Tea time.

Today's tea is Jin Jun Mei, a solid, hearty black tea. Smelled lovely out of the packet, brewed dark brown in 30 seconds at 180F. (Today I used the gaiwan to brew and I cannot do a one handed pour with it and successfully keep the leaves from pouring into the cup. Seems overly fussy to me, but I'll see if I get better with practice.) 

5g/100ml water @ 185-195F, 30 seconds, +15 seconds additional steeps.

Yeah, this one is much more "familiar" in flavor profile, though there was a faint citrus hit and a little floral thing at the back end. Stayed strong through multiple steeps. 

From some cursory web surfing, it looks like whipped powdered tea was the thing during the Song Dynasty, but by the 13th century, the Chinese were also steeping leaves. With the Mongols taking control during the Yuan Dynasty, leaf brewing became the norm and powdered tea fell out of style. (It took a Chinese Buddhist monk visiting Japan in the 17th century to introduce leaf brewing there, even as the tea ceremony traditions promulgated by Sen no Rykyu were being handed down.)

https://yunnansourcing.us/products/classic-robust-jin-jun-mei-black-tea-of-fujian?_pos=2&_sid=710adebfc&_ss=r