Anhui Green Root Tea / Green Silver Needles

I thought my smell/taste was sufficiently recovered to circle back to unflavored teas, but maybe not? I’ve been enjoying the occasional favorite oolong and plenty of flavored teas, so it seemed like today was a good day to chip away at the Kiani advent calendar. Day 19 was a bamboo matcha scoop. Day 20 was hiding when I was looking through the box so I thought I had already drunk it and went right to Day 21, which is this tea. I’ll have to circle back to Day 20!

The dry leaf smelled like fresh cucumber and honeydew. Once I brewed it up Western style, though, I couldn’t smell or taste much of anything except to note that it had a medium mouthfeel and a slight dryness to it. Maybe it was because there were only 3 grams of leaf in the pouch and I used too much water (though I specifically didn’t fill my mug all the way because of that). Maybe it’s because this advent calendar is now 7 months old and the leaf is starting to show its age (though I have green teas that are even older and typically still have some kind of flavor). Or maybe, even though I’m mostly recovered, I haven’t gotten back the full sensitivity that I had before. Alas.

Kiani Tea Advent Calendar 2021 – Day 17

This is a very interesting one.

The leaves are a beautiful green, but it steeped up a pale golden color. The flavor reminds me a bit of Long Jing, nutty and a bit creamy with a buttery note. But there’s also a rich squash-like flavor to it, or maybe sweet potato. There are subtle hints of mineral and smoke as well, and a touch of stonefruit at the end of the sip. It’s somewhat vegetal, but in a creamy edamame sort of way.

Overall, a yummy and very rich tea! It almost tastes like some sort of fusion between green, white, and Yunnan black teas.

Adventaggedon Day 17: Tea 7/8

I decided to brew this grandpa style in the middle of my day, to try and cut through some of the richness of the other tea and sweets I had been enjoying, and that might not have been the best brewing method because it got very bitter very, very quickly and I just found myself turned off by the bitterness and astringency. Though, there was a slight floral quality at first that I didn’t mind!

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ipHq0GFlSRg&ab_channel=MDSHCoffeeHouse