Favorite Teas Tasted In 2024

Posted: 2025-01-08

Tea was purchased and tea was drunk. Here are the nine teas I first tried in 2024 that I really loved. If you get the chance, give them a try yourself.

  1. Guilty Grub
    a dark brown 100 gram tea cake sitting on a wrapper that features a drawing of a grub and a tree branch dark brown and tan leaves in a gaiwan the tea, dark caramel in color in a cup the steeped leaves

    Type: Ripe / Shou Puer

    Vender: Tao Teaware

    Dry Leaf Scent: Earth, wood, and a hint of cereal

    Wet Leaf Scent: Pot stickers, pork and chive dumplings, green peppers, earth, wood, and a hint of cereal

    Mouth Texture: Milky, thick body

    Taste: Unsweetened chocolate milk, wood, a very light hint of green pepper

    Does chocolate milk make you happy? Do you like going for walks in the woods after a rainfall? If so, then this tea is for you. Oh yeah, the smell is kind of screwy, but in a good way. It has this chive or green pepper like thing which makes me think of dumplings or pot stickers. If I sold tea, this is the kind of thing I would love to send out into the world. It has flavor elements ripe/shou heads love but there are thing in there to keep things interesting. It's awesome! Guilty Grub makes perfect sense as a name for this tea. I feel like a grub digging around in a piece of wood searching for the good stuff and finding all the good stuff and it's all to myself. Good job Dart and Derek!

  2. 2019 Bulang Shou Puer
    a bag of tea labeled with it's name dark brown and tan leaves in a gaiwan the tea, dark caramel in color in a cup the steeped leaves

    Type: Ripe / Shou Puer

    Vender: white2tea

    Dry Leaf Scent: Wood, old books, leather, and earth

    Wet Leaf Scent: Pancakes, glazed donuts, chocolate, fresh baked dinner rolls, and wood

    Mouth Texture: Milky, thick body

    Taste: Milk and wood

    The dry and wet leaf scents of this tea are intoxicating. I could smell them all day! This tea is so good. It's like drinking wood. If you like wood, this is your new jam. Sadly, since this was only available for the white2tea tea club members, you will never get a chance to try it. It will be a sad day when I can no longer drink this tea. This is the first "forestry / woodsy" tea that I've tried that tastes almost like nothing else but wood. It's crazy.

  3. Smooth Operator 2021 Menghai Ripe Puer
    the compressed tea 100 gram tea cake, with a white leaf shaped tag, sitting on the a label that features a depiction of Japanese women in kimonos brown and tan leaves in a gaiwan the tea, dark caramel in color in a cup the steeped leaves

    Type: Ripe / Shou Puer

    Vender: Bitterleaf Teas

    Dry Leaf Scent: Earth, wood, plain donuts, and chocolate

    Wet Leaf Scent: Earth, wood, leather, plain donuts, cherries, and chocolate

    Mouth Texture: Milk, medium to thick body

    Taste: Milk, chocolate, and wood

    This was the first tea that I tried from Bitterleaf Teas and I very much liked it! Do you like chocolate milk, well unsweetened chocolate milk? Do you like earthy and woodsy flavors? Well then, give this great a tea spin. I definitely understand why this tea is called Smooth Operator, it goes does exceptionally smooth. If you don't watch yourself you give go through the 100 gram cake in a week.

  4. Hulk Spring 2024 Simao Green Tea
    a small green tin can with a label that displays the word hulk, featuring a hulkish human body with a tea pot for a head coiled grayish green and light tan leaves in a gaiwan the tea, light green yellow in color in a cup the steeped opened green leaves

    Type: Green

    Vender: Bitterleaf Teas

    Dry Leaf Scent: Creamed corn and hay

    Wet Leaf Scent: Creamed corn, corn on the cob, salted crackers, and hay

    Mouth Texture: Milky, thick body

    Taste: Milk, corn and creamed corn, spinach, and rice

    This is a spectacular green tea, with just a hint of bitterness after a few steeps if you are drinking it gongfu style (5 grams to 100ml of water). Super tasty! I understand why people like it so much. Not sure why it is called Hulk Spring, but who cares, because it is really good.

