Day 9 of the Kiani advent calendar. I brewed this up gong fu style in a pretty floral ceramic gaiwan I’ve been wanting to test drive. I didn’t count the number of steeps but it was somewhere in the 5-10 range. Somehow it was never as strong as I wanted it to be, even when I used less water and longer steep times later on. Mostly I got a malty, bready flavor at the front of the sip and a lingering cinnamon note. Earlier steeps had a caramel sweetness that mostly faded away in later steeps (though I got some honey in the final steep, which I made using very little water and brewing for 5 minutes). This is another one of those times where I just wish I had a little more leaf to really get to know the tea and decide how I feel about it – I suspect it’s a pretty tasty brew if you can get the parameters right and get it not feeling quite so thin.
Day 10 is a black Kiani tea canister. It’s not airtight so I wouldn’t actually use it to store my loose teas, but I deconstructed it and put it to use. The lid is made of wood, very cute, and about the right size, so I repurposed it as a coaster. The container itself is now holding some little tea samples.
