This is Day 4 of the 2022 Kiani advent calendar; looks like it was in last year’s calendar too. This tea makes me feel like Goldilocks (putting aside the incredible weirdness of that story – Goldy is awfully picky for a burglar and poor Baby is probably still in therapy). The first steep was too confusingly smoky; the second steep lost its creaminess; but the third steep was jusssst right.
I followed packet instructions for the first steep and brewed this up at 70c/158f, Western style based on the suggested steep type. The packet says 3 minutes, though. and I accidentally overbrewed by about 40 seconds. I suspect this accounts for some of what happened with the flavor in this steep. The brewed leaf smelled buttery and very green, so I was completely unprepared when I took my first sip and found an unexpected flavor that I couldn’t quite place. Almost smoky, but not as smoky as a smoked lapsang. Reminiscent of wintermelon without the sweetness. Before I knew it, I was more than halfway through the cup and still hadn’t placed the flavor. I even pulled out my ITMA Tea Aroma Wheel, but that didn’t help either! By the end of the cup, the best I could conclude was that it was creamy and gently smoky, but the smokiness was such an ongoing surprise to the system that I had trouble picking out the underlying vegetal notes.
For the second steep, I watched the clock a little more carefully and brewed at 160f for 3 minutes 30 seconds. It wasn’t as smoky, having more of a mineral note instead. It was also less creamy than the first steep. This allowed the green notes to shine through more and I was finally able to place them – green beans! But I missed the creaminess!
Enter steep 3. I opted for a longer steep at the same low temp – a little over 6 min at 160f. This steep finally brought out the right balance of flavors from this tea. The smokiness was faint at first and dissipated entirely as it cooled, replaced by a gentle sweetness. Against that backdrop, I was able to truly enjoy and savor the butter, green beans, and slightly mineral notes of this steep. Like the others, it had zero astringency but was slightly dry at the end of the sip in a way that just let you know it was time for the next one – sort of the function famously performed by pretzels at a bar.
Once I got the balance right, this was a really tasty tea. It’s just a little finicky.
