I got into tea around 2017, when I was in high school waking up early for band practice. I wanted a hot drink with a little bit of caffeine, and I really didn’t like coffee (I even put warning labels noting the downsides of coffee and caffeine consumption on my parents’ coffee storage container!). At that point, I got a bag of cheap loose leaf oolong tea off Amazon, and began to drink it in the morning by putting a small tea strainer in a mug and pouring boiling water over it.

After working through that batch of oolong, I had started college and was looking for some more tea. I looked on the internet (Reddit r/tea) and found that there was an entire culture and practice around tea, and I ordered some of my first samples of high quality tea from Yunnan Sourcing. I purchased a gaiwan, and shortly after became quite excited about the process and taste of good tea. I will record here the teas that I’ve tried, and a short synopsis. Since I started this in 2024, it has been a long time, so some of these ratings will be based on a vague memory. In addition, my taste has evolved (I enjoy specialty coffee now, too), so the earlier ratings may be based on a less refined palate.

Rating scale: 0-3: really bad, actively disliked drinking it. 3-5: disliked it, but was able to get through at least part of a session. 5-7: okay, enjoyable for the most part, but not really worth buying again. 8: Pleasant. Potentially worth buying a single cake at some point. 9-10: I will buy more of this tea, one way or another.

NOTICE: I dictated most of these reviews as I was tasting the tea, so please forgive the more conversational tone and the occasional rambling. I will try to clean them up as I go along.

Purchase Year:

2021

February, from Yunnan Sourcing

Jasmine Silver Needles White Tea of Yunnan (Spring 2020): 7/10 A tasty tea, but I was very inconsistent with it. Still learning to brew, so sometimes it was nice and light, sometimes bitter, still other times basically flavorless.
Imperial Mojiang Golden Bud Yunnan Black Tea: 8/10 My favorite out of all the tea samples I purchased this go around. Rich, almost chocolatey. I’m not sure I would like it as much as some of the more recent black teas I’ve tried, though.
Imperial Lu Shan Yun Wu Green Tea of Jiangxi: 5/10 Quite grassy tasting, I didn’t know how to brew green tea at the time and so was quite inconsistent. Possibly user error.
Ai Jiao Rock Oolong Tea of Wu Yi Shan: 9/10 My first experience with non-Amazon oolong. I really liked this one, had a nice mineral taste that I really like.
2019 Xiaguan “Ripe Mini Tuo Cha” Pu-erh Tea: 5/10 Really rich, my first compressed tea type. Came in a bag of individually wrapped mini-cakes. I wore myself out on this tea because it was the only tea I travelled with to Colorado during the summer of 2022. I still have it every once in a while when I want to remind myself of then, but I don’t like the taste that much. Probably would not buy again, but I will eventually finish it off.
Sun-Dried Wild Rose Buds: 6/10 Not my favorite taste–imagine drinking liquid rose essence. It is a really romantic option if you are wanting something in that category. Looks pretty and it fun from time to time. Of course, this is not a tea, but I figured I ought to include this on here for myself.

2022

July, from Ku-Cha in Boulder

Da Hong Pao Rock Oolong: 10/10 The best oolong I’ve had so far, also the most expensive ($49 for 2 oz.!). I love the mineral essence at the beginning, it reminds me of the smell when you first pour water on the hot rocks in a sauna. It steeps well for 10+ rounds. I haven’t compared it yet with another high quality oolong, but for now it will hold the 10/10.

October, from White2Tea

First, I want to say that I love White2Tea. Their presentation and tea descriptions just hit the right spot for me. Thus this section’s ratings may be biased upwards.

2016 Sister Brother (Raw Puer): 8/10 Marketed as an “educational” tea, it highlights the difference in processing methods that yield very different tastes. I quite like both, but have still been learning how to deal with the compressed bricks. Rating may increase over time. Update: 27-02-2024: Over the past few weeks I have had this tea a few more times, and I really really like it. I’d say the rating goes up to a 9/10 at this point, maybe more. I will say I think I like the “Brother” more, though the Sister has a nice herbal aftertaste, that cooling feeling in the mouth, much more than Brother. Cha Qi is pretty solid here, I would say this is probably the first time I’ve really experienced it this strongly.
Pine Sap Lapsang: 7/10 A nice tea for a specific purpose. Tastes like smoky wood. Also apparently tastes like scotch, though I haven’t tried scotch so wouldn’t know. Makes you feel warm inside.
2019 Hot Brandy: 9/10 Really good tea, I drank this in early 2024 and it really got much more white tea-y than was described in the TeaDB testing of this. I really really enjoyed it as a nice morning cup on a lazier day. The medicinal white tea flavors have come through, and the chocolatey black tea notes are only there in the beginning. I would buy again. Update: 07-03-2024: I’ve had this a number of times now and I think it really works best when not brewed right at boiling - instead go with 97 or 98 C and still do standard short-ish steeps, 5-10 seconds increasing about 5 seconds each time. Increases longevity (can get 10-12 steeps) and reduces the black tea bitterness that can come with pushing the tea a bit. A nice sweetness sets in this way, and it lets the tea meld the black and white together more than boiling does. I learned this after doing a few steeps where maybe I just got more black tea in the piece I took off, and it really didn’t taste very unique, pretty much just like the everyday ancient tree black in the beginning and then tapered off a bit with maybe a bit of detectable white tea flavor at the end.
Hearth Tieguanyin: 9/10 I really like this as an oolong, though it is a bit more green-like than the others I have. A good daily drinker, and it smells really good. Brews well in a gaiwan or Western style. I like the minerality at the beginning that tapers off towards more lighter flavors as you go.
2021 Sunskate Mini: 9/10 Very fruity, I was not expecting this from a supposed black tea. Aptly named. I would buy this, even though I was given it as a free sample with my first order.