  5. 2024 Camphire Mini
    a compressed tea ball sitting on a white wrapper with writing and a drawing of a campfire dark brown, gold, and tan tea ball in a gaiwan the tea, dark caramel in color in a cup the steeped leaves

    Type: Ripe / Shou Puer

    Vender: white2tea

    Dry Leaf Scent: Leather, pine, wood, and a campfire

    Wet Leaf Scent: Pine, wood, and a campfire

    Mouth Texture: Milky, thick body

    Taste: Wood, milk, unsweetened dark chocolate, and pine trees

    2024 Camphire, a pine smoked ripe puer, smells just like a pine smoked version of my favor tea of all time Lumber Slut (also by white2tea). The taste is just like the smell, is a pine infused version of Lumber Slut. This tea is a winner! Favor tea of the year so far. Damn Paul, you need to stop making so much good tea so my wallet can have a rest.

  6. 90% 2007 Liubao Heicha
    a black shiny bag of tea with a black label on it that says 90% and bitterleaf dark brown, caramel, and tan leaves in a gaiwan the tea, light caramel in color in a cup the steeped leaves

    Type: Liubao Heicha

    Vender: Bitterleaf Teas

    Dry Leaf Scent: Wet tree bark old books, leather, and earth

    Wet Leaf Scent: Wet tree bark old books, leather, chocolate, earth, and a hint of cigarettes

    Mouth Texture: Milky, thick body

    Taste: Milk, wood, unsweetened dark chocolate, and leather

    This tea kicks so much ass! I love teas like this, ones where milk and wood permeate the flavor. Bitterleaf have a banger on their hands here. This might the be the smoothest and tastiest liu bao heicha I've ever tried.

  7. Rent Free
    a compressed tea ball sitting on a white wrapper with writing and a cartoon drawing of a an orange colored fox the tea ball, brown and tan colored leaves, in a gaiwan the tea, light caramel in color in a cup the steeped leaves

    Type: Red / Black / Hong Cha

    Vender: Tao Teaware

    Dry Leaf Scent: Cereal, bread, pork dumplings

    Wet Leaf Scent: Cereal, pork dumplings, chocolate, bread

    Mouth Texture: Milky, thick body

    Taste: Milk, chocolate milk, dark chocolate, and cereal

    Another Tao Teaware tea and again the smell of pork dumplings is present. I wonder if it is a storage thing or if that is a scent that grabbed Dart's attention and that made him want to sell these teas? Dart, what's the answer? Either way, Rent Free is oh so damn good! After just a few sips I think I have a new favorite red/black tea. If you are looking for a killer daily drinker in this department, this is it. The chocolate milk vibes are strong with this one!

  8. 2024 Unholy Oil
    the compressed tea in a clear bag dark brown, gold, and tan leaves in a gaiwan the tea, dark caramel in color in a cup the steeped leaves

    Type: Ripe / Shou Puer

    Vender: KUURA Corp

    Dry Leaf Scent: Wood, chocolate powder, milk chocolate, hay, earth, mushrooms

    Wet Leaf Scent: Wood, earth, chocolate cereal

    Mouth Texture: Milky, thick body

    Taste: Milk, dark chocolate, cocoa powder

    If you love love love dark chocolate and ripe puer, this will be your jam! This tea is pure dark chocolate in tea form. The intense chocolate taste just continuously sits on the tongue for the whole session. This is a chocolate lover's dream. The lovely people from the future at KUURA Corp have a winner on their hands with this one. One last thing, if you are a fan of KUURA-Cola, this tea gives the same vibes but with the dark chocolate note cranked to 11.

  9. Sticky Rice Shu Pu'er Tea Coin
    a compressed tea coin sitting on a white wrapper with writing and and Chinese characters dark brown, gold, and tan tea coin in a gaiwan the tea, dark caramel in color in a cup the steeped leaves

    Type: Ripe / Shou Puer

    Vender: West China Tea

    Dry Leaf Scent: Tamago, caramel corn, sticky rice, and sushi rice

    Wet Leaf Scent: Tamago, caramel corn, cereal (Frosted Flakes), and wood

    Mouth Texture: Milky, thick body

    Taste: Milk, wood, rice, dark chocolate, and a hint of vanilla

    I think this is the first sticky rice shou that I have tried that leans heavily towards the woodsy flavor profile and I really dig it. I will definitely be buying a cake of this in the future and you should as well!

In regards to the list above, I could have easily added the new versions of KUURA Cola and several others, but I wanted to list teas that were new to me.