The Great Earl Grey Beauty

25th and final day of the Kiani advent calendar. It’s labeled “glamorous earl grey” but I’m pretty sure it’s the same as this one. This tea is suitably festive because it’s glittery and I won’t pretend to mind. I’m a sucker for the entrancing, shining, sparkling swirls that glitter teas make in my mug. Definitely a trend I’m not sick of yet. Otherwise, though, this seems like a pretty standard earl grey. Which is… fine? Earl grey just isn’t my favorite kind of tea, so I don’t really feel that I can speak to a specific blend’s relative merits with a whole lot of nuance. The bergamot here is definitely strong but not overwhelming or alcoholic. For a blend that I’m not super fond of, I did manage to finish the mug and even finish off a second steeping, though that was in significant part because I was more interested in the sparklies. Still, if the tea itself had been appallingly bad, I wouldn’t have been able to drink it no matter how pretty, so there is that to commend it.

I’m glad I tried this advent calendar, but I probably won’t do it again. The teaware was fun but I have that now! I never even opened or used the matcha scoop because I already have one and I rarely drink matcha that fancy (if anyone wants it, it’s yours free, just let me know). A pretty significant disadvantage of this advent is that it only provides enough leaf each day for exactly one serving, so it’s hard to experiment with optimal brewing methods and preparations.  While many of the teas were tasty, some would have benefited from gong fu brewing vs mug steeping, or vice versa, and I just wasn’t able to test that out. I was most intrigued by the Iranian teas, so if I order from Kiani again in the future it will probably be to just get more Iranian tea rather than an advent.

It also took me almost a year to finish the nine advent calendars I got in 2022! That’s too many! This year I only got three that I’ll be opening in December, so hopefully that will be much more manageable. 

Adventaggedon Day 25: Bonus Tea!

There’s always one advent that goes above and adds in a 25th day. I probably would be more enthusiastic except that it’s just awkward when 7/8 are wrapped up and then you have that one loose end. I steeped it up though and we are now officially officially done with advents for the year!

A shocker to no one; this is a glitter tea. I completely expected as much though because if you’re gonna use as much glitter in the advent as we’ve already experienced then of course there’s glitter on the final day. It’s a no brainer.

The EG itself is fine. I feel like the bergamot is a nice quality and as a nice level as well. Not as mild as I would personally prefer it to be but also not too intense to make the cup unpleasant for me. In an advent of mostly straight teas it does feel weird to be finishing with something flavoured but I guess the idea is that Earl Grey is a nice classic – especially for North American and UK based tea drinkers. If I was back home with family this Christmas I could very easily picture this being the kind of tea you steep up early in the morning while cozy in PJs unwrapping presents. So in that way, yeah it’s a pretty perfect pick.

Merry Christmas to all on Steepster who choose to celebrate it! And regardless of what you’re celebrating, may everyone have a safe and happy rest of 2021!

Kiani Tea Advent Calendar 2021 – Day 25

Merry Christmas tea friends!

Here we have Kiani overachieving with a tea for Christmas day. I thought there had been an Earl Grey earlier in this advent, but I seem to be mistaken. I must be confusing it with the ones from the Fortnum calendar or something…

Anyway! This is glittery, big surprise. Otherwise it’s a tasty Earl, and the bergamot is strong but not overwhelming. It doesn’t taste like perfume, and actually there’s an interesting sweet, fruity note to it. The base tea seems unremarkable, as I can’t taste much of it behind the bergamot. It’s a touch earthy and very smooth, but not much else.

An interesting choice to end the calendar with, I would have maybe chosen the icy blue tea since it was a bit different from the rest? But all in all, enjoyable.