2023

March

2022 Fengqing Dragon Pearl Black Tea: 7/10 A math professor gave me this as he did not like this black tea. It tastes great, reminiscent of the Golden Bud. Dark, heady, chocolatey.

December

Samples from White2Tea I got with my new gaiwan and tea towel: 8.5/10 Both of these were affordable raw puer dragonballs, 941 and Veldt. I liked Veldt more I think, 941 was quite astringent to me. High energy, both quite young tasting (though to be fair I have not had a properly aged Puer at all yet, so this is only based on what other people have said.)

2024

February Tea Club from Jesse’s Teahouse

Overall tea club rating is like a 7/10, I think it would have been better had I not had anything from White2Tea or Yunnan Sourcing yet. The teas I got from both of those places I generally liked better. I don’t plan to resubscribe, and given some of the dropshipping rumors I’ve heard about Jesse’s Teahouse, I might try and buy my tea elsewhere from now on.

Three Treasures Chen Pi White Tea: 6/10 I tried one of these, and I initially was not a big fan, it had a really quite drying mouthfeel and tasted almost exclusively of citrus peel. As it went on though, it became quite nice actually. I think the last 2-3 steeps were actually very good tea. I’ll definitely go through these given that there are only 5, but I don’t know if I would order again.
Eastern Beauty “Bug-Bitten” Oolong: 6.5/10 I liked this, but again don’t know if I would order it again. It is quite sweet while still maintaining that oolong minerality and woodyness a bit, but it also tended to be quite bitter if I steeped even a bit too long, unlike the other oolongs I’ve had. Maybe my rating will increase over time.
Sister Ai’s “Everyday” Ancient Tree Red Tea: 6/10 Okay, not the best black tea I’ve had. I like the Dragon Pearl better, though this is still quite similar. It has a little funkiness to it that isn’t really what I’m desiring. Since I have 50g I’ll finish it eventually, but I am a little bummed that it isn’t better.

March Tea Club from W2T

Overall tea club rating is 10/10, I really like the note that comes with it and the teas are all very high quality. I’m staying on for April and May at least.

2002 LC Brick: 8/10 Lots of interesting flavors here, my first real aged raw puer. I really enjoyed it, it had some smokiness, earthy flavors, and a nice sweetness at the end. It evolved throughout each tasting, with a pretty forward sweetness at the beginning, which slowly shifted towards the aftertaste as the more vegetal and earthy notes sprouted up.
2003 Yiwu: 10/10 The 2003 Yiwu is really, really good. The smell off of the leaves is very much vegetable patch. Really intense. Vegetable patch. Also somewhat like the smell of a book when you stick your nose in it, a relatively medium age book. I think when TDB talks about the tomato vine flavor, I am really getting that off of this. Relative to the 2002 Lin Cang brick, I think it’s a bit more raw flavored, so it has kind of that sweetness and a little bit of the bitterness that some of the younger raw pu’ers do. The flavor is so much more deep because of that, it is very complex like a younger raw. There’s a lot more going on. There’s initially when you taste it, kind of a strong hit of sweetness and then it turns into that really like vegetable flavor, like a pleasant vegetabley flavor. And then it goes into a nice little bit of bitterness and then just sweetness. It finishes really nice with a lasting sweetness that kind of sticks around in your mouth and there’s a pleasant mouthfeel that remains for a long time after you finish. I don’t think that it is worth $15 for a single 7g sample to me, so I’m glad that I got this through the tea club. But it is really nice and I would absolutely drink again if I was given some.
2024 Riparian:
2024 Jamrock Steady: 9/10 The 2024 Jamrock Steady is a really interesting tea. It isn’t very similar in my opinion to an aged raw pu’er, but it does have some of the elements of both in my experience. It tasted kind of earthy on the front end, just like a ripe pu’er. But then as you went into the end of the taste, it kind of turned into that raw pu’er flavor that was a little bit bitter and sweet. I haven’t had very many aged raw pu’ers, so I don’t know if that is if my tasting is representative, but I do think that it is a substantially different taste that it, you know, even though it’s still a pu’er, it is kind of its own thing. I really did like it though and I would absolutely buy more given that it has a really complex flavor at this price point.

