Day 12 of the Kiani advent calendar. uh… I was not expecting this to be glittery? Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed watching the glitter swirl, I just wasn’t expecting a straight tea to be coated in glitter. I’m generally not a fan of smoky lapsang, but I powered through for the sake of completeness. My first thought upon sniffing the dry leaf was that it smelled like BBQ Bissli, which has long been one of my favorite chip-type snacks. So I brewed it up, watched mesmerized as the glitter swirled, and took a sip. And it was… smoky. Sort of a medium smokiness, but more than my personal preference. But then I ordered spicy Chinese food and paired the smoky tea with the spicy food (cumin layered tofu & onions). Perfect pairing. The smokiness and the spice were just a beautiful combo, each taking a bit of the edge off the other. I even made a second steep to go with the rest of my meal, something I’ve never done before with a lapsang. Not a tea I’d keep in stock but one I did unexpectedly enjoy!
I’ll note that this is from the 2022 advent calendar. Folks who had it in the 2021 advent calendar apparently found it totally un-smoky! So my guess is that one of three things is going on: something about the processing of the tea changed from year to year, the source changed, or my palate is more sensitive to smokiness than other people’s because I don’t often drink LS. But I don’t know which of those things it is!
The glittered Lapsang had me chuckling. That pairing sounds fantastic, though!