
- The hint of tobacco one picks up in the Brandy and the burnt caramel taste of the coffee complement each other.
- The nutty taste that one picks up on the palate when tasting the Brandy and the nutty taste of the Colombian portion in the Coffee complement each other.

- Now take a bite of the biscotti.
- This provides the perfect ending to this tasting experience.
- The fact that the biscotti is so rich complements the total experience of the Nederburg Pot stilled Brandy and the coffee.