Feb. 27 order from W2T

This order had a lot of quite good tea. I have enjoyed pretty much all of it. Of these, I think there are only maybe 1 or 2 that I’d consider buying a cake or more of.

2023 Predawn Dark Minis: 9/10 A really interesting ripe, it is one of the first ripes that I’ve had. I think if I go back, I would probably buy a cake of this it has a really nice smoky flavor at the beginning. And as you go through it turns into this really juicy grape-like flavor. I really really enjoyed it and I think Anja enjoyed it too, which makes it easier to justify actually getting more of it. If it is not sold out, I will probably buy a cake or two of this whenever I can justify buying another batch of tea from W2T.
2022 Tian Jian Minis: 8/10 The Tian Jian is a really, really nice tea. I think I would buy more, but I haven’t really looked at the price. It has a nice sort of tobacco plant flavor at the beginning, it’s overall very sweet and it has a really good mouthfeel. It’s very viscous. One of my favorite parts about it is that it really, really feels like it energizes you and relaxes at the same time. So there’s a pretty strong cha qi.
2022 Lisboa: 7.5/10 Of the ripe pu’er teas I’ve had, I think that Lisboa is probably in the top tier. Of course, I’ve only had a few. I don’t like it as much as the Predawn Dark that I have, but that is a different tea altogether in that it’s charcoal roasted. So I think if I do go back and want to buy more ripe Lisboa, it’ll probably not make the list, but I do really like and I think if I did want to get something that’s on that cheaper side and has that pretty characteristic ripe Pu’er taste, I would buy Lisboa. I found that I needed to use quite a bit of tea to get good flavors out of it. So when I used around five grams, it was pretty just standard ripe pu’er tasting. But when I went up to around seven grams, it really got a little bit deeper. And there was kind of some of that weird berry flavor that comes in with good ripe pu’er. Overall, I was happy with the sample, and I think I would buy it again. I just don’t think it would be at the top of my list of ripe pu’er.
2016 Old Whitey: 9/10 For the 2016 Old Whitey that I have, I found it to be really, really delicious. I would definitely buy more. It is a little bit on the expensive side as far as tea goes, but it’s definitely worth it. It’s a very high quality white tea and I would be happy even paying a little bit more for it. Given that, I rate it pretty highly, 9/10. It also steeps for a really long time, which is great for a white tea. I found that it steeped for like 10 to 12 steeps and you really don’t have to pay attention to how well you’re steeping it at all. It pretty much handles whatever you throw at it. It has a really nice herbal flavor at the beginning and then in the later steeps it turns kind of into more honey sweet taste.
2018 Green Hype: 8.5/10 Green Hype is a very decent young puer. I think I would buy this one again given that it’s pretty cheap. I think that the year after they changed up the blend a little bit to have some older maocha in it. I think that that would help mellow it out a little bit. It is pretty strong, bitter wise. It also has a really strong sweetness. I like that part about it, but it isn’t something that you want to drink on an empty stomach. You also want to make sure that you aren’t drinking it too late in the day, ‘cause it definitely will wake you up a little bit. I found it has a really pleasant energizing feel to it. I really liked the feeling I got after, and it definitely has a pretty strong huigan. Those things are very enjoyable about it. I think I would consider caking this one up.
2017 Pussy: 9/10 I would like a cake of this one for sure. The description definitely is true. There is quite a bit of fragrance to this, there’s this really strong floral note. I really like that. It has a nice, pleasant, bitterness and astringency that makes you feel a bit energized. It really evolves deep to steep. You can smell it throughout. I’m really, really a fan of this. The steeping is definitely flash steeps all the way through. I think if you left it a little bit too long, it would get pretty bitter. But I think, yeah, it’s just really nice, complex. You can tell it’s high quality. The energy it gives is really nice. It’s not very disorienting in the key that it gives. But it has this really pleasant, relaxing sense to it. I really enjoyed it. I think it’s probably one of the best pu’er that I’ve had as far as like a younger sided pu’er. I would consider buying this one at some point. It would definitely require a bit of raising capital as far as talking to Anja, etc. (It is almost $150 I think). I need to make sure that she would like this. But overall, I definitely would look forward to getting a cake of this, it’d be worth it.
2018 Demon Slayer: 7/10 For the 2018 Demon Slayer that I tried, it was pretty good. It’s pretty mellow. It doesn’t have very many strong flavors. It is a little bit sweet. There’s definitely some decent bitterness going on, and it has kind of those vegetabley notes, but it’s not super strong in any way. I found I had to brew it with almost eight grams to get it at the sort of flavor level that I wanted it at. Given that and given that it’s not the cheapest tea out there, I probably won’t be buying this one again. One thing though is that it is a huangpian, so it is a more mellow tea as far as the effects on you as well. I think white2tea also has a number of other huangpians. I will consider getting samples of those before buying a cake of this.
2019 If You’re Reading This: 8/10 I got this in a coin as an additional sample for this order. It has a really nice sweet flavor at the beginning. I think it’s been aged a little now so that it doesn’t have the bitterness that other people were talking about in some of the reviews on Steepster. I don’t really get the drying sensation. I noticed a pretty strong huigan. It’s definitely a bit on the younger side, but I so far haven’t gotten a ton of the really astringent bit. I also detect a really pretty strong cooling sensation in the mouth, which I personally really enjoy. It seems to me a little mellower version of the Brother from 2016 Sister-Brother set that I have. On the third steep I got a punch of bitterness/astringency. I don’t know if that’s because I steeped it a little bit longer, but that one wasn’t the most pleasant. I steeped this for a while, probably at least 15 steeps, and after that 3rd steep it was a bit bitter, but that fell away to a more lasting, mellower florality and sweetness that was really pleasant. Huigan is still here a few hours later. The cooling went away in the later steeps, but a little numbing sensation happened on the lips for some of these. Interesting, for sure, and I think I would consider buying this again at its price considering it isn’t too expensive.

