We’ve covered podcast, we’ve covered books, now it’s time for tea! This post will be in three parts – my favourite posts, my favourite teas this year, and the last sipdown update of the year. As you probably know, I started really getting into teacups last year, but this post won’t have a teacup update because I haven’t figure out how to write that post (or rather, I don’t want to confront my buying habits just yet).

My Favourite Tea Posts

Perhaps unsurprisingly, my favourite tea posts are not actually tea reviews, but are posts where I try something new. It’s probably a sign that I need to be a bit more adventurous in what I do to my tea in 2021.

3 Tips for a New Tea Drinker: I didn’t take part in many Tea Together Tuesday prompts, but I loved this one! What tips would I have given my younger self? I managed to narrow it down to three.

Tea Steamer vs Gaiwan: My tea steamer is currently in Malaysia (since it has been designated for office use), but I really enjoyed experimenting with it. I always thought that the gaiwan (or an yixing teapot) would always be best for tea, but this experiment proved me wrong.

Malawi vs Fujian White Tea: This post gave me one of the biggest surprises of the year. I knew that terroir makes a difference to the taste of tea, but I didn’t think that it was going to be this different!

My First Matcha Journey with Bird & Blend: I enjoyed this post a lot because I started learning to whisk matcha from this! Plus, this was reason why I got the matcha advent calendar, so even if I didn’t like everything here, I still had a blast trying all the teas.

The Tale of Tea by George van Driem: The first time I did a video book review, The Tale of Tea remains the longest tea-related book I’ve ever read. It’s rather academic, but great for those who want to explore the history of tea in China, Japan, Korea, and pretty much every tea-producing/consuming nation around the world.

The History of English Teacups: I actually read in Japanese! This book on the history of teacups in England was really fun and I enjoyed writing the recap of the book (rather than a book review).

My Favourite Teas

2009 Dragon Balls of Bulang: I was a bit nervous about trying this because I had a rather bad experience with sheng puer earlier (it’s not something I’m good at) but this was delicious! I’m looking forward to slowly drinking these at very long intervals.

Malawi White Antlers: I thought this was a 2019 tea but apparently not! These antlers look rather unassuming, because they are basically twigs, but they are delicious!

Malawi Zomba Pearls: I think one of my best discoveries in 2020 was the Satemwa Tea estate! Located in Malawi, the Satemwa Estate produces some very interesting teas, like the White Antlers mentioned above and the White Peony in the section above. These zomba pearls are also a white tea, but rolled into a very interesting shape and suitable for all-day drinking.

All Sayama Teas: I was debating whether to put these under favourite tea posts or favourite teas because they are both! I am so glad I got to explore Sayama senchas in-depth this year because I was not able to go to Japan and this kind of filled the gap. Plus, I adore their matcha, which is great for everyday drinking! Their black tea, which resembles Dong Fan Mei Ren in the ‘bug-bitten’ aspect, is also really great.

Karel Capek: When it comes to Japanese flavoured teas, I’ve always been a Lupicia fan, so I was surprised by how much I enjoyed the Karel Capek blends! Thanks to this box, I now have a few boxes of Karel Capek tea in my house!

2020 Sipdown (Last Update)

I decided to be very strategic for this last week of Sipdown and decided to focus on teas that were: 1) almost gone and/or 2) those I wouldn’t really miss. The result is that… I finished a grand total of three teas because as it turns out, I’m not really close to being “done” with many of them. The teas I finished were:

Darjeeling Rohini 2020 Second Flush Honey Oolong Tea – I realised this packet of tea was pretty small and it was about half-finished because gongfu brewing uses quite a lot of leaves, so I decided to work on this packet. I think I would have liked it if I had the tea steamer here, but I brewed it Western-style and had no complaints for the most part.

Kinettles Gold – This is one that I’m definitely going to miss because I don’t have that many Scottish teas in my tea cupboard! That said, I have realised that they have an online store so… my wallet is shuddering in fear right now.

Cache Cache – The final tea I finished is a Christmas tea! I really loved this Lupicia blend the first time I had it (I think over two years ago?), so it was a joy to have some with me over this Christmas season.

Northern Teaist has pointed out that a sipdown is supposed to carry on well into the new year and I’m definitely going to take his advice. I’ve got an avalanche of new teas to drink, so I will probably try to open one as I finish another, so that I don’t have too many open packets at the same time.