Changes since last time. I use teabags as needed. I also seldom use clay pots anymore. It feels less mystical, but porcelain and glazed ceramic facilitate a cleaner tasting experience. So I tossed the 2nd half of this ball into a teabag and then into a lin’s pottery vessel. After a long hiatus from incense I am back on the aloeswood. While I do think kunlu is an acquired taste, clt’s sample packs have caused me to, over time, be won over. I would still describe the primary opening signature flavor as bark, but there is a distinct pre-taste aura of cocoa nibs or something dry and nutty. And as you steep more, it burbles into a low key vegetable sweetness. It is like a reserved, dry-humored person who opens up to you over time, in unannounced spurts. This is not the giddy social butterfly who makes rounds at parties giving everyone airy cheek kisses or frat boy pats on the butt. It also doesn’t slip you drugs. It doesn’t ever compliment you to your face, but somehow leaves you with the sneaking suspicion that it sometimes gushes about you to other teas when you aren’t present. Like, this tea secretly doesn’t mind that you exist, and you are in on the secret, but we don’t talk about that because remember, it is a secret. It is maybe a cat, not a dog. Make sense? No? Okay.
4 g
2 OZ / 60 ML
I know the kind.