Mar. 7 order from W2T

More samples, after their spring drop. Had to get one of the value cake, which was Peak Vulture this year.

2024 Peak Vulture: ?/10
2024 Alienist: ~~4/10~~ 5.5/10 This tea was not good, but at the moment I think it might be user error. I have a decent bit of sample left so I will try it again, but it was pretty rough the first time. The smell of the wet leaves is like fruit cocktail, but then you drink it and it tastes like cigarette. Not fun. Later on, around steep 8, it got a bit better, but I don’t know if that was just the lower temperature, etc. that I was using at that point. Someone on the Liquid Proust Discord server mentioned it being like eating a severely burnt marshmallow for the first several steeps, and then turning into a really thick, sweet flavor later. UPDATE: I tried this again with less leaf and cooler water, and it was much more pleasant. Got much more of the fruity flavor, and the burnt taste was much less pronounced. Still not what I like, though.
2024 Charing Cross: 8.5/10 The Charing Cross was really, really tasty. Essentially white tea, but there definitely is a little bit of this darker fruit, like this dried fruit taste at the end. That is really, really good, not something that you find in any of the teas that I’ve tried outside of this tea. It has classic white tea softness, sweetness, honey, flavor, and the texture on this one is also really nice, which other white teas don’t necessarily have. You can tell that it’s very high quality material. I think this one is really good, but I’m not sure if it’s worth the price. This one is 45 cents/gram. I think more around like 30 to 40 cents a gram, it would be worth it. But it is, I think, maybe not quite worth 45 cents/gram. Of course, I think I would accept this as a gift, but I’m not going to request it to be paid for myself.
2024 Millstone: 8.5/10 I would buy this again. Not super dynamic, but really tasty raw pu’er that doesn’t break the bank. Energizing.

April Tea Club from W2T

2024 Cloud Mist Green: 9/10 I hadn’t had good, fresh green tea before, and I really enjoyed this. I would consider getting more next year. Tastes like spring.
2024 Silver Fox: 9/10 I really enjoyed this, though I didn’t enjoy the original white needle. I am going to chalk that up to brewing it wrong. This time, I brewed at ~95 C for the first 5-6 steeps (and flash steep it) and then 100 C with more time for the last few.
2024 White Swan: ?/10

April 12 order from Liquid Proust

There were a few teas on the LP store that I really wanted, and they were about to go out of stock. So, of course, I got some. This will kinda sus-out LP and whether I would want to buy more from him, and also determine a bit more of what my tastes are as far as aged raw pu’er goes.

2013 Xiaguan Love Forever Paper and Bamboo Samples: ?/10 Bamboo: 8/10 Tasted like aged raw pu’er. Compared with the other aged raw I’ve had, this one had a strong wood character, like a freshly cut tree. Also a bit more bitterness.
Ode to Mr. Mopar: ?/10
2004 Parable Hong Kong: ?/10

Tea I like